iPhone - How to create a custom album and give custom names to photos in camera roll programmatically?

Question

I am developing an iPhone photo application, so i need to create a separate album with a name "My Album" in camera roll and i need to save my UIImageView image with custom name for example "My Image.png" inside the newly created directory.

How can i do this?

Answer 1

Since the AssetsLibrary is deprecated, please use the Photos framework instead (iOS 8 and later).

// Deprecated! import AssetsLibrary  // Swift 3.0 let assetsLibrary = ALAssetsLibrary() assetsLibrary.addAssetsGroupAlbum(withName: "NewAlbum", resultBlock: { assetsGroup in     print(assetsGroup == nil ? "Already created" : "Success") }, failureBlock: { error in     print(error) }) 

You can use the shared PHPhotoLibrary object to create new photos but you can't give them specific names because you will be working with assets that need to be managed by the Photos.app. Each asset has specific properties. You can fetch objects, request changes, asset/thumbnail loading and caching, etc.

To create a custom album, please use the PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest.creationRequestForAssetCollection(withTitle:).

Brief example:

// Swift 3.0 func createPhotoLibraryAlbum(name: String) {     var albumPlaceholder: PHObjectPlaceholder?     PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges({         // Request creating an album with parameter name         let createAlbumRequest = PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest.creationRequestForAssetCollection(withTitle: name)         // Get a placeholder for the new album         albumPlaceholder = createAlbumRequest.placeholderForCreatedAssetCollection     }, completionHandler: { success, error in         if success {             guard let placeholder = albumPlaceholder else {                 fatalError("Album placeholder is nil")             }              let fetchResult = PHAssetCollection.fetchAssetCollections(withLocalIdentifiers: [placeholder.localIdentifier], options: nil)             guard let album: PHAssetCollection = fetchResult.firstObject else {                 // FetchResult has no PHAssetCollection                 return             }              // Saved successfully!             print(album.assetCollectionType)         }         else if let e = error {             // Save album failed with error         }         else {             // Save album failed with no error         }     }) } 

Don't forget to import Photos library.

To create a new photo asset on that album, please use the PHAssetChangeRequest.creationRequestForAsset(from:).

// Swift 3.0 func createPhotoOnAlbum(photo: UIImage, album: PHAssetCollection) {     PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges({         // Request creating an asset from the image         let createAssetRequest = PHAssetChangeRequest.creationRequestForAsset(from: photo)         // Request editing the album         guard let albumChangeRequest = PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest(for: album) else {             // Album change request has failed             return         }         // Get a placeholder for the new asset and add it to the album editing request         guard let photoPlaceholder = createAssetRequest.placeholderForCreatedAsset else {             // Photo Placeholder is nil             return         }         albumChangeRequest.addAssets([photoPlaceholder] as NSArray)     }, completionHandler: { success, error in         if success {             // Saved successfully!         }         else if let e = error {             // Save photo failed with error         }         else {             // Save photo failed with no error         }     }) } 

UPDATE:

We need to request access to be able to use the Photos library:

PHPhotoLibrary.requestAuthorization { status in      switch status {      ... } 

As of iOS 10 and above we also need to add entry for access in the target .plist file for "Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description":

<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key> <string>Access to photos is needed to provide app features</string> 

Answer 2

You can create a custom album and add an image pretty easy with these lines of code in iOS:

// Create the new album. __block PHObjectPlaceholder *myAlbum; [[PHPhotoLibrary sharedPhotoLibrary] performChanges:^{     PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest *changeRequest = [PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest creationRequestForAssetCollectionWithTitle:title];     myAlbum = changeRequest.placeholderForCreatedAssetCollection; } completionHandler:^(BOOL success, NSError *error) {     if (success) {         PHFetchResult *fetchResult = [PHAssetCollection fetchAssetCollectionsWithLocalIdentifiers:@[myAlbum.localIdentifier] options:nil];         PHAssetCollection *assetCollection = fetchResult.firstObject;          [[PHPhotoLibrary sharedPhotoLibrary] performChanges:^{             PHAssetChangeRequest *assetChangeRequest = [PHAssetChangeRequest creationRequestForAssetFromImage:image];              // add asset             PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest *assetCollectionChangeRequest = [PHAssetCollectionChangeRequest changeRequestForAssetCollection:assetCollection];             [assetCollectionChangeRequest addAssets:@[[assetChangeRequest placeholderForCreatedAsset]]];         } completionHandler:^(BOOL success, NSError *error) {             if (!success) {                 NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);             }         }];     } else {         NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);     } }];