EDIT: March 15, 2016 - Here is a swift version of my prior answer, if you're looking for the objective-c version you'll find it below.
-- SWIFT --
First conform to the UIImagePickerControllerDelegate protocol and the UINavigationControllerDelegate protocol
class ViewController: UIViewController, UIImagePickerControllerDelegate, UINavigationControllerDelegate
launch the image picker
func actionLaunchCamera()
{
if UIImagePickerController.isSourceTypeAvailable(UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.Camera)
{
let imagePicker:UIImagePickerController = UIImagePickerController()
imagePicker.delegate = self
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.Camera
imagePicker.allowsEditing = true
self.presentViewController(imagePicker, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
else
{
let alert:UIAlertController = UIAlertController(title: "Camera Unavailable", message: "Unable to find a camera on this device", preferredStyle: UIAlertControllerStyle.Alert)
self.presentViewController(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}
implement the delegate methods for UIImagePickerDelegate protocol
func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject])
{
// create a filepath with the current date/time as the image name
let savePath:String = self.documentsPath()! + "/" + self.presentDateTimeString() + ".png"
// try to get our edited image if there is one, as well as the original image
let editedImg:UIImage? = info[UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage] as? UIImage
let originalImg:UIImage? = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as? UIImage
// create our image data with the edited img if we have one, else use the original image
let imgData:NSData = editedImg == nil ? UIImagePNGRepresentation(editedImg!)! : UIImagePNGRepresentation(originalImg!)!
// write the image data to file
imgData.writeToFile(savePath, atomically: true)
// dismiss the picker
self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}
func imagePickerControllerDidCancel(picker: UIImagePickerController)
{
// picker cancelled, dismiss picker view controller
self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
}
// added these methods simply for convenience/completeness
func documentsPath() ->String?
{
// fetch our paths
let paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSSearchPathDirectory.DocumentDirectory, NSSearchPathDomainMask.UserDomainMask, true)
if paths.count > 0
{
// return our docs directory path if we have one
let docsDir = paths[0]
return docsDir
}
return nil
}
func presentDateTimeString() ->String
{
// setup date formatter
let dateFormatter:NSDateFormatter = NSDateFormatter()
dateFormatter.dateFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss"
// get current date
let now:NSDate = NSDate()
// generate date string from now
let theDateTime = dateFormatter.stringFromDate(now)
return theDateTime
}
-- OBJECTIVE-C --
EDIT: Updated to check if camera is available before trying to launch it. Also added code showing how to save a png photo to the documents folder within the app sandbox.
Give this a try (this assumes using ARC).
In the .h file conform to the delegate protocol:
@interface MyViewController : UIViewController <UINavigationControllerDelegate,UIImagePickerControllerDelegate>
In the .m file launch the image picker (camera):
-(void)actionLaunchAppCamera
{
if ([UIImagePickerController isSourceTypeAvailable:UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera])
{
UIImagePickerController *imagePicker = [[UIImagePickerController alloc]init];
imagePicker.delegate = self;
imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
imagePicker.allowsEditing = YES;
[self presentModalViewController:imagePicker animated:YES];
}else{
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"Camera Unavailable"
message:@"Unable to find a camera on your device."
delegate:nil
cancelButtonTitle:@"OK"
otherButtonTitles:nil, nil];
[alert show];
alert = nil;
}
}
Then implement the delegate protocols to handle a user cancel event or save/edit/etc the photo.
-(void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info
{
//This creates a filepath with the current date/time as the name to save the image
NSString *presentTimeStamp = [Utilities getPresentDateTime];
NSString *fileSavePath = [Utilities documentsPath:presentTimeStamp];
fileSavePath = [fileSavePath stringByAppendingString:@".png"];
//This checks to see if the image was edited, if it was it saves the edited version as a .png
if ([info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage]) {
//save the edited image
NSData *imgPngData = UIImagePNGRepresentation([info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage]);
[imgPngData writeToFile:fileSavePath atomically:YES];
}else{
//save the original image
NSData *imgPngData = UIImagePNGRepresentation([info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage]);
[imgPngData writeToFile:fileSavePath atomically:YES];
}
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
-(void)imagePickerControllerDidCancel:(UIImagePickerController *)picker
{
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
ALSO ADDED IN EDIT:
Here are the methods referenced it the Utilities class for getting the document path and current date/time
+(NSString *)documentsPath:(NSString *)fileName {
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains (NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
return [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName];
}
+(NSString *)getPresentDateTime{
NSDateFormatter *dateTimeFormat = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateTimeFormat setDateFormat:@"dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss"];
NSDate *now = [[NSDate alloc] init];
NSString *theDateTime = [dateTimeFormat stringFromDate:now];
dateTimeFormat = nil;
now = nil;
return theDateTime;
}
