SWIFT parsing images from JSON

Question

In my application i want to parse JSON result that contains both text and images. the JSON result shows this string since the URL returned contains Arabic characters:

"Media_Photo" = "http://95.138.143.176/photos/FB/Ramy Ayach - \U0631\U0627\U0645\U064a \U0639\U064a\U0627\U0634/thumb/n583140_147657870534036_8903807944579055616.jpg";

This leads to error since it should be like:

http://95.138.143.176/photos/FB/Ramy Ayach - رامي عياش/thumb/n583140_147657870534036_8903807944579055616.jpg

how can i change this URL and be able to present the images in the UIImageView.

i tried this code:

let mediaPhotoUrl = newsInGroup?.mediaPhotoURL
    if let dataImageFornews = NSData(contentsOfURL: NSURL(string: (mediaPhotoUrl)!)!){
        imageOfNews.image = UIImage(data: dataImageFornews)
    } else {
        imageOfNews.hidden = true
    }

but an error occurred :

fatal error: unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value

Also the JSON response returns:

 "Media_Photo" = "<null>";

if no image. I handled this issue using this code:

 if media.valueForKey("Media_Photo") != nil {
    mediaPhoto = media.valueForKey("Media_Photo") as? String
    print("mediaphotoURL: \(mediaPhoto)")
    }

Is this the correct way?

 print("mediaphotoURL: \(mediaPhoto)")

gives

 mediaphotoURL: Optional("http://95.138.143.176/photos/FB/Ramy Ayach - رامي عياش/thumb/n583140_147657870534036_8903807944579055616.jpg")

Thank you in advance

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

get a working json response, I could imagine that arabic characters are special characters, so have a look here Swift - encode URL

This error occures, because you try to work with an nil value

if let mediaPhotoUrlNotNil:String = mediaPhotoUrl {
 if let mediaPhotoUrlToNSURL = NSURL(string: mediaPhotoUrlNotNil) {
  if let dataImageFornews = NSData(contentsOfURL: mediaPhotoUrlToNSURL) {
       //not nil
      } else {
       //nil
      }
    } else {
     //its nil
    }
   } else {
  //its nil
 }

Look here for a good way to get images from web: Swift - encode URL

SWIFT parsing images from JSON

1 Answers1