Convert GMSPanoramaView to UIImage?

Question

For my application, I need to get a Google Street View image from gps coordinates. I know how to get a full screen GMSPanoramaView from coordinates, but I ultimately need it to be a UIImage.

        let panoView = GMSPanoramaView(frame: .zero)
        self.view = panoView
        panoView.moveNearCoordinate(location.coordinate)
        panoView.setAllGesturesEnabled(false)

        // can this be converted to a UIImage?
        var streetViewImage: UIImage?
        streetViewImage = panoView

I'm seeing that other people have presented the GMSPanoramaView in a subview - is this a better option? Or are there any other ways to get static UIImages from Google Street View?

Answer 1

public extension GMSPanoramaView {

    @objc public func toImage() -> UIImage {
        UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(bounds.size, false, UIScreen.main.scale)
        drawHierarchy(in: self.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true)
        let image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext()!
        UIGraphicsEndImageContext()
        return image
    }
}

The above code will take a screenshot of your view. To have the right data loaded from the network (and not get a black screenshot) you will need to implement GMSPanoramaViewDelegate, probably panoramaView:didMoveToPanorama: will be called when the network request is completed and the image is visible. By then you can call toImage() and store your image.

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/ios-sdk/reference/protocol_g_m_s_panorama_view_delegate-p