return data from AFHTTPRequestOperation? - objective-c

Question

I'm moving my app code to an MVC model and so I created a method to retrieve some data from an API.
+ (NSMutableArray *)loadFromFeed {
NSString *feed = #"https://api.test.com";
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:feedUrl]];
request = [mutableRequest copy];
AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:request];
operation.responseSerializer = [JSONResponseSerializerWithData serializer];
[operation setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
NSArray *jsonArray = (NSArray *)[responseObject objectForKey:#"items"];
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
CLS_LOG(#"Error");
}];
}
Now, ideally, I'd like to return jsonArray as part of this method. However, since AFHTTPRequestOperation is asynchronous, I don't know how to solve this and still be able to call [Data loadFromFeed]; anywhere in the app. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You could pass two block named success and failure to loadFromFeed ,
and then call the two block from your setCompletionBlockWithSuccess success and failure block, passing jsonArray to the success block:
typedef void (^Success)(id data);
typedef void (^Failure)(NSError *error);
- (void)loadFromFeed:(Success)success failure:(Failure)failure;
[operation setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
NSArray *jsonArray = (NSArray *)[responseObject objectForKey:#"items"];
success?success(jsonArray):nil;
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
failure?failure(error):nil;
}];
then use in this way:
[Data loadFromFeed:^(id data) {
NSLog(#"%#",data)
} failure:^(NSError *error) {
NSLog(#"%#",error)
}];];