I’ve been banging my head up against a wall today over something that should be easy.
What was I trying to do?
Well, I’ve been working this week on a new app for TweetPhoto.com that will allow you to post photos from your iPhone to the TweetPhoto web service. In fact I wrote about it here.
I thought I had one problem licked – sending geo tag information to the API call. As it turns out, I had only HALF the problem licked.
Initially, I was using the phone’s CoreLocation services to determine location and upload that to the API. This is totally cool when you are using the camera.
Not so much when uploading photos taken elsewhere. Ouch.
OK. No problem. I know the phone stores EXIF (exchangeable image file format) information with the JPEGS it takes, so it should be a slam dunk to grab that from th image picker control, right?
Wrong, grasshopper (with props to the recently deceased David Carradine).
The image picker STRIPS all EXIF information from photos passed in from the camera roll, so you, Mr. and / or Mrs. Developer, are screwed.
OK. I’m a fart smeller. I should be able to figure this out.
Hey – what if I can find where the camera roll is on the iPhone, enumerate it directly and read the image files from there?
Oh. Heavenly Days. That is a GREAT idea.
So, I trot out this gem, feeling like I have the problem close to being solved:
—
-(void)getCoords:(UIImage *)image lat:(float*)latAddr lon:(float*)lonAddr {
NSDirectoryEnumerator *enumerator = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] enumeratorAtPath: @”var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE”];
NSAutoreleasePool *innerPool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
id curObject;
*latAddr = 0;
*lonAddr = 0;
while ((curObject = [enumerator nextObject])) {
if ([[curObject pathExtension] isEqualToString:@”JPG”]) {
NSData * fileContents = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:[NSString stringWithFormat:@”var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE/%@”, curObject]];
UIImageView * seeMe = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 480)];
seeMe.image = [UIImage imageWithData:fileContents];
// First, we’ll get a JPEG representation of the image
EXFJpeg* jpegScanner = [[EXFJpeg alloc] init];
[jpegScanner scanImageData:fileContents];
EXFGPSLoc * lat = [jpegScanner.exifMetaData tagValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:EXIF_GPSLatitude]];
NSString * latRef = [jpegScanner.exifMetaData tagValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:EXIF_GPSLatitudeRef]];
EXFGPSLoc * lon = [jpegScanner.exifMetaData tagValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:EXIF_GPSLongitude]];
NSString * lonRef = [jpegScanner.exifMetaData tagValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:EXIF_GPSLongitudeRef]];
float flat = [[NSString stringWithFormat:@”%f”, lat.degrees.numerator + ((float)lat.minutes.numerator / (float)lat.minutes.denominator) / 60.0] floatValue];
float flon = [[NSString stringWithFormat:@”%f”, lon.degrees.numerator + ((float)lon.minutes.numerator / (float)lon.minutes.denominator) / 60.0] floatValue];
if ([[latRef substringToIndex:1] isEqualToString:@”S”]) {
flat = -flat;
}
if ([[lonRef substringToIndex:1] isEqualToString:@”W”]) {
flon = -flon;
}
// Does the image match???
if (seeMe == image) {
*latAddr = flat;
*lonAddr = flon;
return;
}
[jpegScanner release];
[seeMe release];
}
[innerPool release];
innerPool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
}
[innerPool release];
innerPool = nil;
}
NOW I’m rolling. This works GREAT. I can read images, extract EXIF information… feeling good.
Until I realize that I have NO way to associate the files that I am reading directly from what the image picker returns to me. Did I just say “shit” out loud? Because that is what I’m swimming in.
The image picker simply hands back an UIImage with some editing information. That’s it.
OK, OK, OK. Maybe I can compare NSData elements… or UIImage elements against what I read from disk and what the picker sends back… so far, neither of those approaches is working.
And now I’m sitting here, realizing that I can accurately describe ANY image’s geo tagging information. I just can’t pick a SPECIFIC image from the bunch, well, at least using Apple’s APIs.
I’m coming to the sad realization that I might have to write my own bastardized version of the image picker, at least for scrolling through the camera roll.
I ain’t skeered to do it. I just wish I didn’t have to.
But that looks like that’s exactly what I’m gonna have to do. Damn it.