dataWithContentsOfURL: inconsistencies
Was tracing a mysterious bug. Some software component that uses NSData’s dataWithContentsOfURL: suddenly fails to work with a specific URL endpoint only when it is run on Tiger. Switching the URL endpoint to the dev server, and the problem is gone.
Turns out that the specific URL endpoint is served by an Apache server with gzipped data option turned on. Many a modern day web servers do that to lighten the traffic load (especially if you serving tons of JavaScripts, for example). Unfortunately, the naïve dataWithContentsOfURL: does not unzip the data for you automatically, so your NSData object contains actually a zipped data.
Interestingly, on Leopard dataWithContentsOfURL: works just as transparently as it should always be. Digging through the mailing list some Apple people confirmed that it behaved inconsistently since the days of 10.3.3. It’s just unfortunate.
The solution? Ask the server side people to turn off that option.
lukhnos :: Apr.18.2008 :: tekhnologia :: No Comments »