Taking photo & record video with same button / avfoundation swift

Question

Currently when I tap capture photo button it takes a photo and the preview pops up and I can save the photo to my camera roll.

I want to do the same thing with video, but I am having trouble getting video to record or even know how to get started.

I have used button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleCaptureVideo), for: .touchDown)and it prints "Video is recording..." so I see it working but I don't know what to put in there to get video to actually start recording.

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class cameraController: UIViewController, AVCapturePhotoCaptureDelegate {

let capturePhotoButton: UIButton = {
    let button = UIButton(type: .system)
    button.setImage(#imageLiteral(resourceName: "capture_photo"), for: .normal)
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleCapturePhoto), for: .touchUpInside)
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleCaptureVideo), for: .touchDown)
    return button
}()

let settingsButton: UIButton = {
    let button = UIButton(type: .system)
    button.setImage(#imageLiteral(resourceName: "gear"), for: .normal)
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleSettings), for: .touchUpInside)
    return button
}()

let cameraFlipButton: UIButton = {
    let button = UIButton(type: .system)
    button.setImage(#imageLiteral(resourceName: "right_arrow_shadow"), for: .normal)
    button.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleReversingCamera), for: .touchUpInside)
    return button
}()

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    setupCameraSession()
    setupHUD()
    handleSettings()
    handleReversingCamera()

}

override var prefersStatusBarHidden: Bool {
    return true
}

fileprivate func setupHUD() {
    view.addSubview(capturePhotoButton)
    capturePhotoButton.anchor(top: nil, left: nil, bottom: view.bottomAnchor, right: nil, paddingTop: 0, paddingLeft: 0, paddingBottom: 24, paddingRight: 0, width: 80, height: 80)
    capturePhotoButton.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
}

@objc func handleCaptureVideo() {
    print("Video is recording...")

}

@objc func handleCapturePhoto() {
    print("Capturing Photo...")

    let settings = AVCapturePhotoSettings()
    guard let previewFormatType = settings.availablePreviewPhotoPixelFormatTypes.first else { return }
    settings.previewPhotoFormat = [kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey as String: previewFormatType]

    output.capturePhoto(with: settings, delegate: self)

}

@objc func handleReversingCamera() {
    view.addSubview(cameraFlipButton)
    cameraFlipButton.anchor(top: nil, left: nil, bottom: view.bottomAnchor, right: view.rightAnchor, paddingTop: 0, paddingLeft: 0, paddingBottom: 48, paddingRight: 24, width: 50, height: 50)
    print("Camera just flipped...")

}

@objc func handleSettings() {
    view.addSubview(settingsButton)
    settingsButton.anchor(top: view.topAnchor, left: view.leftAnchor, bottom: nil, right: nil, paddingTop: 12, paddingLeft: 12, paddingBottom: 0, paddingRight: 0, width: 50, height: 50)
    let goToSettings = settingsViewController()
    let settingsController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: goToSettings)
    present(settingsController, animated: true, completion: nil)
    print("Settings Opened Up...")

}


func photoOutput(_ captureOutput: AVCapturePhotoOutput, didFinishProcessingPhoto photoSampleBuffer:
    CMSampleBuffer?, previewPhoto previewPhotoSampleBuffer: CMSampleBuffer?, resolvedSettings: AVCaptureResolvedPhotoSettings, bracketSettings: AVCaptureBracketedStillImageSettings?, error: Error?) {

    let imageData = AVCapturePhotoOutput.jpegPhotoDataRepresentation(forJPEGSampleBuffer: photoSampleBuffer!, previewPhotoSampleBuffer: previewPhotoSampleBuffer!)

    let previewImage = UIImage(data: imageData!)

    let containerView = PreviewPhotoContainerView()
    containerView.previewImageView.image = previewImage
    view.addSubview(containerView)
    containerView.anchor(top: view.topAnchor, left: view.leftAnchor, bottom: view.bottomAnchor, right: view.rightAnchor, paddingTop: 0, paddingLeft: 0, paddingBottom: 0, paddingRight: 0, width: 0, height: 0)

   /* let previewImageView = UIImageView(image: previewImage)
    view.addSubview(previewImageView)
    previewImageView.anchor(top: view.topAnchor, left: view.leftAnchor, bottom: view.bottomAnchor, right: view.rightAnchor, paddingTop: 0, paddingLeft: 0, paddingBottom: 0, paddingRight: 0, width: 0, height: 0)


    print("Did finish processing sample image buffer") */
}



// Capture Photo
let output = AVCapturePhotoOutput()
fileprivate func setupCameraSession() {
    let captureSession = AVCaptureSession()

    // 1. Setup Inputs

    let captureDevice = AVCaptureDevice.default(for: AVMediaType.video)

    do {
      let input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: captureDevice!)
        if captureSession.canAddInput(input) {
        captureSession.addInput(input)
        }
    } catch let err {
        print("Could not print camera input:", err)
    }

    // 2. Setup Output
    if captureSession.canAddOutput(output) {
          captureSession.addOutput(output)
    }
    // 3. Setup Output Preview
    let previewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: captureSession)
    previewLayer.frame = view.frame
    view.layer.addSublayer(previewLayer)
    previewLayer.videoGravity = .resizeAspectFill

    captureSession.startRunning()




}

Answer 1

You need to use AVCaptureMovieFileOutput and add it to your capture session. To use the same button - you could have a long tap gesture recognizer on the button and start recording when long tap and stop recording when releasing the long tap. Something like Instagram stories.

Step 1

Add movie file output

var movieFileOutput = AVCaptureMovieFileOutput()
captureSession?.addOutput(movieFileOutput)

Step 2

Add long press gesture to your button

let longPressGesture = UILongPressGestureRecognizer.init(target: self, action: #selector(handleLongPress))
self.capturePhotoButton.addGestureRecognizer(longPressGesture);

Step 3

Start and stop recording video on long tap

func handleLongPress(gestureRecognizer: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {

        if gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerState.began {
            debugPrint("long press started")
            let documentsURL = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask)[0] as URL
            let filePath = documentsURL.appendingPathComponent("tempMovie.mp4")
            if FileManager.default.fileExists(atPath: filePath.absoluteString) {
                do {
                    try FileManager.default.removeItem(at: filePath)
                }
                catch {
                    // exception while deleting old cached file
                    // ignore error if any
                }
            }
            movieFileOutput?.startRecording(toOutputFileURL: filePath, recordingDelegate: self)
        }
        else if gestureRecognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerState.ended {
            debugPrint("longpress ended")
            movieFileOutput?.stopRecording()
        }
}