Read from iPhoto Library programmatically

Question

I want to create an Application that connects to the iPhoto Library. So now I would like to read the Events and the pictures themselves from the library.

Is there an elegant / easy way to do this or do I have to manually read the Bundle Structure of the iPhoto User Data?

So far I have only found a picture taker: Is there a UIImagePicker for the Mac Desktop

Update: I found another relevant SO post: Selecting iPhoto images within a cocoa application

Answer 1

You can do it with NSAppleScript. This is some copy/paste from my app, hacked up a bit just to show the idea.

    NSAppleEventDescriptor d = .. compile this script ..
        @"tell application \"iPhoto\" to properties of albums"

    for (int i = 0; i < [d numberOfItems]; i++)
    {
        NSAppleEventDescriptor *albumDesc = [d descriptorAtIndex:i];

        // <NSAppleEventDescriptor: 'ipal'{ 
        //  'ID  ':4.265e+09, 
        //  'purl':'utxt'("http://www.flickr.com/photos/..."), 
        //  'pnam':'utxt'("Vacation"), 
        //  'alTy':'pubs', 
        //  'alCh':[  ], 
        //  'alPx':'msng' }>

        NSString *albumName = [[albumDesc descriptorForKeyword:'pnam'] stringValue];
        NSString *albumId = [[albumDesc descriptorForKeyword:'ID  '] stringValue];

You can do the same thing to find the images

NSString *scp = 
    [NSString stringWithFormat:@"tell application \"iPhoto\" to properties of photos of album id %@",
     [album objectForKey:@"id"]];

NSAppleEventDescriptor *d = ... compile scp ...

// 1 based!?
for (int i = 1; i <= [d numberOfItems]; i++)
{
    NSAppleEventDescriptor *photoDesc = [d descriptorAtIndex:i];

    // Yes.. this happens.  Not sure why?!
    if (!photoDesc)
        continue;

    // <NSAppleEventDescriptor: 'ipmr'{ 
    // 'pnam':'utxt'("IMG_0058.JPG"), 
    // 'pwid':768, 
    // 'pdim':[ 768, 1024 ], 
    // 'alti':1.79769e+308, 
    // 'filn':'utxt'("3133889525_10975ba071_b.jpg"), 
    // 'ipth':'utxt'("/Users/lagnat/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters/2010/11/10/20101110-002341/3133889525_10975ba071_b.jpg"), 
    // 'idat':'ldt '($F57C69C500000000$), 
    // 'rate':0, 
    // 'titl':'utxt'("IMG_0058.JPG"), 
    // 'phit':1024, 
    // 'itpt':'utxt'("/Users/lagnat/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Thumbnails/2010/11/10/20101110-002341/3133889525_10975ba071_b.jpg.jpg"), 
    // 'ID  ':4.295e+09, 
    // 'lati':'msng', 
    // 'pcom':'utxt'(""), 
    // 'opth':'utxt'("/Users/lagnat/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Masters/2010/11/10/20101110-002341/3133889525_10975ba071_b.jpg"), 
    // 'lngt':'msng', 
    // 'tiln':'utxt'("3133889525_10975ba071_b.jpg.jpg") }>

    NSString *path = [[photoDesc descriptorForKeyword:'ipth'] stringValue];
    NSString *imgname = [[photoDesc descriptorForKeyword:'pnam'] stringValue];