Objective-C error handling - objective-c

Question

anyone know how I can handle error code when there is an error on the following:
database_flag = [NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:database_flag_query encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding error:&error];
TO explain more please find below my code
Basically I want to check mysql for a flag
if the flag is 1 then i get the ip address of the stream from the databse
else i use the local one store.
the only issue is when there is not access to the mysql server the program gets stuck!!
database_flag_query = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://192.168.0.20/iqkradio_stream_ip_flag.php"];
database_flag = [NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:database_flag_query encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding error:&error];
database_flag = [database_flag stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
if ([database_flag isEqualToString: #"1"])
{
NSLog(#"URL flag is set");
database_url_query = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://192.168.0.20/iqkradio_stream_ip_url.php"];
database_url = [NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:database_url_query encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding error:&error];
database_url = [database_url stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
url1 = [NSURL URLWithString:[database_url stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
NSLog(database_url);
}
else
{
NSLog(#"URL flag is not set, Reverting to stored value");
url1 = [NSURL URLWithString: [NSString stringWithFormat: #"http://radio.qkradio.com.au:8382/listen.mp3"]];
}
streamer = [[AudioStreamer alloc] initWithURL:url1];

Answer 1

EDIT - NSURLConnection & Timeouts - Based on the additional information and the comment stream below, and to put information in the answer (rather than the long comment stream):
see accepted answer to this question here for the timeout example. For the NSURLConnection example, checkout the apple documentation here
General Error Handling -
The following link may be helpful --> http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/cocoa/conceptual/ProgrammingWithObjectiveC/ErrorHandling/ErrorHandling.html.
"Before you call this method, you’ll need to create a suitable pointer so that you can pass its address:
NSError *anyError;
BOOL success = [receivedData writeToURL:someLocalFileURL
options:0
error:&anyError];
if (!success) {
NSLog(#"Write failed with error: %#", anyError);
// present error to user
}
If an error occurs, the writeToURL:... method will return NO, and update your anyError pointer to point to an error object describing the problem.
When dealing with errors passed by reference, it’s important to test the return value of the method to see whether an error occurred, as shown above. Don’t just test to see whether the error pointer was set to point to an error."
So, for your issue, try adding:
if(!database_flag)
{
//call your error handling function
[myFunction withError: error];
}
before trimming the database_flag. If your connection isn't working, then you need to handle it before continueing to your if([database_flag isEqualToString:... code.
If that doesn't solve the problem, can you give some information/log statements on where/what the error is that is halting your application?
Hope that helps.