iOS import files into my application

I am creating an iOS application through which users can print the files on their device. From my application, I can access the files on the device though the DocumentPicker provided by other apps such as iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc.

Now, I want to add a functionality where user can share the file with my application through an other application. I created an Action Extension for that. For example, if I select an Image in the Photos application and select Share I get my extension in the Share sheet and when I select it, I also get the URL of the file. Next, I am creating a zip file of this file to send it to my server. But the issue is, the zip file is always empty. The code I am using is as below:

In Action Extension's viewDidLoad()

if itemProvider.hasItemConformingToTypeIdentifier(kUTTypeImage as String) {
    itemProvider.loadItemForTypeIdentifier(kUTTypeImage as String, options: nil, 
        completionHandler: { (image, error) in
            NSOperationQueue.mainQueue().addOperationWithBlock {
                print("Image: \(image.debugDescription)")
                //Image: Optional(file:///Users/guestUser/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/00B81632-041E-47B1-BACD-2F15F114AA2D/data/Media/DCIM/100APPLE/IMG_0004.JPG)
                print("Image class: \(image.dynamicType)")
                //Image class: Optional<NSSecureCoding>
                self.filePaths.append(image.debugDescription)
                let zipPath = self.createZip(filePaths)
                print("Zip: \(zipPath)")
            }
         })
}

And my createZip function is as follows:

func createZipWithFiles(filePaths: [AnyObject]) -> String {
    let zipPath = createZipPath()  //Creates an unique zip file name

    let success = SSZipArchive.createZipFileAtPath(zipPath, withFilesAtPaths: filePaths)

    if success {
        return zipPath
    }
    else {
        return "zip prepation failed"
    }
}

Is there a way that I can create a zip of the shared files?

Solution

Your primary issue is that you are blindly adding image.debugDescription to an array that is expecting a file path. The output of image.debugDescription isn't at all a valid file path. You need to use a proper function on the image to obtain the actual file path.

But image is declared to have a type of NSSecureCoding. Based on the output of image.debugDescription, it seems that image is really of type NSURL. So you need to convert image to an NSURL using a line like:

if let photoURL = image as? NSURL {
}

Once you have the NSURL, you can use the path property to get the actual needed path.

So your code becomes:

if itemProvider.hasItemConformingToTypeIdentifier(kUTTypeImage as String) {
    itemProvider.loadItemForTypeIdentifier(kUTTypeImage as String, options: nil, 
        completionHandler: { (image, error) in
            if let photoURL = image as? NSURL {
                NSOperationQueue.mainQueue().addOperationWithBlock {
                    let photoPath = photoURL.path
                    print("photoPath: \(photoPath)")
                    self.filePaths.append(photoPath)
                    let zipPath = self.createZip(filePaths)
                    print("Zip: \(zipPath)")
                }
            }
    })
}

Hint: Never use debugDescription for anything other than a print statement. Its output is just some string that could contain just about any information and that output can change from one iOS version to the next.