Question

I need to list the contents of a folder in the app’s documents’ folder and wonder if there exists a component in the iOS frameworks that returns an UIImage or something for a particular file.

So, as the title says; Is there a standard framework that can be used or would I have to roll my own?

Answer 1

Off the top of my head, create an instance of UIDocumentInteractionController, and query its icons property:

- (UIImage *)iconForFile: (NSURL *)fileURL {
    UIDocumentInteractionController *controller = [UIDocumentInteractionController interactionControllerWithURL: fileURL];
    if (controller) {
        return [controller.icons lastObject]; // arbitrary selection--gives you the largest icon in this case
    }

    return nil;
}

I don’t know of a way to get the icon without using UIDocumentInteractionController off the top of my head.

Note that this gives you the document icon for the file, but not a preview of it. There’s no inbuilt preview mechanism in iOS.