Do I need to retain ownership on my custom NSURLConnection wrapper object? (In ARC environment)

Question

Note: This similar SO question talks about how to build the same class, but doesn't address my memory management issues related to using the class.

I would like to use sendAsynchronousRequest:queue:completionHandler:, however I need to support iOS 4.2. Thus, I created a custom class called JCURLRequest that uses NSURLConnection and generates an nice interface:

- (void)sendRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request 
    responseHandler:(JCURLResponseHandler)responseHandler;

I have a question about using this class (I'm in ARC memory management):

• When I create my JCURLRequest object do i need to retain a reference to that object? Or can I just "fire and forget it"?

Note: I understand the basics of ARC - if you have a pointer to an object, it will be kept alive, if there are no more pointers to an object, it will be release in the next auto-release pool.

Thus, I want to know - can I call it like (1) or do i need to use (2)

(1)

JCURLRequest *jcURLRequest = [[JCURLRequest alloc] init];
[jcURLRequest sendRequest:myRequest
          responseHandler:^(NSData *data, NSError *error) { ... }];
// Assuming I don't maintain a reference to jcURLRequest after this

(2)

// Assume @property (strong) JCURLRequest *jcURLRequest;
//        @synthesize jcURLRequest = _jcURLRequest;
self.jcURLRequest = [[JCURLRequest alloc] init];   
[self.jcURLRequest sendRequest:myRequest
          responseHandler:^(NSData *data, NSError *error) { ... }];

NSURLConnection uses an asynchronous callback, so my thought is that I have to use (2). This is because - by the time the delegate callback "calls back", the jcURLRequest instance could have been cleaned up in an auto-release pool.

I'm confused though, because I've tested with (1) and it "seems" to work fine. But, my thought is that maybe it's just coincidence that it's working- ie. really there are no more valid pointers to the jcURLRequest object but the iOS just hasn't gotten around to deallocating it.

Below is the full JCURLRequest class for reference

//  JCURLRequest.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

typedef void (^JCURLResponseHandler) (NSData *data, NSError *error);

@interface JCURLRequest : NSObject
- (void)sendRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request responseHandler:(JCURLResponseHandler)responseHandler;
@end



//  JCURLRequest.m
#import "JCURLRequest.h"

@interface JCURLRequest ()
{
    JCURLResponseHandler responseHandler;
}
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSMutableData *responseData;
@end

@implementation JCURLRequest
@synthesize responseData = _responseData;


#pragma mark - Public API

- (void)sendRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request responseHandler:(JCURLResponseHandler)handler
{
    responseHandler = [handler copy];
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        __unused NSURLConnection *connectionNotNeeded = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];
    });
}


#pragma mark - Private API

- (NSMutableData *)responseData
{
    if (!_responseData) 
    {
        _responseData = _responseData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithLength:0];
    }

    return _responseData;
}


#pragma mark - URL Connection Methods

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response 
{
    [self.responseData setLength:0];
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data 
{
    [self.responseData appendData:data];
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error 
{
    responseHandler(nil, error);
}

- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection 
{    
    responseHandler([NSData dataWithData:self.responseData], nil);
}

@end

Answer 1

NSURLConnection retains its delegate, as well as itself while the connection is alive. So it's no coincidence that your solution works.

I can't find any official source on this, but it's been confirmed unofficially here on SO:

• been having a little confusion about the retainCount of NSURLConnection

• Does a NSURLConnection retain its delegate?

Answer 2

I would recommend retaining JCURLRequest to be safe and correct. Take the following code for example:

@interface AsyncObject : NSObject
{
    BOOL ivar;
}
-(void)sendRequest:(void(^)()) callback;
@end

@implementation AsyncObject
-(void)sendRequest:(void (^)())callback
{
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
        NSLog(@"Starting Long Async Task");
        sleep(15);
        //ivar = YES;
        NSLog(@"Calling Callback");
        callback();
    });
}
-(void)dealloc
{
    NSLog(@"Deallocated!");
}
@end

    ...
    [[[AsyncObject alloc] init] sendRequest:^{ NSLog(@"Called Back"); }];

If you leave ivar commented out the first thing that prints out is Deallocated! which means the AsyncObject gets deallocated before the request even finishes. Now if you uncomment ivar then Deallocated! is now last as it should be since the block properly retains the correct values. This could, however, be broken if the dispatch used a _weak reference to self.

__weak AsyncObject *self_ = self;
    ... //Inside gcd async method
    self_->ivar = YES; //This will break