Write UIImage along with metadata (EXIF, GPS, TIFF) in iPhone's Photo library
I am developing a project, where the requirements are: - User will open the camera through the application - Upon capturing an Image, some data will be appended to the captured image's metadata. I have gone through some of the forums. I tried to code this logic. I guess, I have reached to the point, but something is missing as I am not able to see the metadata that I am appending to the image. My code is:
- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingImage:(UIImage *)image editingInfo:(NSDictionary *)dictionary
{
[picker dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
NSData *dataOfImageFromGallery = UIImageJPEGRepresentation (image,0.5);
NSLog(@"Image length: %d", [dataOfImageFromGallery length]);
CGImageSourceRef source;
source = CGImageSourceCreateWithData((CFDataRef)dataOfImageFromGallery, NULL);
NSDictionary *metadata = (NSDictionary *) CGImageSourceCopyPropertiesAtIndex(source, 0, NULL);
NSMutableDictionary *metadataAsMutable = [[metadata mutableCopy]autorelease];
[metadata release];
NSMutableDictionary *EXIFDictionary = [[[metadataAsMutable objectForKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary]mutableCopy]autorelease];
NSMutableDictionary *GPSDictionary = [[[metadataAsMutable objectForKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary]mutableCopy]autorelease];
if(!EXIFDictionary)
{
//if the image does not have an EXIF dictionary (not all images do), then create one for us to use
EXIFDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
}
if(!GPSDictionary)
{
GPSDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
}
//Setup GPS dict -
//I am appending my custom data just to test the logic……..
[GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.1] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude];
[GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:2.2] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude];
[GPSDictionary setValue:@"lat_ref" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
[GPSDictionary setValue:@"lon_ref" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
[GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:3.3] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude];
[GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithShort:4.4] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitudeRef];
[GPSDictionary setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:5.5] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSImgDirection];
[GPSDictionary setValue:@"_headingRef" forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSImgDirectionRef];
[EXIFDictionary setValue:@"xml_user_comment" forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifUserComment];
//add our modified EXIF data back into the image’s metadata
[metadataAsMutable setObject:EXIFDictionary forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyExifDictionary];
[metadataAsMutable setObject:GPSDictionary forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary];
CFStringRef UTI = CGImageSourceGetType(source);
NSMutableData *dest_data = [NSMutableData data];
CGImageDestinationRef destination = CGImageDestinationCreateWithData((CFMutableDataRef) dest_data, UTI, 1, NULL);
if(!destination)
{
NSLog(@"--------- Could not create image destination---------");
}
CGImageDestinationAddImageFromSource(destination, source, 0, (CFDictionaryRef) metadataAsMutable);
BOOL success = NO;
success = CGImageDestinationFinalize(destination);
if(!success)
{
NSLog(@"-------- could not create data from image destination----------");
}
UIImage * image1 = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:dest_data];
UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum (image1, self, nil, nil);
}
Kindly, help me to do this and get something positive. Look at the last line, am I saving the image with my metadata in it? The image is getting saved at that point, but the metadata that I am appending to it, is not getting saved.
Thanks in advance.
Apple has updated their article addressing this issue (Technical Q&A QA1622). If you're using an older version of Xcode, you may still have the article that says, more or less, tough luck, you can't do this without low-level parsing of the image data.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#qa/qa1622/_index.html
I adapted the code there as follows:
- (void) saveImage:(UIImage *)imageToSave withInfo:(NSDictionary *)info
{
// Get the assets library
ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc] init];
// Get the image metadata (EXIF & TIFF)
NSMutableDictionary * imageMetadata = [[info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerMediaMetadata] mutableCopy];
// add GPS data
CLLocation * loc = <•••>; // need a location here
if ( loc ) {
[imageMetadata setObject:[self gpsDictionaryForLocation:loc] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSDictionary];
}
ALAssetsLibraryWriteImageCompletionBlock imageWriteCompletionBlock =
^(NSURL *newURL, NSError *error) {
if (error) {
NSLog( @"Error writing image with metadata to Photo Library: %@", error );
} else {
NSLog( @"Wrote image %@ with metadata %@ to Photo Library",newURL,imageMetadata);
}
};
// Save the new image to the Camera Roll
[library writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:[imageToSave CGImage]
metadata:imageMetadata
completionBlock:imageWriteCompletionBlock];
[imageMetadata release];
[library release];
}
and I call this from
imagePickerController:didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:
which is the delegate method for the image picker.
I use a helper method (adapted from GusUtils) to build a GPS metadata dictionary from a location:
- (NSDictionary *) gpsDictionaryForLocation:(CLLocation *)location
{
CLLocationDegrees exifLatitude = location.coordinate.latitude;
CLLocationDegrees exifLongitude = location.coordinate.longitude;
NSString * latRef;
NSString * longRef;
if (exifLatitude < 0.0) {
exifLatitude = exifLatitude * -1.0f;
latRef = @"S";
} else {
latRef = @"N";
}
if (exifLongitude < 0.0) {
exifLongitude = exifLongitude * -1.0f;
longRef = @"W";
} else {
longRef = @"E";
}
NSMutableDictionary *locDict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[locDict setObject:location.timestamp forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSTimeStamp];
[locDict setObject:latRef forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitudeRef];
[locDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:exifLatitude] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLatitude];
[locDict setObject:longRef forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitudeRef];
[locDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:exifLongitude] forKey:(NSString *)kCGImagePropertyGPSLongitude];
[locDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:location.horizontalAccuracy] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSDOP];
[locDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:location.altitude] forKey:(NSString*)kCGImagePropertyGPSAltitude];
return [locDict autorelease];
}
So far this is working well for me on iOS4 and iOS5 devices.
Update: and iOS6/iOS7 devices. I built a simple project using this code:
https://github.com/5teev/MetaPhotoSave
The function: UIImageWriteToSavePhotosAlbum
only writes the image data.
You need to read up on the ALAssetsLibrary
The method you ultimately want to call is:
ALAssetsLibrary *library = [[ALAssetsLibrary alloc]
[library writeImageToSavedPhotosAlbum:metadata:completionBlock];