Integrating Swift with RapidAPI Services

Other Questions RapidAPI
1

I’m having trouble getting my Swift application to work with RapidAPI. I’ve tried following the documentation but something isn’t right with my implementation. The API calls don’t seem to be working as expected and I’m not sure what I’m missing.

import UIKit

class WeatherService {
    private let apiHeaders = [
        "X-RapidAPI-Host": "weatherapi-com.p.rapidapi.com",
        "X-RapidAPI-Key": "your-api-key-here"
    ]
    
    func fetchWeatherData() {
        guard let url = URL(string: "https://weatherapi-com.p.rapidapi.com/current.json?q=Paris") else { return }
        
        var urlRequest = URLRequest(url: url)
        urlRequest.httpMethod = "GET"
        urlRequest.allHTTPHeaderFields = apiHeaders
        urlRequest.timeoutInterval = 15.0
        
        let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: urlRequest) { responseData, httpResponse, requestError in
            if let requestError = requestError {
                print("Request failed: \(requestError.localizedDescription)")
                return
            }
            
            if let httpResponse = httpResponse as? HTTPURLResponse {
                print("Status code: \(httpResponse.statusCode)")
            }
        }
        
        task.resume()
    }
}

What’s the proper way to structure this code so it actually works with RapidAPI?

2

This might be more than just a JSON parsing problem. I’ve used RapidAPI a ton and some endpoints need extra headers beyond the standard ones. Add “Content-Type”: “application/json” to your headers dictionary.

URL encoding trips people up too - if you’re planning to pass dynamic query parameters later, encode them properly. Also, wrap your network call in a completion handler so you can actually use the data in your UI.

Ditch the print statements for errors and create a proper error handling enum instead. Trust me, it’s way easier to debug when you have specific cases for network failures, API errors, and parsing issues.

3

you’re not doing anything with the responseData - just printing status codes without decoding the JSON. also check that your API key isn’t still the placeholder “your-api-key-here” (happens more than you’d think lol). add some breakpoints to see if the request’s even firing.

4

Your code structure looks good, but you’re missing the actual data parsing - that’s probably why nothing’s happening. You’re only printing the status code without handling the response data. Add JSON parsing after your error checks. Also, make sure you’re actually calling this method somewhere in your app. I’ve seen people write perfect networking code but never invoke it. For debugging RapidAPI issues, I add detailed error logging. Check if you’re getting 403 (API key problems) or 429 (rate limiting). Try adding guard let data = responseData else { return } then parse with JSONSerialization or Codable. Double-check your API key works by testing it in Postman first.