To Base64

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VideoEditor SDK supports saving videos to a Base64 encoded string.

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

Implementing the Video Export Delegate Method#

When a video export is successful the method videoEditViewControllerDidFinish is invoked on the delegate class and a VideoEditorResult object is passed as an argument.

If no modifications have been made to the original video, we will not process the original video at all and also not reencode it. In this case, result.output.url will point to the original video that was passed to the editor, if available.

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

Load Video into Memory#

We create a Data object from this url passing it as contentsOf argument to the constructor. Note that video file sizes can be large and loading them into memory might not be possible.

Once you are done processing this data, we recommend that you delete the temporary file. Here, we first check whether the video file was passed without changes. This check is only necessary when working with the Simulator, since in production the app bundle is read-only.

Convert to Base64 String#

Finally, we convert the Data object to a Base64 encoded string by invoking base64EncodedString on it. This will again increase the amount of memory taken up by the application and the same caveat as above applies.


import UIKit
import VideoEditorSDK

class SaveVideoToBase64Swift: Example, VideoEditViewControllerDelegate {
  override func invokeExample() {
    // Create a `Video` from a URL to a video in the app bundle.
    let video = Video(url: Bundle.main.url(forResource: "Skater", withExtension: "mp4")!)

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

  // MARK: - VideoEditViewControllerDelegate

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

  func videoEditViewControllerDidFinish(_ videoEditViewController: VideoEditViewController, result: VideoEditorResult) {
    // The user exported a new video successfully and the newly generated video is located at `result.output.url`.
    // If **no modifications** have been made to the original video, we will not process the original video at all
    // and also not reencode it. In this case `result.output.url` will point to the original video that was passed to the editor,
    // if available. If you want to ensure that the original video is always reencoded, even if no modifications have
    // been made to it, you can set `VideoEditViewControllerOptions.forceExport` to `true`, in which case `result.output.url` will
    // always point to a newly generated video.

    // Load file into memory. This could fail for large videos.
    // In general we do not recommend loading the whole file into memory,
    // because video files can get quite large. Use this with caution.
    let videoData = try? Data(contentsOf: result.output.url)

    // Delete the video on disk. If the video was passed without rendering, we won't delete the file.
    // In production this check would not be needed because the app bundle is read-only.
    // Unfortunately, with the Simulator it is not read-only so we need to include this check
    // or the example will crash when opened a second time.
    if result.status != .passedWithoutRendering {
      try? FileManager.default.removeItem(at: result.output.url)
    }

    // Convert to Base64 encoded string. Again, this is not recommended for large video files because
    // it will load even more data into memory.
    let base64EncodedString = videoData!.base64EncodedString()

    // You can now use `base64EncodedString` for further processing. Dismissing the editor now.
    print("Received Base64 encoded string with \(base64EncodedString.count) characters")

    presentingViewController?.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
  }

  func videoEditViewControllerDidFail(_ videoEditViewController: VideoEditViewController, error: VideoEditorError) {
    // There was an error generating the video.
    print(error.localizedDescription)
    // Dismissing the editor.
    presentingViewController?.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
  }

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