Best practice when using similar code in methods - objective-c

Question

I have a Utility method to comunicate with an API, it communicates using a POST HTTP request, in my utility-class i have a method called:
(void)makeConnectionWithParameters:(NSMutableDictionary*)parameters;
wich takes the parameters and sets up the body of the POST. however, in one particular case i want to upload some images and the code is slightly altered to make uploading of said images possible, what is the best practice for this case? should i rename the method to:
(void)makeConnectionWithParameters:(NSMutableDictionary*)parameters andImages(NSArray*)images;
and set nil as a parameter in all other cases, or should i set a bool in the method calling "makeConnectionWithParameters" and check in the method if the bool is set and in that case process the images?
Any other ideas to make the code prettier?
here is the method:
(void)makeConnectionWithParameters:(NSMutableDictionary*)parameters
{
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:BASE_URL];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url cachePolicy:NSURLCacheStorageAllowed timeoutInterval:20];
request.HTTPMethod = #"POST";
NSString *boundary = #"myR4ND0Mboundary";
NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#", boundary];
[request setValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField: #"Content-Type"];
//Lägg till inloggningsuppgifter för API-anropet
[parameters setValue:API_LOGIN forKey:#"api-login"];
[parameters setValue:API_PASSWORD forKey:#"api-password"];
//Lägg till alla parameterar i POST-bodyn
NSMutableData *body = [NSMutableData data];
for (NSString *param in parameters)
{
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"%#\"\r\n\r\n", param] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#\r\n", [parameters objectForKey:param]] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
}
if(hasImages)
{
int c = 0;
for(UIImage* image in self.images)
{
c++;
NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0);
if (imageData)
{
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"%#\"; filename=\"image.jpg\"\r\n", [NSString stringWithFormat:#"image%d", c]] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"Content-Type: image/jpeg\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:imageData];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
}
imageData = nil;
}
}
//Sätt content-length
NSString *postLength = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", [body length]];
[request setValue:postLength forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Length"];
[request setHTTPBody:body];
NSURLConnection *connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc]initWithRequest:request delegate:self];
if(connection)
{
receivedData = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:0];
}
}
I hope this all makes sense. :)

Answer 1

Simply create two methods that make the request objects, not the actual connections:
(NSMutableURLRequest*)makeConnectionWithParameters:(NSMutableDictionary*)parameters;
(NSMutableURLRequest*)makeConnectionWithParameters:(NSMutableDictionary*)parameters andImages(NSArray*)images;
Inside the first method call:
[self makeConnectionWithParameters:parameters andImages:nil];
...and have a nil check for the images inside the second method. Use those two methods to get your request then make the NSURLConnection with the returned object.