swift_api_request.swift

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// using alamofire
Alamofire.request(.GET, Constants.Keys.BASE_URL+"/giftcards", headers: header, encoding: .JSON).validate().responseJSON() { response in
            
            if let error = response.result.error {
                self.fetchFailure(error.code, errorBody: error.description)
                return
            }
            
            let json = JSON(response.result.value!)
            self.ownedGiftcards.removeAll()
            self.receivedGiftcards.removeAll()
            self.awaitingAcceptanceGiftcards.removeAll()
            self.buildGiftCardsList(json)
            self.fetchSuccess()
        }
        
        
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// using NSURL: https://grokswift.com/simple-rest-with-swift/
func getNearestLocations(latitude: Double, longitude: Double, brandId: String) {
        print("requesting nearest locations")

        print("inside test api")
        let postEndpoint: String = "http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1"
        print(postEndpoint)
        guard let url = NSURL(string: postEndpoint) else {
            print("Error: cannot create URL")
            return
        }
        print("got url")
        let urlRequest = NSURLRequest(URL: url)
        let config = NSURLSessionConfiguration.defaultSessionConfiguration()
        let session = NSURLSession(configuration: config)
        
        print("lets enter task")
        
        let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(urlRequest, completionHandler: {
            (data, response, error) in
            print("inside task completion handler")
            guard let responseData = data else {
                print("Error: did not receive data")
                return
            }
            guard error == nil else {
                print("error calling GET on /posts/1")
                print(error)
                return
            }
            // parse the result as JSON, since that's what the API provides
            let post: NSDictionary
            do {
                post = try NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(responseData,
                    options: []) as! NSDictionary
            } catch  {
                print("error trying to convert data to JSON")
                return
            }
            // now we have the post, let's just print it to prove we can access it
            print("The post is: " + post.description)
            
            // the post object is a dictionary
            // so we just access the title using the "title" key
            // so check for a title and print it if we have one
            if let postTitle = post["title"] as? String {
                print("The title is: " + postTitle)
            }
        })
        print("task definition over")
        task.resume()

        print("task resume completed")
    }