Access video using localIdentifier, swift

Question

I want to open a video, for which I have the localIdentifier. I know I can create an AVPlayer like this,

let player = AVPlayer(URL: NSURL(fileURLWithPath: path))

Is it possible to open a video by providing its localIdentifier?

I am using the video as a PHAsset to obtain its localIdentifier. It is possible to use PHFetchOptions and fetchAssetCollectionsWithLocalIdentifiers, however, it would be like a query. Is there a more direct way to access a video or an image if I have its localIdentifier?

Answer 1

If you're going to present a video asset in an AVPlayer, the best thing to request from Photos for providing to the player is an AVPlayerItem. Supposing you have the localIdentifier for a video asset in the Photos library, you'll need to first find the PHAsset representing that asset:

let assets = PHAsset.fetchAssetsWithLocalIdentifiers([identifier], options: nil)
guard let asset = assets.firstObject as? PHAsset
    else { fatalError("no asset") }

Once you have a PHAsset you can use PHImageManager to fetch the asset's video content (in the form of an AVPlayerItem):

let options = PHVideoRequestOptions()
options.networkAccessAllowed = true
let requestID = PHImageManager.defaultManager().requestPlayerItemForVideo(asset, 
    options: options, 
    resultHandler: { playerItem, info in
        guard let item = playerItem
            else { fatalError("can't get player item: \(info)") }

        // send the item to whatever you're playing AV content with, e.g.
        myAVPlayerViewController.player = AVPlayer(playerItem: item)
    }
)