Accessing REST Web Services from iOS Applications

Integrating iOS Applications withBackend REST Services Adrian Kosmaczewski - akosma software SDC 2011 - Monday, April 4th 2011

Adrian Kosmaczewski

akosma software

akosma.comadrian@akosma.com @akosma

github.com/akosma linkedin.com/in/akosma slideshare.com/akosma identi.ca/akosma friendfeed.com/akosmastackoverﬂow.com/users/133764/akosma careers.stackoverﬂow.com/akosma

Questions

Web Developers?

iOS Developers?

API Designers or Developers?

Server-sideTechnologies?

A Story

1The Situation

Database

Many Questions

Formats?

Libraries?

Architecture?

“Best” approaches?

Bad news

Far too many

REST vs SOAP

XML vs JSON

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

2One Answer

http://github.com/akosma/iPhoneWebServicesClient

2 parts

1) PHP server app

2) iOS client

Many formats

• XML • CSV • 10 libraries • SOAP • DOM and SAX • Property List• JSON • XML • 5 parsers • Binary• YAML • Protocol Buffers

Extensible

(add more formats and libraries if you want)

Variable sized dataset

(from 1 to 5000 items per call)

Heterogenous Data Source

(the same data in different formats)

XML & JSON iOS Libraries

(as many as I could ﬁnd)

4The Tests

• iPhone 3G • GPRS (iPhone)• iPod touch (2nd gen) • 3G (iPhone & iPad)• iPhone 4 • Wiﬁ (all)• iPad 3G (1st gen)

• As many combinations as possible• Different dataset sizes each time

iOS Developer Nirvana

Instruments

5Results

Easier to implement on iOS?

1. JSON + Property Lists + CSV2. XML (DOM) + Protocol Buffers3. XML (SAX)4. SOAP + YAML

Easier to implement on PHP?

1. JSON + YAML2. Property List + CSV + XML3. Protocol Buffers4. SOAP

Smaller Payload

1. CSV + Protocol Buffers + Binary Plist2. JSON + YAML3. XML4. SOAP + Formatted XML Plist

Fastest Deserialization Speed

1. Plists (Binary + XML)2. JSONKit + TBXML3. SOAP + YAJL + LibXML DOM4. others5. ... BSJSON. Super slow!

More Portable?

1. XML + JSON2. Protocol Buffers + YAML + CSV3. SOAP4. Property Lists

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Accessing REST Web Services from iOS Applications

by Adrian Kosmaczewski on Apr 30, 2011

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Accessing REST Web Services from iOS Applications — Presentation Transcript