CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneobjective-cios
Snowman
Snowman

Reputation: 32061

Creating an app that accesses all images in user's Photos for iOS?

I haven't found any documentation on this or seen this done before, but is there anyway I can, instead of just choosing one image with UIImagePicker, load the user's albums, and then after selecting an image, that image displays, but also allows me to scroll left and ride to see all the images before and after that image?

I know I can use a multiple image picker, but that involves importing all the user's photos, and if the user has hundreds of photos, this would take a lot of time. I'm looking for similar functionality to the real photos app- the performance and everything. Any ideas?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 267

Answers (2)

fzwo
fzwo

Reputation: 9902

Yes, you can. Look at the documentation for ALAssetsLibrary. This will allow you to enumerate all the user's image (and video) libraries. From this, you get ALAssets, which you can ask for their default ALAssetRepresentation. This one, in turn, you ask for its CGImage, from which you can create a UIImage.

Enumerating Libraries and Assets is done in blocks, which can easily be done in the background.

Upvotes: 1

Joel Martinez
Joel Martinez

Reputation: 47749

Use the assets library: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/AssetsLibrary/Reference/ALAssetsLibrary_Class/Reference/Reference.html

An instance of ALAssetsLibrary provides access to the videos and photos that are under the control of the Photos application.

The library includes those that are in the Saved Photos album, those coming from iTunes, and those that were directly imported into the device. You use it to retrieve the list of all asset groups and to save images and videos into the Saved Photos album.

note: only available in ios 4+

Upvotes: 1

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