Progress bar for AVAssetExportSession

Orpheus Mercury picture Orpheus Mercury · Jun 18, 2012 · Viewed 10.6k times · Source

I've got an app that exports an AVMutableComposition into a .mov file, and I'd like for the user to see the status of the export with a progress bar the same way that you would if you sent a text message or uploaded a file.

I know how to create a progress bar when I know the duration of a task (such as playing an audio file), but since there's no set duration for the export I'm unsure how to proceed.

I've got an activity indicator currently but it doesn't provide the best user experience.

Does anyone have any pointers?

Answer

Orpheus Mercury picture Orpheus Mercury · Jun 25, 2012

I came up with an answer a while back so I'll post it in case it can help someone:

First, in the method in which you call AVAssetExportSession you've got to set up a timer to update your UIProgressView once you've initiated the export:

//`AVAssetExportSession` code here
    self.exportProgressBarTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:.1 target:self selector:@selector(updateExportDisplay) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
...

Then you need a method to update your display taking into account that the progress property on AVAssetExportSession goes from 0 - 1:

- (void)updateExportDisplay {
    self.exportProgressBar.progress = exportSession.progress;
    if (self.exportProgressBar.progress > .99) {
        [self.exportProgressBarTimer invalidate];
    }
}