SOLVED: AVPlayer streaming from downloading file

@gabfeudo

Feb '21

I am currently downloading and caching a video file with the following CacheManager:

public enum Result<T> {
    case success(T)
    case failure
}

class CacheManager {

    static let shared = CacheManager()
    private let fileManager = FileManager.default
    private lazy var mainDirectoryUrl: URL = {

    let documentsUrl = self.fileManager.urls(for: .cachesDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!
        return documentsUrl
    }()

    func getFileWith(stringUrl: String, completionHandler: @escaping (Result<URL>) -> Void ) {
        let file = directoryFor(stringUrl: stringUrl)

        //return file path if already exists in cache directory
        guard !fileManager.fileExists(atPath: file.path)  else {
            completionHandler(Result.success(file))
            return
        }

        DispatchQueue.global().async {

            if let videoData = NSData(contentsOf: URL(string: stringUrl)!) {
                videoData.write(to: file, atomically: true)

                DispatchQueue.main.async {
                    completionHandler(Result.success(file))
                }
            } else {
                DispatchQueue.main.async {
                    completionHandler(Result.failure)
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private func directoryFor(stringUrl: String) -> URL {
        let fileURL = URL(string: stringUrl)!.lastPathComponent
        let file = self.mainDirectoryUrl.appendingPathComponent(fileURL)

        return file
    }
}

And injecting the AVPlayer to my View in this way:

CacheManager.shared.getFileWith(stringUrl: video.url) { result in

                switch result {
                case .success(let url):
                    self.player = AVPlayer(url: url)
                    self.player?.play()
                    break
                case .failure:
                    self.showError.toggle()
                    break
                }
            }

But how could I stream the file file while it is downloading without waiting it for complete?

3

@nemecek-filip

Feb '21

If you pass the remote URL directly to the AVPlayer? Does it do anything? I remember playing remote videos in similar fashion without the need for download.

3

@gabfeudo

Feb '21

@nemecek-filip it streams the video but the CacheManager class is needed for caching the video and prevent it from downloading over and over again. Furthermore streaming it directly from a Firebase Storage link with AVPlayer causes a incredibly high bandwidth usage (I do not know why).

3

@nemecek-filip

Feb '21

I see. Maybe this could help - https://github.com/neekeetab/CachingPlayerItem?

3

@gabfeudo

Feb '21

@nemecek-filip i tried to implement CachingPlayerItem but for a reason unknown to me it always download the entire .mp4 file from the database storage...

This is my simple implementation but I think that the problem is on CachingPlayerItem class presented on the Git repo:

let videoUrl: URL = URL(string: video.url)!
let playerItem = CachingPlayerItem(url: videoUrl)
self.player = AVPlayer(playerItem: playerItem)
player?.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = false
player?.play()

3

@gabfeudo

Feb '21

I solved the problem integrating ChachingPlayerItem ( https://github.com/neekeetab/CachingPlayerItem ) with Cache ( https://github.com/hyperoslo/Cache )

import AVKit
import Cache

class VideoPlayerWorker {

    private var player: AVPlayer!
    let diskConfig = DiskConfig(name: "DiskCache")
    let memoryConfig = MemoryConfig(expiry: .never, countLimit: 10, totalCostLimit: 10)

    lazy var storage: Cache.Storage<String, Data>? = {
        return try? Cache.Storage(diskConfig: diskConfig, memoryConfig: memoryConfig, transformer: TransformerFactory.forData())
    }()

    /// Plays a video either from the network if it's not cached or from the cache.
    func play(with url: URL) -> AVPlayer {
        let playerItem: CachingPlayerItem
        do {
            let result = try storage!.entry(forKey: url.absoluteString)
            // The video is cached.
            playerItem = CachingPlayerItem(data: result.object, mimeType: "video/mp4", fileExtension: "mp4")
        } catch {
            // The video is not cached.
            playerItem = CachingPlayerItem(url: url)
        }

        playerItem.delegate = self
        self.player = AVPlayer(playerItem: playerItem)
        self.player.automaticallyWaitsToMinimizeStalling = false
        self.player.play()
        return self.player
    }

}

// MARK: - CachingPlayerItemDelegate
extension VideoPlayerWorker: CachingPlayerItemDelegate {
    func playerItem(_ playerItem: CachingPlayerItem, didFinishDownloadingData data: Data) {
        // Video is downloaded. Saving it to the cache asynchronously.
        storage?.async.setObject(data, forKey: playerItem.url.absoluteString, completion: { _ in })
    }
}

5

@heimau

Aug '21

Hi,

So you get it to work?

How you build it, can you give more information? What kind of structure is in the app?

3

@angadhn

Nov '21

Super helpful stuff. Just one gripe is I don't get how to get the delegate extension code to run before starting the player. I end up having to tap on an audio twice for it to play; I guess this means that the AVPlayer can only play a cached item for whatever reason. I am sure I am messing something up somewhere in the usage of the delegate. Any pointers would be appreciated.

3

@NikhilGangurde

Jun '22

can you share full code?

2

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