I'm trying to get an image from an URL and it doesn't seem to be working for me. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Here is my code:
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://myurl/mypic.jpg"];
NSString *newIMAGE = [[NSString alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:nil];
cell.image = [UIImage imageNamed:newIMAGE];
When I debug the newIMAGE string is nil so something isn't working there.
What you want is to get the image data, then initialize a UIImage using that data:
NSData * imageData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL: [NSURL URLWithString: @"http://myurl/mypic.jpg"]];
cell.image = [UIImage imageWithData: imageData];
[imageData release];
As requested, here's an asynchronous version:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(0,0), ^{
NSData * data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL: [NSURL URLWithString: @"http://myurl/mypic.jpg"]];
if ( data == nil )
return;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
// WARNING: is the cell still using the same data by this point??
cell.image = [UIImage imageWithData: data];
});
[data release];
});
UITableViewCell *updateCell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]; followed by if (updateCell) ... (and obviously, use this updateCell rather than the original cell for your update of the imageView; 2. Make sure, if doing asynchronously, to initialize the image property for your imageView before you initiate the asynchronous retrieval process; 3. You really should do caching, so it doesn't have to re-retrieve it every time you scroll back to a previously loaded image.
Ok there's a couple of things wrong here:
The conversion from URL (url) to NSString (newImage) is incorrect, what the code actually does there is try to load the contents of "http://myurl/mypic.jpg" into the NSString.
The -imageNamed method takes a string that is a path of a local file, not a URL as an argument.
You need to use an NSData object as an intermediary, like in this example: http://blogs.oreilly.com/digitalmedia/2008/02/creating-an-uiimage-from-a-url.html
the accepted answer asynchronous version worked very slow in my code. an approach using NSOperation worked light years faster. the code provided by Joe Masilotti --> objective - C : Loading image from URL? (and pasted below):
-(void) someMethod {
// set placeholder image
UIImage* memberPhoto = [UIImage imageNamed:@"place_holder_image.png"];
// retrieve image for cell in using NSOperation
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:group.photo_link[indexPath.row]];
[self loadImage:url];
}
- (void)loadImage:(NSURL *)imageURL
{
NSOperationQueue *queue = [NSOperationQueue new];
NSInvocationOperation *operation = [[NSInvocationOperation alloc]
initWithTarget:self
selector:@selector(requestRemoteImage:)
object:imageURL];
[queue addOperation:operation];
}
- (void)requestRemoteImage:(NSURL *)imageURL
{
NSData *imageData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:imageURL];
UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:imageData];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(placeImageInUI:) withObject:image waitUntilDone:YES];
}
- (void)placeImageInUI:(UIImage *)image
{
[self.memberPhotoImage setImage:image];
}
In Swift 3 and 4
let theURL = URL(string:"https://exampleURL.com")
let imagedData = NSData(contentsOf: theURL!)!
let theImage = UIImage(data: imagedData as Data)
cell.theImageView.image = theImage
This will be done in the main thread.
And to perform the same in asynchronous/background thread
DispatchQueue.main.async(){
let theURL = URL(string:"https://exampleURL.com")
let imagedData = NSData(contentsOf: theURL!)!
let theImage = UIImage(data: imagedData as Data)
}
cell.theImageView.image = theImage
Updating upon Jim dovey answer,[data release] is no longer required because in the updated apple guidelines. Memory management is done automatically by ARC (Automatic counting reference) ,
Here is the updated asynchronous call,
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(0,0), ^{
NSData * data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL: [NSURL URLWithString: @"your_URL"]];
if ( data == nil )
return;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
self.your_UIimage.image = [UIImage imageWithData: data];
});
});
