How can I use a URL for an image in Swift? - ios

Question

I am trying to retrieve certain data from my Firebase Database - the profile image. As you can see, this is from a UITableViewCell. I have an #IBOutlet for my imageView I want to cover.
As the view awakens, you can see that I go through, and make sure that I can get the information. I know how to retrieve data from Firebase, but not photo URLs, and then convert to the photo itself.
I'm not sure why it isn't working. I am getting an error, and will show it below. There is a possibility it is because of the URL unwrapping stuff, or as if the Firebase isn't formatted correctly, which I think it is, though.
Error Message : Thread 1: Fatal error: Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value
import UIKit
import FirebaseAuth
import FirebaseDatabase
import Firebase
class ProfileCellControler: UITableViewCell {
#IBOutlet var name : UILabel!
#IBOutlet var rating : UILabel!
#IBOutlet var imageViewPro : UIImageView!
var databaseRefer : DatabaseReference!
var databaseHandle : DatabaseHandle!
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
var urlString = ""
let urll = URL(string: urlString)!
databaseRefer = Database.database().reference()
let userID = Auth.auth().currentUser!.uid
databaseHandle = databaseRefer.child("Users").child(userID).child("Profile").child("Profile Name").observe(.value, with: { (data) in
print(String((data.value as? String)!))
self.name.text = "\(String((data.value as? String)!))"
print("Done")
})
databaseHandle = databaseRefer.child("Users").child(userID).child("Profile").child("Stars").observe(.value, with: { (data) in
print(String((data.value as? String)!))
if ((String((data.value as? String)!)) == "N/A") {
self.rating.text = "No Rating"
} else {
self.rating.text = "\(String((data.value as? String)!)) ★"
}
print("Done")
})
databaseHandle = databaseRefer.child("Users").child(userID).child("Profile").child("Profile Image").observe(.value, with: { (data) in
print(String((data.value as? String)!))
print("Done \(String((data.value as? String)!))")
urlString = (String((data.value as? String)!))
})
ImageService.downloadImage(withURL: urll) { (image) in
self.imageViewPro.image = image
}
// Initialization code
}
override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)
// Configure the view for the selected state
}
}

Answer 1

The string for the URL is found nil because you are creating the call to download the image for your url before the urll has been initialized with a value from the database in:
databaseHandle = databaseRefer.child("Users").child(userID).child("Profile").child("Profile Image").observe(.value, with: { (data) in
print(String((data.value as? String)!))
print("Done \(String((data.value as? String)!))")
urlString = (String((data.value as? String)!))
})
observe(.value, with: ) Is an asynchronous operation thus
ImageService.downloadImage(withURL: urll) { (image) in
self.imageViewPro.image = image
}
Is being called before observe(.value, with:) is resolved. I would recommend moving the callback for the download URL inside of the completion for .observe(:value, :with) or using grand central dispatch to control the flow better.
As a side note, I highly recommend SDWebImage for handling your image downloading needs as it is configurable with a default image for situations such as this when the image fails to load.

Answer 2

Import KingFisher to make your life easier and then..
Download string representation of image from Firebase asynchronically.
Assign downloaded image to imageView with .kf.setImage method.