Question

I have a custom cell with a thumbnail image, which the user can select from their photo albums. I know that saving images to Core Data will result in poor performance, and I should use the file system.

Anyone recommend some good tutorials on this. What exactly should I store in core data, if I am not storing the image there.

I will be storing the larger image as well, not just the thumbnail.

Answer 1

UIImage*image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"the image you wish to save.jpg"];

//build the path for your image on the filesystem
NSArray *dirPath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *docsDir = [dirPath objectAtIndex:0];
NSString* photoName = @"imageName.jpg";
NSString *photoPath = [docsDir stringByAppendingPathComponent:photoName];

//get the imageData from your UIImage
float imageCompression = 0.5;
NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, imageCompression);

//save the image                  
if(![imageData writeToFile:path atomically:YES]){
    return FALSE;
}

//store the imagePath to your model
photoModal.filePathImage = photoPath;

TIPS:

• Avoid duplicate names so you don’t override exisitng files (don’t worry you’ll get a warning)
• Remember to delete the photo when the model is being deleted
• Build a logical path and folder structure that matches your model, e.g – album.photo should have a folder named album and in it you should store the files, helps when you delete the album model