How to create and save specific photo album using UIActivityViewController in iOS - ios

I want to create custom photo album and save photo to specific album in iOS 7. and I found iOS save photo in an app specific album using ALAssetsLibrary.
But I don't know how to do it using UIActivityViewController.
NSArray* actItems = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: image, nil];
UIActivityViewController *activityView = [[UIActivityViewController alloc]
initWithActivityItems:actItems
applicationActivities:nil];
[activityView setCompletionHandler:^(NSString *activityType, BOOL completed)
{
if ([activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeSaveToCameraRoll])
{
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"#Saved_title", nil)
message:NSLocalizedString(#"#Saved_message2", nil)
delegate:self
cancelButtonTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"OK", nil)
otherButtonTitles: nil];
[alert show];
}
}];

I realize the question is a few months old and that the OP may have moved on, but I needed to do exactly this, but didn't find another solution, and needed to come up with my own.
It's not fool-proof, as if there are multiple copies of the video/image in Camera Roll that you're wanting to copy, it will copy all of them, which may or may not be desired. Also, for my purposes, I'm considering maintaining a persistent list of asset URLs that I've written to the custom album so that I skip that asset in the future, but I haven't yet coded it because, if the user removes the video/image from the custom album, it'd be nearly impossible to update that list without more iteration through asset groups: something I'd like to avoid.
Last disclaimer: I haven't tested this a whole ton yet, but it works for my purposes, so hopefully someone else out there can benefit from it.
I augmented Marin Todorov's ALAssetsLibrary+CustomPhotoAlbum category, which I found here: https://github.com/yusenhan/Smooth-Line-View/tree/master/ALAssetsLibrary%2BCustomPhotoAlbum. Note: there is no license information provided there, so I'm assuming that modifying the source for this category is ok.
Here is my method which sets up and displays the UIActivityViewController:
- (void)showActivitySheet:(NSString *)path {
NSURL *newURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSArray *itemsToShare = #[newURL];
UIActivityViewController *activityVC = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:itemsToShare applicationActivities:nil];
activityVC.excludedActivityTypes = #[UIActivityTypePrint, UIActivityTypeAssignToContact, UIActivityTypeAddToReadingList];
// Once the OS has finished with whatever the user wants to do with it,
// we'll begin figuring out if we need to save it to the Album, too!
[activityVC setCompletionHandler:^(NSString *activityType, BOOL completed) {
// If the user selected "Save to Camera Roll"
if ([activityType isEqualToString:UIActivityTypeSaveToCameraRoll]) {
ALAssetsLibrary *lib = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];
NSURL *tempUrl = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
// saveMovie: below is a method I added to the category, but you can use saveImage:,
// which you'll also likely want to add some kind of parameter to so, in the category,
// you know when you only want to copy to the Album instead of the Album AND Camera Roll
[lib saveMovie:tempUrl toAlbum:#"CUSTOM ALBUM NAME"
withCompletionBlock:^(NSURL *url, NSError *error) {
if (error) {
NSLog(#"Error writing movie to custom album: %#", error.debugDescription);
}
}
onlyWriteToCustomAlbum:YES];
}
}];
[self presentViewController:activityVC animated:YES completion:nil];
}
Here is code you can add to the saveImage: method in the ALAssetsLibrary+CustomPhotoAlbum category so you can save it to your custom Album, too! You could execute this portion only on the YES case of the BOOL which you'll want to add to the category.
NSData *dataToCompareTo = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url]; // This data represents the image/movie which you want to save into the custom album. The one you handed to the UIActivityViewController.
// Note use of self, as this is a category on ALAssetsLibrary; also, this
// assumes that you've already written the photo to the Camera Roll, which
// should be automatically handled by the OS, if the user hit the "Save" button
// on the UIActivityViewController.
// Enumerate through Camera Roll/Saved Photos group.
[self enumerateGroupsWithTypes:ALAssetsGroupSavedPhotos
usingBlock:^(ALAssetsGroup *group, BOOL *stop) {
// Enumerate the assets in each group.
[group enumerateAssetsUsingBlock:^(ALAsset *result, NSUInteger index, BOOL *stop) {
ALAssetRepresentation *rep = [result defaultRepresentation];
// If the asset isn't the same size as the source image/movie
// it shouldn't be the same. Check the size first, since it
// is a less costly operation than byte checking the data itself.
if ([rep size] == [dataToCompareTo length]) {
Byte *buffer = malloc([NSNumber numberWithLongLong:rep.size].unsignedLongValue);
NSUInteger buffered = [rep getBytes:buffer fromOffset:0.0 length:[NSNumber numberWithLongLong:rep.size].unsignedLongValue error:nil];
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithBytesNoCopy:buffer length:buffered freeWhenDone:YES];
// If the buffer has more than the null-termination char, free it! I'm doing this in case the above call to dataWithBytesNoCopy fails to free() the buffer.
if (sizeof(buffer) > 4) {
free(buffer);
}
// Ensure they are the same by comparing the NSData instances.
if ([data isEqualToData:dataToCompareTo]) {
NSLog(#"they are the same!!");
[self addAssetURL:[rep url]
toAlbum:albumName
withMovieCompletionBlock:completionBlock];
} else {
NSLog(#"they are different");
}
}
}];
} failureBlock:^(NSError *error) {
NSLog(#"Failed to write to custom album!");
}];
Hope it helps! TLDR? Thought so! ;-)

Related

Obj-C Check if image already exists in Photos gallery

In my app I have to implement save image feature. I have managed saving like this:
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:actualBackground];
UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(
image, self,
#selector(thisImage:hasBeenSavedInPhotoAlbumWithError:usingContextInfo:),
nil);
/* ... */
- (void)thisImage:(UIImage *)image
hasBeenSavedInPhotoAlbumWithError:(NSError *)error
usingContextInfo:(void *)ctxInfo {
if (!error){
UIImagePickerController *picker = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
[self presentViewController:picker animated:YES completion:nil];
}
}
Unfortunately I have to check if file already exists to prevent redundant saving. Also this is necessary because saving multiple times the same image don't override one file, but it creates copy of it...
Do you know how to solve that problem?
SOLUTION:
According to Shravya Boggarapu answer I'm storing assetUrl in my NSUserDefaults. Complete code:
- (IBAction)onDownloadClick:(UIButton *)sender {
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:actualBackground];
NSString *key = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"assetsUrl %#", actualBackground];
NSString *savedValue =
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:key];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:savedValue];
if (url != nil) {
PHFetchResult *fetch =
[PHAsset fetchAssetsWithALAssetURLs:[NSArray arrayWithObject:url]
options:nil];
if ([fetch count]) {
UIAlertView *myAlert = [[UIAlertView alloc]
initWithTitle:nil
message:NSLocalizedString(#"Already downloaded", nil)
delegate:self
cancelButtonTitle:#"OK"
otherButtonTitles:nil];
[myAlert show];
return;
}
}
ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];
[library
writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:image.CGImage
orientation:(ALAssetOrientation)image.imageOrientation
completionBlock:^(NSURL *assetURL, NSError *error) {
[library assetForURL:assetURL
resultBlock:^(ALAsset *asset) {
NSLog(#"assetURL %#", assetURL);
NSString *ass = [assetURL absoluteString];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults]
setObject:ass
forKey:key];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
UIAlertView *myAlert = [[UIAlertView alloc]
initWithTitle:nil
message:NSLocalizedString(
#"Image downloaded", nil)
delegate:self
cancelButtonTitle:#"OK"
otherButtonTitles:nil];
[myAlert show];
}
failureBlock:^(NSError *error){
}];
}];
}
Hope it will help somebody.
I have a solution but not one that applies to every situation.
The thing about saving image to camera roll is that there is an assetURL created when you add the image to camera roll. Also, this asset URL is new every time, so if you save to camera roll, it will create a copy. The name of the image is also not retained.
If the image is added to the camera roll through your app in the first place, then you can store the assetURL as part of image information.
In my app, a dictionary is maintained for every image containing some critical info. This includes the assetURL of the image if it is saved to camera roll.
Once you have the URL, you can check its existence by using fetchAssetsWithALAssetURLs:options: function.
If the URL is nil or the asset when fetched is nil, it means that the image does not exist in the camera roll. So you can add anew.
There is no easy way to compare two images and if you found one that will surly a heavy task, instead of this we can compare image's meta data which we can write it to image and also read it from images.
You can use this repo for that
And ALAssetLibrary also have some properties to access an images meta info. If you google with this you will surly get some.
Like this one

Sharing video with airdrop

I am having some trouble in sharing videos with airdrop. So, i am using the AssetLibrary like this :
else if (conformsToVideo) {
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Asset Loaded" message:#"Video One Loaded"
delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:#"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil];
[alert show];
self.mediaAsset = [AVAsset assetWithURL:[info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaURL]];
UIActivityViewController * controller = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:#[self.mediaAsset] applicationActivities:nil];
[self presentViewController:controller animated:YES completion:nil];
}
Maybe this is just not the way to do it, I don't know and I didn't find any tutorial about it so if you have one, I will gladly take it.
Now my problem is that when i select a video everything works fine until the UIActivityViewController pops out , i don't have any error but I can't use airdrop (nor any other service BTW) the only thing I can do is press the Cancel button of the UIAVController.
I am using iOS 8.3.
Thanks for your help
Ok, eventually I found an answer, maybe not the best but I put it there in case it helps someone cause I didn't find much on sharing video with airdrop :
NSURL * path = [info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerReferenceURL];
BOOL conformsToVideo = (UTTypeConformsTo((__bridge_retained CFStringRef) mediaType, kUTTypeAudiovisualContent));
if (conformsToVideo) {
[self.library assetForURL:path
resultBlock:^(ALAsset *asset) {
ALAssetRepresentation* assetRepresentation = [asset defaultRepresentation];
NSString* outputDirectory = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", NSTemporaryDirectory()];
NSString* pathToCopy = [outputDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", assetRepresentation.filename]];
NSUInteger size = (NSUInteger)assetRepresentation.size;
NSMutableData* data = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:size];
NSUInteger bytesRead = [assetRepresentation getBytes:data.mutableBytes fromOffset:0 length:size error:nil];
NSURL * url = nil;
if ([data writeToFile:pathToCopy atomically:YES])
{
NSLog(#"Ok");
url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:pathToCopy];
UIActivityViewController * controller = [[UIActivityViewController alloc] initWithActivityItems:#[url] applicationActivities:nil];
[self presentViewController:controller animated:YES completion:nil];
}
} failureBlock:^(NSError *error) {
NSLog(#"Failure to use the ALAsset");
}
];
}
I found the solution using this question : Share a video from asset library with AirDrop fails
I am merely adding the previous steps to the code given there, hope it can be useful.

Instagram Video iPhone Hook

The current best solution:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/21888830/1786820
I am trying to do one better, by opening the Instagram app with a preselected video file from the PhotoRoll, and a preloaded caption. In the Flipagram app, they do just this. When you hit share on a video, they save it your camera roll, suggest a caption, then direct to the Instagram app photo selection screen, with the video preselected. Even if the video is not the latest media in the PhotoRoll, it correctly highlights the correct video, along the caption prepared in the Flipagram app.
Is this possibly an undocumented iPhone hook?
Any help is appreciated.
I came up with the idea to allow my app to accept the instagram:// URL schema. The hook from Flipagram opened up in my app as the following:
instagram://library?AssetPath=assets-library%3A%2F%2Fasset%2Fasset.mp4%3Fid%3D8864C466-A45C-4C48-B76F-E3C421711E9D%26ext%3Dmp4&InstagramCaption=Some%20Preloaded%20Caption
The undocumented iPhone hook that allows you to automatically select assets from the iPhones photo roll, and preload a caption for the video. This should give you the same user experience that Flipagrams app has with sharing a video to Instagram.
NSURL *videoFilePath = ...; // Your local path to the video
NSString *caption = #"Some Preloaded Caption";
ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];
[library writeVideoAtPathToSavedPhotosAlbum:[NSURL URLWithString:videoFilePath] completionBlock:^(NSURL *assetURL, NSError *error) {
NSURL *instagramURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"instagram://library?AssetPath=%#&InstagramCaption=%#",[assetURL absoluteString].percentEscape,caption.percentEscape]];
if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:instagramURL]) {
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:instagramURL];
}
}];
Works great!
Update:
Instagram has removed the ability to pass the caption to their app. The best solution now it to just copy the desired caption to the paste board.
The answer is that it is not pulling the video from the camera roll at all, it might just look like it is.
Documentation here: http://instagram.com/developer/mobile-sharing/iphone-hooks/
The relevant bit is the bottom section "Document Interaction".
You would do this by doing something like this:
NSString *filePath = [NSTemporaryDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"instagram.igo"];
NSData *data = // set this yourself
NSError *error = nil;
if (! [data writeToFile:filePath options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:&error])
{
// error here
}
self.documentInteractionController = [UIDocumentInteractionController interactionControllerWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath]];
self.documentInteractionController.delegate = self;
self.documentInteractionController.UTI = #"com.instagram.exclusivegram";
self.documentInteractionController.annotation = #{ #"InstagramCaption" : #"caption text here" };
const BOOL couldOpen = [self.documentInteractionController presentOpenInMenuFromRect:CGRectZero inView:myView animated:YES];
Set the data, the caption, and the view to present from yourself. Notice the UIDocumentInteractionController is also a property. It should be retained somewhere and not just a local variable in a method because it needs to exist outside of that scope when the method completes.

iOS - Auto-Import new images from image gallery

There are many examples to import one or many images from gallery using UIImagePicker, however I want to detect new images automatically (just like dropbox) and import new images inside my app. Is there any way I can detect new images without opening imagepicker? if not what are the possibilities? Thank.
You can easily get all images information without UIImagePicker by using ALAssetLibrary it will gives you all images and video information, you can store it locally in coredata and perodically check it if there is an image/video info from ALAssetLibrary which is not in you coredata hanse it’s a new image/video.
ALAssetLibrary example code from my personal app and it works prefectoly
ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];
[library enumerateGroupsWithTypes:ALAssetsGroupSavedPhotos usingBlock:^(ALAssetsGroup *group, BOOL *stop)
{
[group enumerateAssetsUsingBlock:^(ALAsset *alAsset, NSUInteger index, BOOL *innerStop)
{
if (alAsset)
{
ALAssetRepresentation *representation =[alAsset defaultRepresentation];
NSURL *url = [representation url];
NSString *assetType=[alAsset valueForProperty:ALAssetPropertyType];
// You can store this info in coreData
}
}];
} failureBlock: ^(NSError *error)
{
UIAlertView *alrt = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Permission Denied" message:#"Apple restrictions prevent our app from accessing your Library without your permission. In order to access your media you must enable privacy setting " delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:#"Ok" otherButtonTitles:nil];
[alrt show];
}
];

Check if an image is already in gallery and retrieve it

I need to know if an image is already in the iOS gallery. I am developing a messaging client app and, in my chat list, I am able to download images/videos of incoming messages when I tap into the image thumbnail.
The issue is, when I tap in the thumbnail, I download and save that image into the iOS photo gallery, but if I tap again I don't want to download and save it again, I want to retrieve it from the photo gallery.
Resuming, I want to look for the image in the photo gallery and retrieve it.
Here is my code to save the image in my custom photo album using ALAssetsLibrary:
[self writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:image.CGImage orientation:(ALAssetOrientation)image.imageOrientation completionBlock:
^(NSURL* assetURL, NSError* error)
{
if (error!=nil) {
completionBlock(error);
return;
}
//add the asset to the custom photo album
[self addAssetURL: assetURL
toAlbum:albumName
withCompletionBlock:completionBlock];
}
];
-(void)addAssetURL:(NSURL*)assetURL toAlbum:(NSString*)albumName withCompletionBlock:(SaveImageCompletion)completionBlock
{
__block BOOL albumWasFound = NO;
[self enumerateGroupsWithTypes:ALAssetsGroupAlbum
usingBlock:
^(ALAssetsGroup *group, BOOL *stop)
{
if ([albumName compare: [group valueForProperty:ALAssetsGroupPropertyName]]==NSOrderedSame) {
albumWasFound = YES;
[self assetForURL: assetURL
resultBlock:
^(ALAsset *asset)
{
//add photo to the target album
[group addAsset: asset];
completionBlock(nil);
} failureBlock: completionBlock
];
return;
}
if (group==nil && albumWasFound==NO) {
//Target album does not exist, create it
__weak ALAssetsLibrary* weakSelf = self;
[self addAssetsGroupAlbumWithName:albumName
resultBlock:
^(ALAssetsGroup *group)
{
[weakSelf assetForURL: assetURL
resultBlock:
^(ALAsset *asset)
{
//add photo to the newly created album
[group addAsset: asset];
completionBlock(nil);
} failureBlock: completionBlock
];
} failureBlock: completionBlock
];
return;
}
} failureBlock: completionBlock
];
}
Maybe with the assetURL I could do it, but I have been searching in Apple's documentation and I didn't see anything.
Thanks!!
You can get Asset URL after the save process using completion block. You can retrieve the saved image using this Asset URL.
Unfortunately, you can't check file exist in Photolibrary. The reason behind is, the system will automatically embed many extra information with the image while you save in to Photolibrary. example like location, time etc.. So the binary content will be different for same images.
So, you have only one solution. Save the images into document directory and do a file exist using algorithms like CRC, MD5 etc..

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