Swift 4 URLComponents Not Connecting Path Variable

Question

I have a Swift 4 project that I'm trying to learn a few new things and incorporate them at them same time, however I am stuck on something I just can't seem to work out.

import Foundation

protocol Endpoint {
    var baseUrl: String {get}
    var path: String {get}

    var queryItems: [URLQueryItem] {get}
}

extension Endpoint {
    var urlComponent: URLComponents{
        var component = URLComponents(string: baseUrl)
        component?.path = path
        component?.queryItems = queryItems

        return component!

    }
    var request: URLRequest{
        return URLRequest(url: urlComponent.url!)
    }
}

enum StoryEndpoint: Endpoint{

    case storiesList(type: String)

    var baseUrl: String{
        return "https://www.XXXXXXXXXXX.com/greeley"
    }
    var path: String{
        switch self {
        case .storiesList(let type):
            return "/api/items"
        }
    }
    var queryItems: [URLQueryItem]{
        return []
    }
}

Underneath enum StoryEndpoint, you can see I've set baseUrl, path, and queryItems, but if I run the project, it returns a custom error label defined in another file.

However, if I change:

    var baseUrl: String{
        return "https://www.XXXXXXXXXXX.com/greeley"
    }

To this (basically merging the baseUrl and path):

    var baseUrl: String{
        return "https://www.XXXXXXXXXXX.com/greeley/api/items"
    }

It returns the decoded items in my console correctly.

Have I set up something incorrectly with the urlComponent?

Answer 1

When you instantiate a URLComponents like this:

    var component = URLComponents(string: baseUrl)

It creates something like this:

[URLComponents]
    scheme: "https"
    host: "www.XXXXXXXXXXX.com"
    path: "/greeley"
    queryItems: nil
    ...

You see what happens if you execute component?.path = path after it.

[URLComponents]
    scheme: "https"
    host: "www.XXXXXXXXXXX.com"
    path: "/api/items"
    queryItems: nil
    ...

This may not be what you want.

You may need to write something like this:

    component?.path += path

(If you think considering "/" is sort of annoying, you may need to find other way around.)