For years, the MobileImagePicker control has allowed users to choose between the Camera and Photos as the source. So far, so good—but there was one major limitation: when the source was set to Photos, users could only select one photo at a time from an album. Not anymore.
Select Multiple Images
Starting with Xojo 2025r2, we’ve updated the MobileImagePicker for iOS to use a more modern controller under the hood. As a result, users can now select multiple photos at once (depending on the needs of your app) and also take advantage of additional features available in the new image selector.
In addition, as a result of this change, we’re now able to capture and provide more complete EXIF metadata for each selected image.
The best part is, you don’t need to change a single line of code to take advantage of these new capabilities. However, due to the asynchronous nature of iOS, the Selected event handler of the MobileImagePicker will now fire once for each image the user selects. Be sure to account for that in your app’s logic. You may want to check out the updated “MobilePicture-Metadata” example project for guidance.
Choose Your Camera Source
When MobileImagePicker.Source was set to Camera, it defaulted to the device’s rear camera, which works well for most scenarios. However, some apps may need to use the front camera by default. While users could always switch cameras with a tap, it’s even better if your app can save them that extra step.
Now, if your app requires the front camera by default, you can set the source to the new enum value: Source.FrontCamera.
Javier Menendez is an engineer at Xojo and has been using Xojo since 1998. He lives in Castellón, Spain and hosts regular Xojo hangouts en español. Ask Javier questions on Twitter at @XojoES or on the Xojo Forum.