-(Boolean) isEmptyOrNull:(NSString *) str { 
  if (!str) { 
    // null object 
    return true; 
  }else if(str == Null){ 
return true; 
}else if([str isKindOfClass:[NSNull class]]){ 
    return true; 
  }else { 
    NSString *trimedString = [str stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]; 
    if ([trimedString length] == 0) { 
      // empty string 
      return true; 
    } else { 
      // is neither empty nor null 
      return false; 
    } 
  } 
}