How to Send a Request with Alamofire with Xml Body

How to send a request with alamofire with xml Body

Assuming you that you're missing valid HTTP headers in your request, the updated request could look like:

Alamofire.request(.POST, "https://something.com", parameters: Dictionary() , encoding: .Custom({
            (convertible, params) in
            let mutableRequest = convertible.URLRequest.copy() as! NSMutableURLRequest

            let data = (self.testString as NSString).dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)
            mutableRequest.HTTPBody = data
            mutableRequest.setValue("application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
            return (mutableRequest, nil)
        }))
    .responseJSON { response in
    print(response.response) 
    print(response.result)   
    }
}

So, basically you should add one line

mutableRequest.setValue("application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")

Update:

Try same, but use responseData or responseString instead of responseJSON because it is possible that your response is not JSON

Handling XML data with Alamofire in Swift

If I did not misunderstand your description, I think you would like to get the XML data and parse it, right? Regarding to this, you may handle with wrong variables in the response callback. You should println(data) to check the XML document.

For parsing XML data, you could consider SWXMLHash. The Alamofire request could look like:

Alamofire.request(.GET, "http://my-web-service-domain.com", parameters: nil)
         .response { (request, response, data, error) in
            println(data) // if you want to check XML data in debug window.
            var xml = SWXMLHash.parse(data!)
            println(xml["UserDTO"]["FilmID"].element?.text) // output the FilmID element.
         }

Further information about XML management, please check SWXMLHash.

Alamofire XML request to PropertyList

Currently, Apple's Codable protocol does not have a way to decode XML. While a Plist is XML, XML is not necessarily a Plist unless it follows a certain format.

While there are plenty of third party libraries, I would suggest you take a look at the XMLParsing library. This library contains a XMLDecoder and a XMLEncoder that uses Apple's own Codable protocol, and is based on Apple's JSONEncoder/JSONDecoder with changes to fit the XML standard.

Link: https://github.com/ShawnMoore/XMLParsing

W3School's XML To Parse:

<note>
    <to>Tove</to>
    <from>Jani</from>
    <heading>Reminder</heading>
    <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Swift Struct conforming to Codable:

struct Note: Codable {
    var to: String
    var from: String
    var heading: String
    var body: String
}

XMLDecoder:

let data = Data(forResource: "note", withExtension: "xml") else { return nil }

let decoder = XMLDecoder()

do {
   let note = try decoder.decode(Note.self, from: data)
} catch {
   print(error)
}

XMLEncoder:

let encoder = XMLEncoder()

do {
   let data = try encoder.encode(self, withRootKey: "note")

   print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8))
} catch {
   print(error)
}

There are a number of benefits for using Apple's Codable protocol over that of a third-party's protocol. Take for example if Apple decides to begin supporting XML, you would not have to refactor.

For a full list of examples of this library, see the Sample XML folder in the repository.

There are a few differences between Apple's Decoders and Encoders to fit the XML standard. These are as follows:

Differences between XMLDecoder and JSONDecoder

XMLDecoder.DateDecodingStrategy has an extra case titled keyFormatted. This case takes a closure that gives you a CodingKey, and it is up to you to provide the correct DateFormatter for the provided key. This is simply a convenience case on the DateDecodingStrategy of JSONDecoder.
XMLDecoder.DataDecodingStrategy has an extra case titled keyFormatted. This case takes a closure that gives you a CodingKey, and it is up to you to provide the correct data or nil for the provided key. This is simply a convenience case on the DataDecodingStrategy of JSONDecoder.
If the object conforming to the Codable protocol has an array, and the XML being parsed does not contain the array element, XMLDecoder will assign an empty array to the attribute. This is because the XML standard says if the XML does not contain the attribute, that could mean that there are zero of those elements.

Differences between XMLEncoder and JSONEncoder

Contains an option called StringEncodingStrategy, this enum has two options, deferredToString and cdata. The deferredToString option is default and will encode strings as simple strings. If cdata is selected, all strings will be encoded as CData.
The encode function takes in two additional parameters than JSONEncoder does. The first additional parameter in the function is a RootKey string that will have the entire XML wrapped in an element named that key. This parameter is required. The second parameter is an XMLHeader, which is an optional parameter that can take the version, encoding strategy and standalone status, if you want to include this information in the encoded xml.

How to Send a Request with Alamofire with Xml Body