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iOS

Does anyone know how to show an image from URL with Swift?

I am trying to show an external Image from an URL.

2 Answers

Daniel Sattler
Daniel Sattler
4,867 Points

There are several ways to get this done.

Async:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue( DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), {

var myImage =  UIImage(data: NSData(contentsOfURL: NSURL(string:"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Apple_Swift_Logo.png")))
})

or, as i prefer, a cached async version:

Create a new Class or a new iOS Swift File with this content:

class ImageLoader {

    var cache = NSCache()

    class var sharedLoader : ImageLoader {
        struct Static {
            static let instance : ImageLoader = ImageLoader()
        }
        return Static.instance
    }

    func imageForUrl(urlString: String, completionHandler:(image: UIImage?, url: String) -> ()) {
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND, 0), {()in
            var data: NSData? = self.cache.objectForKey(urlString) as? NSData

            if let goodData = data {
                let image = UIImage(data: goodData)
                dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {() in
                    completionHandler(image: image, url: urlString)
                })
                return
            }

            var downloadTask: NSURLSessionDataTask = NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithURL(NSURL(string: urlString)!, completionHandler: {(data: NSData!, response: NSURLResponse!, error: NSError!) -> Void in
                if (error != nil) {
                    completionHandler(image: nil, url: urlString)
                    return
                }

                if data != nil {
                    let image = UIImage(data: data)
                    self.cache.setObject(data, forKey: urlString)
                    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {() in
                        completionHandler(image: image, url: urlString)
                    })
                    return
                }

            })
            downloadTask.resume()
        })

    }
}

and in your actual viewController file use this:

ImageLoader.sharedLoader.imageForUrl("http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Apple_Swift_Logo.png", completionHandler:{(image: UIImage?, url: String) in
            self.myImage.image = image!
        })

i hope this helps.

That works! Thanks a lot!

The app freezes if the url doesn't return an image! "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Apple_Swift_Logo.png" no longer exists and the app breaks, how do I handle the 404 image links in this code?

Got it!

This is what is creating problem when the link is not found, below I have corrected the code,

ImageLoader.sharedLoader.imageForUrl("http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Apple_Swift_Logo.png", completionHandler:{(image: UIImage?, url: String) in
   self.myImage.image = image
})

Notice that I have removed the ! after "image"

Daniel Sattler
Daniel Sattler
4,867 Points

You are very welcome ;-)

if possible, could you please help me out of this question as well?

https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/importing-a-json-that-contains-imageurl-text

Thanks Daniel.