iOS Save file to non-private directory - ios

Right now I am working on a project which uploads files from the system and I was wondering if it is possible to save NSData to a location that is not private. Basically when I save data right now the cooresponding url looks something like this:
file:///private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/.../image.jpg
But when I get files back from the UIImagePicker the URL looks like this:
file:///var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/.../image.jpg
How can I (if it is possible) save data to a directory not under private?
Just for reference this is the code I have to move files so far:
- (NSURL *)moveFileToTemporaryMemory:(NSURL *)url {
NSError *readingError, *writingError;
NSString *fileName = url.lastPathComponent;
NSURL *tempURL = [[NSURL fileURLWithPath:NSTemporaryDirectory()] URLByAppendingPathComponent:fileName];
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url options:NSDataReadingMappedIfSafe error:&readingError];
[data writeToURL:tempURL options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:&writingError];
return tempURL;
}

There's no difference -- /var is a symbolic link to /private/var, so both paths are equivalent.

Related

QLPreviewController not displays saved file

I'm getting this behaviour using Xcode 8.0. The problem is, after downloading a file and storing it on documents directory (code provided below), QLPreviewController only displays document's name and size. The property currentPreviewItem returns the correct path document. What's even more strange, is that if I try to open that document from another controller in my app, it works fine. I've implemented both QLPreviewControllerDelegate and QLPreviewControllerDataSource.
Code for downloading and saving document:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_HIGH, 0), ^{
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:file[#"url"]];
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
if (!data) {
completion([NSError new]);
return;
}
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *path = [[paths objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:AppName];
path = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:file[#"name"]];
file[#"filePath"] = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] createFileAtPath:path contents:data attributes:nil];
completion(nil);
});
});
Then, when user selects a document I use the content saved on #"filePath" to show QLPreviewController. I've tried pushing it and presenting it modally and in both cases it just displays a gray page with document's name and size.
File wasn't showed because downloaded contents didn't contain file's extension. When I tried opening it in other controller, it worked because I temporary used another file name containing the correct extension. So I solved the problem adding the extension .pdf to downloaded files that didn't include it. This made QLViewController displaying correctly the file.
In my case, a file was created with the correct name, but the file contained an error message from the server, thus not representing the expected file structure.

How to save images inside app

Hi I'm new to iOS objective c.
I'm working on a app which fetches images and stores it in the app memory for reference.
when u click on the favourite it should go the favourites tab
when clicked on downloads.The image should go on the download tab.
as ALAasset is deprecated can some one explain what is the best way to store images.
is it using file or PHImagemanager.
and how?
You should store images in documents directory something like,
NSString *docsDir = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES)objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *documentsDirectoryForSaveImages = [docsDir stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"/ProfileImages"];
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] createDirectoryAtPath:documentsDirectoryForSaveImages withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:nil]; // This creates folder in document directory of name "ProfileImages"
Now you can store image something like,
NSData *data = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(responseObject, 1.0); //Convert image to data
[data writeToFile:[documentsDirectoryForSaveImages stringByAppendingPathComponent:formImage] atomically:NO]; //write that data to path. formImage is string value (name of image. Ideally should use timestamp to make unique naming)
You can retrieve image something like,
UIImage *img = [UIImage imageWithContentsOfFile:[documentsDirectoryForSaveImages stringByAppendingPathComponent:formImage]];
Hope this will help :)

NSData WriteToFile Fails while saving a photo from gallery through Share Extension

I am Writing an app which has share extension to save selected photo to my app' local storage from iphone photo gallery.
NSData WriteToFile returns YES but I couldn't find the stored file into the directory in of which I gave path while writing.
So, in short NSData WriteToFile fails to save a photo at given path.
Below is my code.
- (IBAction)acceptButtonTapped:(id)sender
{
__block UIImage *photo;
for (NSExtensionItem *item in self.extensionContext.inputItems)
{
for (NSItemProvider *itemProvider in item.attachments)
{
if ([itemProvider hasItemConformingToTypeIdentifier:(NSString *)kUTTypeImage])
{
[itemProvider loadItemForTypeIdentifier:(NSString *)kUTTypeImage options:nil completionHandler:^(UIImage *image, NSError *error) {
if(image)
{
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
photo = image;
NSDateFormatter *formatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[formatter setDateFormat:#"yyyy_MM_dd_hh_mm_ss"];
NSString *fileName;
fileName = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#.jpeg",[formatter stringFromDate:[NSDate date]]];
dataPath = [dataPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName];
NSData * imageData = [NSData dataWithData:UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0)];
BOOL isdone = [imageData writeToFile:dataPath atomically:NO];
NSLog(#"%u", isdone);
});
}
}];
break;
}
}
}
[self.extensionContext completeRequestReturningItems:#[] completionHandler:nil];
}
Any Help would be much appreciable.
Thank you.
If you're trying to access the Document directory from the share extension, NO you can't do that. Share extension or other widgets are separate application from their containing app and therefore have their own sandbox. So you will need to use App Groups to share files.
Application groups are primarily targeted for extensions, more specifically, for widgets.
NSFileManager has a method on it containerURLForSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier: where you can pass in the identifier you created when turning on App Groups for your apps
NSURL *containerURL = [[NSFileManager defaultManager]
containerURLForSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier:#"group.com.company.app"];
You can save the files to this location, because you can access the shared application groups from both extension and host app.
You're modifying dataPath on each pass through the loop, appending another filename to it. That will create an ever-growing series of badly formed paths that contain all the filenames.
Don't do that. Create a new local variable filePath, and construct a filename into filePath using
filePath = [docsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent: filename];
Log your path and LOOK AT IT. When your program doesn't behave as expected, don't trust any of your assumptions, because one or more of them may be wrong.

download file to Documents directory

I'm trying to copy a downloaded file to a specific folder in the app's documents directory but can't seem to get it working. The code I'm using is:
NSString *itemPathString = #"http://pathToFolder/folder/myFile.doc";
NSURL *myUrl = [NSURL URLWithString:itemPathString];
NSArray *paths = [fm URLsForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask];
NSURL *folderPath = [[paths objectAtIndex:0] URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"folder"];
NSURL *itemURL = [documentsPath URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"myFile.doc"];
// copy to documents directory asynchronously
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
NSFileManager *theFM = [[NSFileManager alloc] init];
NSError *error;
[theFM copyItemAtURL:myUrl toURL:itemURL error:&error];
}
});
I can retrieve the file OK but can't copy it. Can anyone tell me if there's anything wrong with the above code?
If downloading a file from a server, if it's a reasonably small file (e.g. measured in kb, not mb), you can use dataWithContentsOfURL. You can use that method to load the file into memory, and then use the NSData instance method writeToFile to save the file.
But, if it's a larger file, you will want to use NSURLConnection, which doesn't try to hold the whole file in memory, but rather writes it to the file system when appropriate. The trick here, though, is if you want to download multiple files, you either have to download them sequentially, or encapsulate the NSURLConnection and the NSOutputStream such that you can have separate copies of those for each simultaneous download.
I have uploaded a project, Download Manager that demonstrates what a NSURLConnection implementation might look like, but it's non-trivial. You might rather want to contemplate using an established, third-party library, such as ASIHTTPRequest or RestKit.
If you want to access a folder with a given name you should check if it exists and if not create it. That could quite easy be done like this:
NSString *folder = [documentsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:folderName];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSError *error = nil;
if (![fileManager fileExistsAtPath:folder]) {
[fileManager createDirectoryAtPath:folder withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:&error];
}
if (error != nil) {
NSLog(#"Some error: %#", error);
return;
}
EDIT
If you want to check if the folder was created properly on your device got to Organizer -> Devices -> [YourDevelopingDeviceWhereTheAppWasInstalled] -> Applications -> [YourApplication]
In the lower section you should at least see some folders like Documents. And if successful your created folders as well.
You need to create any intermediate directories prior to copying files. Check in the Simulator folder to see wether the "folder" directory is created in the applications Documents-folder.
Path to simulator is /Users/$username/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/

Prevent an app crash due to a slow connection when retrieving a remote file

I am currently using a function in my app's didFinishLaunchingWithOptions that retrieves a file, saves it to the application directory.
I have found that when there is a weak connection the app will crash when this is happening. I read that there is a 20 second time limit Apple allows before crashing the app. Is this correct? If so, I believe this is causing my issue as the app works flawlessly with the exception of being on a very weak connection.
How could I modify my logic below to try and compensate for this?
- (void)writeJsonToFile
{
//applications Documents dirctory path
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
//live json data url
NSString *stringURL = #"http://link-to-my-data.json";
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:stringURL];
NSData *urlData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
//attempt to download live data
if (urlData)
{
NSString *filePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#", documentsDirectory,#"data.json"];
[urlData writeToFile:filePath atomically:YES];
}
//copy data from initial package into the applications Documents folder
else
{
//file to write to
NSString *filePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#", documentsDirectory,#"data.json"];
//file to copy from
NSString *json = [ [NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"data" ofType:#"json" inDirectory:#"html/data" ];
NSData *jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:json options:kNilOptions error:nil];
//write file to device
[jsonData writeToFile:filePath atomically:YES];
}
}
It's a very bad idea to run this sort of thing on the main thread: I assume you are - basically, you'll block the entire UI while you wait for the network operation to complete.
dataWithContentsOfURL is not a good idea for this sort of thing. It will be much better to use NSURLConnection or one of the wrapper libraries like AFNetworking, because you can handle cases like when the connection times out gracefully.
These libraries also have built-in methods to asynchronously download the data, which prevents the main UI thread from being locked.
When is this downloaded data needed?
Depending on the answer, maybe you can call the method inside a thread. This will prevent the main thread from blocking.
Even if the data is needed from the beginning, you can just create a loader and download the file in the background, then make the app active after the file is downloaded.
I think to be more independent from internal implementation of NSData *urlData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url]; you should implement you own download class based on NSURLConnection.
The links to read:
URL Loading System Programming Guide
NSURLConnection Class Reference
NSURLConnectionDelegate Protocol Reference
So you can catch all connection errors by your code and implement right behavior in this case.

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