How to save image from camera/photo library into an array that is to be displayed in a UICollectionView

Question

I realise that this question may be a little broad, but basically all I want to do is use image picker to select a photo by using a camera or within the photo library, and saving that photo to an array. I already know how to populate a collection view with images from assets folder. Just really how to save user images to an array. How do I name each image?

Also, it is preferable if the array could be a global one, so that these images can be accessed elsewhere.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

Why not simple use:

var myImages = [UIImage]()

func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject]) {
    if let yourPickedImage = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as? UIImage {
       myImages.append(yourPickedImage)
    }
   dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}

Edit:

Save Image to Disk:

func saveImage (image: UIImage, path: String ) -> Bool{
    let jpgImageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0)
    let result = jpgImageData!.writeToFile(path, atomically: true) 
    return result
}

func getDocumentsURL() -> NSURL {
    let documentsURL = NSFileManager.defaultManager().URLsForDirectory(.DocumentDirectory, inDomains: .UserDomainMask)[0]
    return documentsURL
}

func fileInDocumentsDirectory(filename: String) -> String 
    let fileURL = getDocumentsURL().URLByAppendingPathComponent(filename)
    return fileURL.path!
}

How to store

let imagePath = fileInDocumentsDirectory(myImageName)
saveImage(yourPickedImage, path: imagePath)

Read

func loadImageFromPath(path: String) -> UIImage? {
    let image = UIImage(contentsOfFile: path)
    return image
}