Uploading Images from UIImage Picker onto new Firebase (Swift)

Question

I have a UIImagePicker set up within my app that works fine. I would like to upload a profile picture to Firebase when my UIImage picker has been chosen. Here is my function for when a picture has been selected.

    //image picker did finish code
func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject]) {

    let chosenImage = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as! UIImage
    profilePic.contentMode = .ScaleAspectFill
    profilePic.image = chosenImage
    profilePic.hidden = false
    buttonStack.hidden = true
    changeButtonView.hidden = false
    self.statusLabel.text = "Here is Your Profile Picture"

    dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)


}

The new documentation states that we need to declare a NSURl in order to upload a file. Here is my attempt to find the NSURL of the given file, but it doesn't work. Here is the documentation and a link to it:https://firebase.google.com/docs/storage/ios/upload-files#upload_from_data_in_memory

// File located on disk
let localFile: NSURL = ...
// Create a reference to the file you want to upload
let riversRef = storageRef.child("images/rivers.jpg")

// Upload the file to the path "images/rivers.jpg"
let uploadTask = riversRef.putFile(localFile, metadata: nil) { metadata, error in
  if (error != nil) {
    // Uh-oh, an error occurred!
  } else {
    // Metadata contains file metadata such as size, content-type, and download URL.
    let downloadURL = metadata!.downloadURL
  }
}

Here is my attempt for retrieving the NSURL of the UIImagePicker:

//image picker did finish code
    func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject]) {

        let chosenImage = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as! UIImage
        //getting the object's url
        let imageUrl = info[UIImagePickerControllerReferenceURL] as! NSURL
        let imageName = imageUrl.lastPathComponent
        let documentDir = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.DocumentDirectory, .UserDomainMask, true).first! as String;
        let photoUrl = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: documentDir)
        let localPath = photoUrl.URLByAppendingPathComponent(imageName!)
        self.localFile = localPath

        profilePic.contentMode = .ScaleAspectFill
        profilePic.image = chosenImage
        profilePic.hidden = false
        buttonStack.hidden = true
        changeButtonView.hidden = false
        self.statusLabel.text = "Here is Your Profile Picture"

        dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)


    }

I believe that I am also running into difficulties if the image was taken from the camera instead of the gallery since it is not saved on the device yet. How do I find this image/snapshots's NSURL?

Answer 1

Here is my method to upload and download the user profile photo from firebase storage:

    func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingImage image: UIImage, editingInfo: [String : AnyObject]?) {
    userPhoto.image = image
    dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
    var data = NSData()
    data = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(userPhoto.image!, 0.8)!
    // set upload path
    let filePath = "\(FIRAuth.auth()!.currentUser!.uid)/\("userPhoto")"
    let metaData = FIRStorageMetadata()
    metaData.contentType = "image/jpg"
    self.storageRef.child(filePath).putData(data, metadata: metaData){(metaData,error) in
        if let error = error {
            print(error.localizedDescription)
            return
        }else{
        //store downloadURL
        let downloadURL = metaData!.downloadURL()!.absoluteString
        //store downloadURL at database
    self.databaseRef.child("users").child(FIRAuth.auth()!.currentUser!.uid).updateChildValues(["userPhoto": downloadURL])
        }

        }
                   }

I also store the Image URL into firebase database and check if the user has a profile photo or you might get a crash:

 //get photo back
        
     databaseRef.child("users").child(userID!).observeSingleEventOfType(.Value, withBlock: { (snapshot) in
            // check if user has photo
            if snapshot.hasChild("userPhoto"){
                // set image locatin
                let filePath = "\(userID!)/\("userPhoto")"
                // Assuming a < 10MB file, though you can change that
                self.storageRef.child(filePath).dataWithMaxSize(10*1024*1024, completion: { (data, error) in
                    
                    let userPhoto = UIImage(data: data!)
                    self.userPhoto.image = userPhoto
                })
            }
        })