HTTP Basic authentication with Rails for iOS

Recently I've been getting into iOS and developing a interesting iOS app (more info coming soon!)

But, as the app is all about showing data of course I needed to create an API in my rails app to feed that data. But, I didn't want someone else to be able to grab it.

The Rails App Side

Configure a custom MIME type

First thing I did was set up a custom mime type in initializers/mime_types.rb:

Mime::Type.register_alias "text/json", :theapp

That let me call urls like /give_me_data.theapp

Add the 'respond_to'

In the applicable controllers add a respond_to (well, I already had one, so add to it):

respond_to :html, :xml, :theapp

Make templates with json_builder

I luuuvvvvv the json_builder gem. So I created a whack of templates with the .json_builder extension. Because of the mime type setting it would automatically get called.

Add the http_authentication stuff

I am a little bit lazy, so, I just chuck this into my application_controller. That means that all :theapp requests need authentication:

protected
def http_basic_authentication
    if request.format == :ios
        authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |username, password|
            username == 'myAmazingApp' && password == 'theBestestPasswordEver'
        end
    end
end

The iOS app side

The URLs

Simply chuck your authentication stuff into your urls:

NSString *const RegionDataBaseURL = @"http://myAmazingApp:theBestestPasswordEver@localhost:3000/regions/%@.theapp";

Pulling...Data

I do my stuff like this (thanks to Ray Wenderlich):

  dispatch_async(kBgQueue, ^{
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString: [NSString stringWithFormat:RegionDataBaseURL, [self.region permalink]]];
    
    NSData* data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL: url];
    [self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(fetchedRegionData:)
                           withObject:data waitUntilDone:YES];
  });

Yes, I could also put the username and password in some other place and sub it into the URL, but brute force works for now.

Like I say, I am starting out in iOS so maybe this is too noddy for all you pros, but, it works.

The gotcha's in Node.js - or how I reduced our bandwidth by 75%

So, I have this great application that distributes, in pretty close to real time, information across hundreds of screens in Germany. It does this with a combination of Rails, Node.js and HTML/Javascript.
But we noticed MASSIVE traffic.
My model was to pump out the data and have intelligent pages decide what to show.
It turns out this is very inefficient.

Not ready for primetime

We have 4 'channels' of information. The software had originally been built on a 'tv station' idea. And, in TV, everything gets pumped down the line (or over the air) and then the tv 'tunes in' to a channel and shows the appropriate content.
In our case, we had a 'screen structure' message that was sent out once a minute and then in between each element on the screen would send out its own updates if it was altered.
It was the screen structure message that was the problem.

The old way

I was doing something like this on the page:

client.subscribe('/source', function(message) {
    window.setTimeout(function() {
        process_source_message(message);
    }, 1);
})

And in Node app.js I was doing this:

app.post('/source_state', function(req, res) {
    bayeux.getClient().publish('/source', req.body);
    res.send(200);
});

And in Rails, something like this:

RestClient.post [NODE_CONFIG[Rails.env]['node_url'], NODE_CONFIG[Rails.env]['source_update_path']].join('/'), JSON(json)

So, every page would get every 'source' message.

The new way

I realised that I should have the pages listen to their specific channel. I had got hung up in the past on the idea that I didn't know the name of the source in advance - it could be anything as it is user defined.

But, inside of the source JSON was already this:

json = {
    "source" => {"name" => source.slug}
}

It turns out I didn't need to change the back end (Rails) at all.

In the app.js I just needed

app.post('/source_state', function(req, res) {
    bayeux.getClient().publish('/'+req.body.source.name, req.body);
    res.send(200);
});