How to perform non-asynchronous AFHTTPRequestOperation with AFNetworking?

Question

Having followed the Ray Wenderlich Parse + Core Data + AFNetworking tutorial, it seems that he pulls JSON from Parse by creating an AFHTTPRequestOperation object using an NSMutableURLRequest and then adds that operation to a queue via enqueueBatchOfHTTPRequestOperations:(NSArray *)operations progressBlock:(void (^__strong)(NSUInteger, NSUInteger))progressBlock completionBlock:(void (^__strong)(NSArray *__strong))completionBlock.

My question is: Is it possible to process an AFHTTPRequestOperation immediately (rather than adding it to queue) so that the subsequent line of code processes once the request has been fully processed? Is this bad form?

What I am actually trying to do: If a requested object does not exist locally, then attempt to download it from Parse. If that request fails, assume (for now) that the object does not exist on Parse. If that request succeeds, then the user can now start using that object locally.

Advanced apologies if this is a dumb question as I am new to AFNetworking and any kind of data synchronization...also the few iOS developer friends I have have never used AFNetworking / Parse / any kind of data synchronization.

Answer 1

Most people consider it bad form, although I understand wanting to try it when you are getting started. I would advise never doing it in code you are submitting to the App Store. Some discussion about the same thing here: Synchronous AFNetworking calls