Making an HTTP GET request

In this example, we will make a GET request to Apple's iTunes search API to get a list of items related to the search term Jimmy Buffett. Since we are retrieving data from the service, by REST standards, we should use a GET request to retrieve the data.

While the REST standard is to use GET requests to retrieve data from a service, there is nothing stopping a developer of a web service from using a GET request to create or update a data object. It is not recommended to use a GET request in this manner, but just be aware that there are services out there that do not adhere to the REST standards.

The following code makes a request to Apple's iTunes search API and then prints the results to the console:

public typealias DataFromURLCompletionClosure = (NSURLResponse!, NSData!) -> Void
  
public func sendGetRequest(handler: DataFromURLCompletionClosure) {
  var queue = NSOperationQueue()
  var sessionConfiguration = NSURLSessionConfiguration.defaultSessionConfiguration...