How to load animated GIF from photo library - ios

Question

In iOS Swift I'm having difficulty loading an animated GIF from the device photo library to a UIImageView or creating a .gif file from it. I have no problem displaying the animated GIF if it's a file on a server or if it's right in the app. However, when I load it from the photo library, I lose the animation. I found some Objective-C solutions and tried to convert them over to Swift, but haven't had any luck.
Here is what I have so far:
#IBAction func buttonTapped(sender: UIButton) {
selectPhoto()
}
func selectPhoto() {
let photoLibraryController = UIImagePickerController()
photoLibraryController.delegate = self
photoLibraryController.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.PhotoLibrary
let mediaTypes:[String] = [kUTTypeImage as String]
photoLibraryController.mediaTypes = mediaTypes
photoLibraryController.allowsEditing = false
self.presentViewController(photoLibraryController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
// UIImagePickerControllerDelegate
func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject]) {
let origImage = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as! UIImage
self.imageView.image = origImage
picker.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}
Optimally, I would like to save the photo library image to a gif file on the server. From there I have no trouble displaying it. However, I need some help getting the data from the photo library into some type of property, without losing the animation. Do I need to use something like ALAssetsLibrary for this?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, Use ALAssetsLibrary → now called PHAsset.
You should get the NSData of the gif, not UIImage( because UIImage will only get the first frame.)
So basically you would do something like this:
One you get the asset
let requestOptions = PHImageRequestOptions()
requestOptions.isSynchronous = true // adjust the parameters as you wish
PHImageManager.default().requestImageData(for: asset, options: requestOptions, resultHandler: { (imageData, UTI, _, _) in
if let uti = UTI,let data = imageData ,
// you can also use UTI to make sure it's a gif
UTTypeConformsTo(uti as CFString, kUTTypeGIF) {
// save data here
}
})
Resource: PHAsset

Answer 2

You can get an access to the location of the image file using InfoKey .imageURL and retrieve Data from this URL
// UIImagePickerControllerDelegate
func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject]) {
if let path = info[.imageURL] as? URL {
if let data = try? Data(contentsOf: path) {
self.imageView.image = UIImage(data: data)
//Now you have Data of a file: so you can convert it to image or gif or send to server or start animation (e.g. Framework JellyGIF)
self.imageView.startGif(with: .data(data))
}
picker.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}