Cloudinary iOS SDK

Cloudinary is a cloud service that offers a solution to a web application's entire image management pipeline.

Easily upload images to the cloud. Automatically perform smart image resizing, cropping and conversion without installing any complex software. Integrate Facebook or Twitter profile image extraction in a snap, in any dimension and style to match your website’s graphics requirements. Images are seamlessly delivered through a fast CDN, and much much more.

Cloudinary offers comprehensive APIs and administration capabilities and is easy to integrate with any web application, existing or new.

Cloudinary provides URL and HTTP based APIs that can be easily integrated with any Web development framework.

For iOS, Cloudinary provides an SDK for simplifying the integration even further.

Setup

Download the latest SDK version from the following URL:

http://res.cloudinary.com/cloudinary/raw/upload/cloudinary_ios_v1.0.15.zip

Extract the ZIP file and drag libCloudinary.a to the Frameworks folder of your Xcode project. Drag the Cloudinary folder that contains all .h include files to your Xcode project.

In Xcode, double-click the target's name under Targets in the Project window. Choose the Build Settings tab. Search for the Other Linker Flags build setting under the Linking collection and set its value to -ObjC.

Try it right away

Sign up for a free account so you can try out image transformations and seamless image delivery through CDN.

ℹ️ Replace demo in all the following examples with your Cloudinary's cloud name.

Accessing an uploaded image with the sample public ID through a CDN:

http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/sample.jpg

Generating a 150x100 version of the sample image and downloading it through a CDN:

http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/w_150,h_100,c_fill/sample.jpg

Converting to a 150x100 PNG with rounded corners of 20 pixels:

http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/w_150,h_100,c_fill,r_20/sample.png

For plenty more transformation options, see our image transformations documentation.

Generating a 120x90 thumbnail based on automatic face detection of the Facebook profile picture of Bill Clinton:

http://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/facebook/c_thumb,g_face,h_90,w_120/billclinton.jpg

For more details, see our documentation for embedding Facebook and Twitter profile pictures.

Usage

Configuration

Each request for building a URL of a remote cloud resource must have the cloud_name parameter set. Each request to our secure APIs (e.g., image uploads, eager sprite generation) must have the api_key and api_secret parameters set. See API, URLs and access identifiers for more details.

Setting the cloud_name, api_key and api_secret parameters can be done either directly in each call to a Cloudinary method or by globally setting using the CLOUDINARY_URL variable.

The following example creates a CLCloudinary object initializd with a CLOUDINARY_URL varaible.

#import "Cloudinary/Cloudinary.h"

CLCloudinary *cloudinary = [[CLCloudinary alloc] initWithUrl: @"cloudinary://123456789012345:abcdeghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz12@n07t21i7"];

You can also set any configuration parameter programatically:

CLCloudinary *cloudinary = [[CLCloudinary alloc] init];
[cloudinary.config setValue:@"n07t21i7" forKey:@"cloud_name"];
[cloudinary.config setValue:@"123456789012345" forKey:@"api_key"];
[cloudinary.config setValue:@"abcdeghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz12" forKey:@"api_secret"];

⚠️ The API includes operations that require authentication using the api_secret. However because it is not possible to secure the api_secret in applications running on client devices (such as a mobile app) it is recommended not to include api_secret in such applications.

Embedding and transforming images

Any image uploaded to Cloudinary can be transformed and embedded using powerful view helper methods:

The following example generates a URL on an uploaded sample image:

NSString *url = [cloudinary url:@"sample.jpg"];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/upload/sample.jpg

The following example generates an image URL of an uploaded sample image while transforming it to fill a 100x150 rectangle:

CLTransformation *transformation = [CLTransformation transformation];
[transformation setWidthWithInt: 100];
[transformation setHeightWithInt: 150];
[transformation setCrop: @"fill"];

NSString *url = [cloudinary url:@"sample.jpg" options:@{@"transformation": transformation}];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/upload/c_fill,h_150,w_100/sample.jpg

Another example, embedding a smaller version of an uploaded image while generating a 90x90 face detection based thumbnail. This time using a dictionary of parameters:

CLTransformation *transformation = [CLTransformation transformation];
[transformation setParams: @{@"width": @90, @"height": @90, @"crop": @"thumb", @"gravity": @"face"}];

NSString *url = [cloudinary url:@"sample.jpg" options:@{@"transformation": transformation}];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/upload/c_thumb,g_face,h_90,w_90/sample.jpg

You can provide either a Facebook name or a numeric ID of a Facebook profile or a fan page.

Embedding a Facebook profile to match your graphic design is very simple:

CLTransformation *transformation = [CLTransformation transformation];
[transformation setWidthWithInt: 90];
[transformation setHeightWithInt: 130];
[transformation setCrop: @"fill"];
[transformation setGravity: @"north_west"];

NSString *url = [cloudinary url:@"billclinton.jpg" options:@{@"transformation": transformation, @"type": @"facebook"}];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/facebook/c_fill,g_north_west,h_130,w_90/billclinton.jpg

See our documentation for more information about displaying and transforming images.

ℹ️ Until version 1.0.11 there was an issue in setWidthWithFloat (and similar methods) that caused round floats to be serialized as integers (e.g. setWidthWithFloat(2.0) produced "w_2") this was fixed in version 1.0.12.

Safe mobile uploading

iOS applications might prefer to avoid keeping the sensitive api_secret on the mobile device. It is recommended to generate the upload authentication signature on the server side. This way the api_secret is stored only on the much safer server-side.

Cloudinary's iOS SDK allows providing server-generated signature and any additional parameters that were generated on the server side (instead of signing using api_secret locally).

The following example initializes CLCloudinary without any authentication parameters:

CLCloudinary *mobileCloudinary = [[CLCloudinary alloc] init];

[mobileCloudinary.config setValue:@"n07t21i7" forKey:@"cloud_name"];

You can use any Cloudinary libraries (Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python & Django, Java, Perl, .Net, etc.) on your server to generating the upload signature. The following JSON in an example of a response of an upload authorization request to your server:

{
  "signature": "sgjfdoigfjdgfdogidf9g87df98gfdb8f7d6gfdg7gfd8",
  "public_id": "abdbasdasda76asd7sa789",
  "timestamp": 1346925631,
  "api_key": "123456789012345",
}

The following code uploads an image to Cloudinary with the parameters generated safely on the server side (e.g., from a JSON as in the example above). Note that the imageData parameter can either be the actual image data or a path of a local image file.

CLUploader* mobileUploader = [[CLUploader alloc] init:mobileCloudinary delegate:self];
NSDictionary* uploadResponse = [mobileUploader upload:imageData options:signedRequest];

The signedPreloadedImage can be used to create a serialized format of the upload result that can be validated by the server.

NSString *signedIdentifier = [cloudinary signedPreloadedImage:uploadResponse];

// image/upload/v1234567/dfhjghjkdisudgfds7iyf.jpg#298hg20j2eoalgh3ekl

You might want to reference uploaded Cloudinary images and raw files using an identifier string of the following format:

{resource_type}/{type}/v{version}/{public_id}.{format}

Cloudinary URL can be directly generated from an idenfier in either formats mentioned above:

NSString *imageIdentifier = @"image/upload/v1234567/dfhjghjkdisudgfds7iyf.jpg";
NSString *url = [cloudinary url:imageIdentifier];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/upload/v1234567/dfhjghjkdisudgfds7iyf.jpg

Same can work for raw file uploads:

NSString *rawIdentifier = @"raw/upload/v1234567/cguysfdsfuydsfyuds31.doc";
NSString *url = [cloudinary url:rawIdentifier];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/raw/upload/v1234567/cguysfdsfuydsfyuds31.doc

Upload

⚠️ It is recommended not to include api_secret in mobile applications. See Safe mobile uploading below for an alternative method.

Assuming you have your Cloudinary configuration parameters defined (cloud_name, api_key, api_secret), uploading to Cloudinary is very simple.

First you need to implement the CLUploaderDelegate protocol for receiving successful and failed upload callbacks as well as upload progress notification. For example:

#import "ViewController.h"
#import "Cloudinary/Cloudinary.h"

@interface ViewController () <CLUploaderDelegate>
@end

@implementation ViewController

...

- (void) uploaderSuccess:(NSDictionary*)result context:(id)context {
    NSString* publicId = [result valueForKey:@"public_id"];
    NSLog(@"Upload success. Public ID=%@, Full result=%@", publicId, result);
}

- (void) uploaderError:(NSString*)result code:(int) code context:(id)context {
    NSLog(@"Upload error: %@, %d", result, code);
}

- (void) uploaderProgress:(NSInteger)bytesWritten totalBytesWritten:(NSInteger)totalBytesWritten totalBytesExpectedToWrite:(NSInteger)totalBytesExpectedToWrite context:(id)context {
    NSLog(@"Upload progress: %d/%d (+%d)", totalBytesWritten, totalBytesExpectedToWrite, bytesWritten);
}

@end

The following example uploads a local PNG to the cloud. The path of the image is given to the upload method.

CLCloudinary *cloudinary = [[CLCloudinary alloc] initWithUrl: @"cloudinary://123456789012345:abcdeghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz12@n07t21i7"];

CLUploader* uploader = [[CLUploader alloc] init:cloudinary delegate:self];
NSString *imageFilePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"logo" ofType:@"png"];

[uploader upload:imageFilePath options:@{}];

Here is a sample log printing of the result dictionary received by the uploaderSuccess callback:

{
    format = png;
    height = 51;
    "public_id" = nmnbdil0cjbuxjmxmzgt;
    "resource_type" = image;
    "secure_url" = "https://.../n07t21i7/image/upload/v1351796439/nmnbdil0cjbuxjmxmzgt.png";
    signature = 3a09d19f85ea029d7862fe1f58ff3a25164c6270;
    url = "http://.../n07t21i7/image/upload/v1351796439/nmnbdil0cjbuxjmxmzgt.png";
    version = 1351796439;
    width = 241;
}

The uploaded image is assigned a randomly generated public ID. The image is immediately available for download through a CDN:

[cloudinary url:@"nmnbdil0cjbuxjmxmzgt.png"]

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/upload/nmnbdil0cjbuxjmxmzgt.png

You can also specify your own public ID. In the following example the actual data of the image is given to the upload method:

NSData *imageData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:imageFilePath];
[uploader upload:imageData options:@{@"public_id": @"ios_image_1"}];

The following example uploads an image based on a given remote URL:

[uploader upload:@"http://cloudinary.com/images/logo.png" options:@{}];

In order to upload a raw file, set the resource_type parameter to raw:

CLUploader* uploader = [[CLUploader alloc] init:cloudinary delegate:self];
[uploader upload:[self file] options:@{@"resource_type": @"raw"}];

Alternatively, you can set the resource_type parameter to auto, as demonstrated in this blog post.

Instead of implementing the CLUploaderDelegate you can provide block parameters for receiving uploading progress and completion events. The following example uploaded a local image while providing withCompletion & andProgress blocks:

[uploader upload:imageFilePath options:@{} withCompletion:^(NSDictionary *successResult, NSString *errorResult, NSInteger code, id context) {
    if (successResult) {
        NSString* publicId = [successResult valueForKey:@"public_id"];
        NSLog(@"Block upload success. Public ID=%@, Full result=%@", publicId, successResult);
    } else {
        NSLog(@"Block upload error: %@, %d", errorResult, code);

    }
} andProgress:^(NSInteger bytesWritten, NSInteger totalBytesWritten, NSInteger totalBytesExpectedToWrite, id context) {
    NSLog(@"Block upload progress: %d/%d (+%d)", totalBytesWritten, totalBytesExpectedToWrite, bytesWritten);
}];

ℹ️ A dedicated CLUploader instance must be used for each file uploading.

Synchronous upload is supported and is required for using the upload API from within an NSOperation. Simply set the sync option to @YES.

[uploader upload:imageFilePath options:@{@"sync": @YES}];

See our documentation for plenty more options of direct uploading to the cloud.

Safe mobile uploading

iOS applications might prefer to avoid keeping the sensitive api_secret on the mobile device. It is recommended to generate the upload authentication signature on the server side. This way the api_secret is stored only on the much safer server-side.

Cloudinary's iOS SDK allows providing server-generated signature and any additional parameters that were generated on the server side (instead of signing using api_secret locally).

The following example initializes CLCloudinary without any authentication parameters:

CLCloudinary *mobileCloudinary = [[CLCloudinary alloc] init];

[mobileCloudinary.config setValue:@"n07t21i7" forKey:@"cloud_name"];

You can use any Cloudinary libraries (Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python & Django, Java, Perl, .Net, etc.) on your server to generating the upload signature. The following JSON in an example of a response of an upload authorization request to your server:

{
  "signature": "sgjfdoigfjdgfdogidf9g87df98gfdb8f7d6gfdg7gfd8",
  "public_id": "abdbasdasda76asd7sa789",
  "timestamp": 1346925631,
  "api_key": "123456789012345",
}

The following code uploads an image to Cloudinary with the parameters generated safely on the server side (e.g., from a JSON as in the example above). Note that the imageData parameter can either be the actual image data or a path of a local image file.

CLUploader* mobileUploader = [[CLUploader alloc] init:mobileCloudinary delegate:self];
NSDictionary* uploadResponse = [mobileUploader upload:imageData options:signedRequest];

The signedPreloadedImage can be used to create a serialized format of the upload result that can be validated by the server.

NSString *signedIdentifier = [cloudinary signedPreloadedImage:uploadResponse];

// image/upload/v1234567/dfhjghjkdisudgfds7iyf.jpg#298hg20j2eoalgh3ekl

You might want to reference uploaded Cloudinary images and raw files using an identifier string of the following format:

{resource_type}/{type}/v{version}/{public_id}.{format}

Cloudinary URL can be directly generated from an idenfier in either formats mentioned above:

NSString *imageIdentifier = @"image/upload/v1234567/dfhjghjkdisudgfds7iyf.jpg";
NSString *url = [cloudinary url:imageIdentifier];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/image/upload/v1234567/dfhjghjkdisudgfds7iyf.jpg

Same can work for raw file uploads:

NSString *rawIdentifier = @"raw/upload/v1234567/cguysfdsfuydsfyuds31.doc";
NSString *url = [cloudinary url:rawIdentifier];

// http://res.cloudinary.com/n07t21i7/raw/upload/v1234567/cguysfdsfuydsfyuds31.doc

Additional resources

Additional resources are available at:

• Website
• Features overview
• Documentation
• Image transformations documentation
• Upload API documentation

Support

You can open an issue through GitHub.

Contact us at info@cloudinary.com

Or via Twitter: @cloudinary

License

Released under the MIT license.