AFNetworking + download file OR JSON response + setDownloadProgressBlock - json

Question

I have a problem to download a file or manage an error in some cases (JSON)
The download works very fine. The problem is the server can send a 404 or 200 (with JSON) in a few cases when the user requests the download.
How to handle the JSON in this case? When we send the request we don't know if we will receive JSON error (with a 200 status oR 404) or the zipped file...
I don't see how responseObject can help me.
Here is my code:
AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [[[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:request] autorelease];
operation.outputStream = [NSOutputStream outputStreamToFileAtPath:zipPath append:NO];
[operation setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject)
{
NSLog(#"Successfully downloaded zip file to %#", zipPath);
// is-it impossible to handle a JSON response here ?
// responseObject can help me ? don't think !
// do what I have to do after the download is complete
}
failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error)
{
// 404
// is-it impossible to handle a JSON response here ?
if ([error code] == -1011)
{
}
}];
[operation setDownloadProgressBlock:^(NSInteger bytesWritten, long long totalBytesWritten, long long totalBytesExpectedToWrite) {
float progress = ((float)((int)totalBytesWritten) / (float)((int)totalBytesExpectedToWrite));
self.progressView.progress = progress;
}];
[operation start];
Does I need to make a AFJSOnRequestOperation ? But in this case, how to receive the downloaded file that is not JSON ?
Thanks for helping.
EDIT: as I wroted in my comments, I can get and catch the responseData in success block ONLY if I comment the line:
operation.outputStream = [NSOutputStream outputStreamToFileAtPath:zipPath append:NO];
It's logical, I suppose the response goes into outputStream instead of success block. Is there a solution for that ?

Answer 1

The server should signal the MIME type in the header Content-Type.
If it doesn't you need to detect the data type yourself.
This line ensures to get all responses with statuscode 200-499 in the success block:
[AFHTTPRequestOperation addAcceptableStatusCodes:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndexesInRange:NSMakeRange(300, 200)]];
In the success block you need to identify the type of response:
id jsonObject = AFJSONDecode(operation.responseData, NULL);
if (jsonObject) {
// handle JSON
} else {
// handle zip file
}
You can also inspect operation.response.statusCode and operation.response.MIMEType beforehand.

Answer 2

I've tried with AFJSOnRequestOperation, in .m I simply put the outputStream beneath the init:
AFJSONRequestOperation *requestOperation = [[[self alloc] initWithRequest:urlRequest] autorelease];
requestOperation.outputStream = [NSOutputStream outputStreamToFileAtPath:[FullyLoaded filePathForResourceAtURL:urlRequest.URL.absoluteString] append:NO];
And the same happens, responseData is nil unless commenting the outputStream line, so it's not HTTPRequest or JSOnRequest issue. The way I use to get around is to JSON sequence the object from the responseData and write it to file, rather than directly outputstream the request.

Answer 3

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
manager.responseSerializer = [AFCompoundResponseSerializer serializer];
manager.responseSerializer.acceptableContentTypes = [NSSet setWithObject:#"application/octet-stream"];
AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [manager GET:url parameters:nil success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
if (responseObject) {
}
else{
}
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
}];
[operation start];
// manager.responseSerializer.acceptableContentTypes = [NSSet setWithObject:#"application/octet-stream"]; : can vary based on what you expect