Saving UIImagePickerController images to Core Data without crashing
- by Gordon Fontenot
I have been trying to minimize my memory footprint with UIImagePickerController, but I'm starting to think that the memory problems I am having are resulting from poor memory management, instead of a particular way to handle the UIImagePickerController object.
My workflow is this: The "Edit Image" button is clicked, which presents a UIActionSheet. This action sheet allows you to delete, take a picture, choose from the library, or cancel. If you select Choose from the library or Take Picture, I alloc an instance of UIImagePickerController and present it, followed by a release of UIImagePickerController:
-(void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
if (actionSheet.tag != 999) {
UIImagePickerController *imagePicker = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
imagePicker.delegate = self;
BOOL pickImage = nil;
if (actionSheet.tag == iPhoneWithDelete) {
switch (buttonIndex) {
case 0:
object.objectImage = nil;
pickImage = NO;
break;
case 1:
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
pickImage = YES;
break;
case 2:
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum;
pickImage = YES;
break;
default:
pickImage = NO;
break;
}
} else if (actionSheet.tag == iPhoneNoDelete) {
switch (buttonIndex) {
case 0:
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
pickImage = YES;
break;
case 1:
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum;
pickImage = YES;
break;
default:
pickImage = NO;
break;
}
} else if (actionSheet.tag == iPodWithDelete) {
switch (buttonIndex) {
case 0:
object.objectImage = nil;
pickImage = NO;
break;
case 1:
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum;
pickImage = YES;
break;
default:
pickImage = NO;
break;
}
} else if (actionSheet.tag == iPodNoDelete) {
switch (buttonIndex) {
case 0:
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum;
pickImage = YES;
break;
default:
pickImage = NO;
break;
}
}
if (pickImage) {
imagePicker.allowsEditing = YES;
[self presentModalViewController:imagePicker animated:YES];
} else {
[self setupImageButton];
[self setupChooseImageButton];
}
[imagePicker release];
}
}
Once I get a selection back from the UIImagePickerController, I save 2 images, a resized version of the edited image to use for a thumbnail, and a 800x600 version of the original unedited image into a relationship attribute (Transformational, using the same UIImage to PNG transformations found in the Recipes demo code) for display use: (the resize methods are based on the one demoed in this SO post.)
- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info
{
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
NSManagedObject *oldImage = object.imageFull;
if (oldImage != nil)
{
[object.managedObjectContext deleteObject:oldImage];
}
NSManagedObject *image = [NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"Image" inManagedObjectContext:object.managedObjectContext];
object.imageFull = image;
UIImage *rawImage = [info objectForKey:@"UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage"];
CGSize size = CGSizeMake(800, 600);
UIImage *fullImage = [UIImageManipulator scaleImage:rawImage toSize:size];
[image setValue:fullImage forKey:@"imageFull"];
UIImage *processedImage = [UIImageManipulator scaleImage:[info objectForKey:@"UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage"] toSize:CGSizeMake(75, 75)];
object.objectImage = processedImage;
[self setupImageButton];
[self setupChooseImageButton];
rawImage = nil;
fullImage = nil;
processedImage = nil;
}
When I go through viewDidUnload I am setting self.object = nil, and [object release] during dealloc, but I'm still getting memory warnings after about 10 image changes, with a crash at around 20. It leads me to believe that I am not getting that full image out of memory the correct way. What am I missing here?
And on a second note, does the Camera source use significantly more memory than the Photo Albums source? I tend to get more crashes when using the camera.
