Best way to manage probably huge photo library with iPhone SDK

Question

I'm developing a app with a list of products. I wanna let the user have 1 picture for each products.

Now, the problem is what to do next. I think that the best way is that the photos get sync when the user connect to their computer & itunes, and acces them from the app (something like: /photos/catalog/ref1.jpg.

The other option is put them on my sqlite database, but I worry that that get bigger. I have data + picture, data change a lot but pictures are rarely modified (if much, I expect the user take 2-3 new pictures each time).

Answer 1

I would just use the network connection available on the device, and not bother with sync through iTunes.

When you download the images, write them to the apps Documents folder, then load them from there. Network usage vs. disk space will be concern. Keep in mind some carrier networks can be crazy expensive for data transfer.

If the images are named with a systematic format, then you can maintain them by comparing the image identifiers against your data, pruning out the older or irrelevant ones.

Do the math and ballpark just how much disk space you think it would take for a local copy of all the images.

Answer 2

Ok, only a bit more of code them ;)