Storing ImagePickerController Dictionary for use in other action

[ykrsdn]

I want to open an image from the cameraroll and resize it so the user can get a preview of all the changes he's applying to the image without the image taking up too much memory. After the user finishes doing whatever he has to do with the image I allow the user to save the image. When the image is saved, the full sized image is retrieved from the UIImagePickerOriginalImage key and the changes are applied to the full image as well. But there is one big issue.

I can't seem to be able to store the ImagePickerController's Dictionary for use in the save IBAction.

Here's some code to explain my issue :

This is the part where the image is loaded to imaget (the preview's UIImage)
and where the NSDictionary is being stored in a variable I declared before (NSDictionary *dict; )

- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)editInfo
	{
	[[picker parentViewController] dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
	dict = editInfo;
	UIImage *imaget = [dict objectForKey:@"UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage"];
//image get resized
//image gets loaded into the preview
}

Here everything goes smoothly, the image loads into the preview.
Everything that happens between this action and where the user saves is irrelevant as it all works and used to work before.

But here's where the big problem arrises :
In my Save Action I want to call the Original image again from the "dict" NSDictionary, but this fails miserably eventually crashing the app.

UIImage *imaget = [dict objectForKey:@"UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage"];
//perform all changes
//save the image

The issue is in the above code and not in any other as I simplified the app until basically only the above code remained and the problem still persisted.

Can anyone help me? Can this NSDictionary be stored into a variable for later use?

[shan]

Basically what is happening to you is you are assigning the var dict to point to the nsdictionary but not telling the system to retain it. When editDict goes out of scope the dictionary you are referencing is deallocated. You need to retain it.


What to do will depend on how you created the var "dict".

If you simply declared the var at the class level then:

dict = [editInfo retain];


If you also created a property for it with (nonatomic, retain) then
self.dict = editInfo (or [self setDict:editInfo] is the same thing)

[ykrsdn]

Originally Posted by shan

Basically what is happening to you is you are assigning the var dict to point to the nsdictionary but not telling the system to retain it. When editDict goes out of scope the dictionary you are referencing is deallocated. You need to retain it.


What to do will depend on how you created the var "dict".

If you simply declared the var at the class level then:

dict = [editInfo retain];


If you also created a property for it with (nonatomic, retain) then
self.dict = editInfo (or [self setDict:editInfo] is the same thing)

Oh, thanks! I forgot to retain the variable. Now that you mention it, it makes sense.