Can I load a UIImage from a URL?
ios, iphone, uiimage, uiimagepickercontroller
Solution
You can do it this way (synchronously, but compact):
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:MyURL]]];
A much better approach is to use Apple's LazyTableImages to preserve interactivity.
Problem
I have a URL for an image (got it from UIImagePickerController) but I no longer have the image in memory (the URL was saved from a previous run of the app). Can I reload the UIImage from the URL again? I see that UIImage has a imageWithContentsOfFile: but I have a URL. Can I use NSData's dataWithContentsOfURL: to read the URL? EDIT1 based on @Daniel's answer I tried the following code but it doesn't work... ``` NSLog(@"%s %@", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__, photoURL); if (photoURL) { NSURL* aURL = [NSURL URLWithString:photoURL]; NSData* data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:aURL]; self.photoImage = [UIImage imageWithData:data]; [data release]; } ``` When I ran it the console shows: ``` -[PhotoBox willMoveToWindow:] file://localhost/Users/gary/Library/Application%20Support/iPhone%20Simulator/3.2/Media/DCIM/100APPLE/IMG_0004.JPG *** -[NSURL length]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x536fbe0 *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** -[NSURL length]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x536fbe0' ``` Looking at the call stack, I'm calling URLWithString, which calls URLWithString:relativeToURL:, then initWithString:relativeToURL:, then _CFStringIsLegalURLString, then CFStringGetLength, then forwarding_prep_0, then forwarding, then -[NSObject doesNotRecognizeSelector]. Any ideas why my NSString (photoURL's address is 0x536fbe0) doesn't respond to length? Why does it say it doesn't respond to -[NSURL length]? Doesn't it know that param is an NSString, not a NSURL? EDIT2 OK, the only problem with the code is the string to URL conversion. If I hardcode the string, everything else works fine. So something is wrong with my NSString and if I can't figure it out, I guess that should go in as a different question. With this line inserted (I pasted the path from the console log above), it works fine: ``` photoURL = @"file://localhost/Users/gary/Library/Application%20Support/iPhone%20Simulator/3.2/Media/DCIM/100APPLE/IMG_0004.JPG"; ```