To Camera Roll

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PhotoEditor SDK supports saving photos to the camera roll.

For the sake of this example, we create a photo from a URL and present the photo editor in a modal. Note, that we have to make the current class the delegate of the PhotoEditViewController in order to handle export and cancellation there.

Implementing the Photo Export Delegate Method#

When a photo export is successful the method photoEditViewControllerDidFinish is invoked on the delegate class and a PhotoEditorResult object passed as argument. The result.output.data attribute will contain the output image data, including all EXIF information in the format specified in your editor's configuration.

If no modifications have been made to the photo and the Photo object that was passed to the editor's initializer was created using Photo(data:) or Photo(url:) we will not process the photo at all and simply forward it to this delegate method. If the Photo object that was passed to the editor's initializer was created using Photo(image:), it will be processed and returned in the format specified in your editor's configuration.

If you want to ensure that the original photo is always reencoded, even if no modifications have been made to it, you can set PhotoEditViewControllerOptions.forceExport to true, in which case result.output.data will always point to a newly generated photo.

Request Authorization#

In order to access a user's camera roll we have to request access using the PHPhotoLibrary. We check the status that is passed to the closure to ascertain whether authorization has been granted and handle the case when it is denied. In a production app you would display an alert explicitly requesting that the user edit their settings to grant access.

Add to Shared Library#

Once access has been granted, we can perform changes in the shared photo library. To that end we create a PHAssetCreationRequest and invoke the addResource method passing the photo data.

Finally, we handle the completion of the change operation. Accessing the status arguments success and error allows us to log errors and display messages to our users before we dispatch to main queue and dismiss the editor.


import PhotoEditorSDK
import Photos
import UIKit

class SavePhotoToCameraRollSwift: Example, PhotoEditViewControllerDelegate {
  override func invokeExample() {
    // Create a `Photo` from a URL to an image in the app bundle.
    let photo = Photo(url: Bundle.main.url(forResource: "LA", withExtension: "jpg")!)

    // Create and present the photo editor. Make this class the delegate of it to handle export and cancelation.
    let photoEditViewController = PhotoEditViewController(photoAsset: photo)
    photoEditViewController.delegate = self
    photoEditViewController.modalPresentationStyle = .fullScreen
    presentingViewController?.present(photoEditViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)
  }

  // MARK: - PhotoEditViewControllerDelegate

  func photoEditViewControllerShouldStart(_ photoEditViewController: PhotoEditViewController, task: PhotoEditorTask) -> Bool {
    // Implementing this method is optional. You can perform additional validation and interrupt the process by returning `false`.
    true
  }

  func photoEditViewControllerDidFinish(_ photoEditViewController: PhotoEditViewController, result: PhotoEditorResult) {
    // After the output image is done processing, this delegate method will be called.
    //
    // The `result.output.data` attribute will contain the output image data, including all EXIF information in the format specified in your editor's configuration.
    //
    // If *no modifications* have been made to the image and the `Photo` object that was passed to the editor's initializer
    // was created using `Photo(data:)` or `Photo(url:)` we will not process the image at all and simply forward it to this delegate method.
    // If the `Photo` object that was passed to the editor's initializer was created using `Photo(image:)`, it will be processed and returned
    // in the format specified in your editor's configuration.
    //
    // You can set `PhotoEditViewControllerOptions.forceExport` to `true` in which case the image will be passed through our
    // rendering pipeline in any case, even without any modifications applied.

    // Request access to save to the user's camera roll.
    PHPhotoLibrary.requestAuthorization(for: .addOnly) { [weak self] status in
      if status != .authorized {
        // Authorization hasn't been granted. In production you could now for example show an alert asking the user
        // to open their Settings.app to grant permissions. Dismissing the editor.
        print("Authorization to write to the camera roll has not been granted.")
        self?.presentingViewController?.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
        return
      }

      // Perform changes in the shared photo library.
      PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges {
        // Create a `PHAssetCreationRequest` and add the image data.
        let assetCreationRequest = PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset()
        assetCreationRequest.addResource(with: .photo, data: result.output.data, options: nil)
      } completionHandler: { success, error in
        if success {
          print("Successfully saved photo to camera roll.")
        } else if let error = error {
          print("Error saving photo to camera roll: \(error)")
        }

        // Dispatching to the main queue and dismissing the editor.
        DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
          self?.presentingViewController?.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
        }
      }
    }
  }

  func photoEditViewControllerDidFail(_ photoEditViewController: PhotoEditViewController, error: PhotoEditorError) {
    // There was an error generating the photo.
    print(error.localizedDescription)
    // Dismissing the editor.
    presentingViewController?.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
  }

  func photoEditViewControllerDidCancel(_ photoEditViewController: PhotoEditViewController) {
    // The user tapped on the cancel button within the editor. Dismissing the editor.
    presentingViewController?.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
  }
}