Brightcove Native Player for iOS Reference

SSAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK for iOS, version 6.8.6.1579

Requirements

  • Xcode 11.0+
  • ARC

Supported Platforms

iOS 11.0 and above.

tvOS 11.0 and above.

Installation

The SSAI plugin for Brightcove Player SDK for iOS provides two installation packages; a static library framework and a dynamic library framework.

CocoaPods

You can use CocoaPods to add the SSAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project. You can find the latest Brightcove-Player-SSAI podspec here.

Dynamic framework example:

```bash source ‘https://github.com/brightcove/BrightcoveSpecs.git'

use_frameworks! platform :ios, ‘11.0’

target ‘MyVideoPlayer’ do pod ‘Brightcove-Player-SSAI’ end ```

Static framework example:

```bash source ‘https://github.com/brightcove/BrightcoveSpecs.git’

use_frameworks! platform :ios, 11.0'

target ‘MyVideoPlayer’ do pod ‘Brightcove-Player-SSAI-static’ end ```

When updating your installation, it’s a good idea to refresh the local copy of your BrightcoveSpecs repository so that you have the latest podspecs locally, just like you would update your CococaPods master repository.

Typically if you use pod update in Terminal this will happen automatically, or alternatively you can update explicitly with pod repo update brightcove. (Your BrightcoveSpecs repository may have a different name if you explicitly added it to your list of podspecs repos.)

Manual

To add the SSAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project manually:

  1. Install the latest version of the Brightcove Player SDK.
  2. Download the latest zip'ed release of the BrightcoveSSAI plugin from our release page.
  3. Add BrightcoveSSAI.framework to your project.
  4. On the “Build Settings” tab of your application target, ensure that the “Framework Search Paths” include the path to the framework. This should have been done automatically unless the framework is stored under a different root directory than your project.
  5. (Dynamic Framework only) On the “General” tab of your application target, add ‘BrightcoveSSAI.framework’ to the “Frameworks, Libraries, Embedded Content” section.
  6. (Dynamic Framework only) On the “Build Phases” tab, add a “Run Script” phase with the command bash ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${FRAMEWORKS_FOLDER_PATH}/BrightcoveSSAI.framework/strip-frameworks.sh. Check “Run script only when installing”. This will remove unneeded architectures from the build, which is important for App Store submission.
  7. (Static Framework only) On the “Build Settings” tab of your application target, add -ObjC to the “Other Linker Flags” build setting.

Imports

The SSAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK for iOS can be imported into code a few different ways; @import BrightcoveSSAI;, #import <BrightcoveSSAI/BrightcoveSSAI.h> or #import <BrightcoveSSAI/[specific class].h>.

Quick Start

BrightcoveSSAI is a plugin for Brightcove Player SDK for iOS that provides support for Brightcove Server Side Ad Insertion.

```objc [1] BCOVSSAIAdComponentDisplayContainer *displayContainer = [[BCOVSSAIAdComponentDisplayContainer alloc] initWithCompanionSlots:@[]];

  BCOVPlayerSDKManager *manager = [BCOVPlayerSDKManager sharedManager];

[2] id playbackController = [sdkManager createSSAIPlaybackController];

[3] [playbackController addSessionConsumer:displayContainer];

[4] [self.videoContainer addSubview:playbackController.view];

[5] BCOVPlaybackService playbackService = [[BCOVPlaybackService alloc] initWithAccountId:accoundId policyKey:policyKey]; [playbackService findVideoWithVideoID:videoID parameters:@{ kBCOVPlaybackServiceParamaterKeyAdConfigId: <valid-ad-config-id> } completion:^(BCOVVideo video, NSDictionary jsonResponse, NSError error) {

[6] [playbackController setVideos:@[ video ]]; [playbackController play];

  }];


To summarize:

1. First create a `BCOVSSAIAdComponentDisplayContainer`. This object will help manage companion slots. Pass in the companion slots that you have, if any.
1. BrightcoveSSAI adds some category methods to `BCOVPlaybackManager`. The first of these is `-createSSAIPlaybackControllerWithViewStrategy:`. Use this method to create your playback controller. You will typically pass `nil` for the view strategy.
1. In order for the `BCOVSSAIAdComponentDisplayContainer` to display ad information and populate companion ad views, it must be added as a session consumer.
1. Add the playback controller's view to the video container in your own view hierarchy.
1. Request the video or playlist from the Playback Service. When using a Unicorn Once-style VMAP URL, create the BCOVVideo object directly using `[BCOVVideo videoWithURL:<unicorn-style-url>]`.
1. Load the video into the playback controller.

Using a custom VMAP source URL
=======

If you have a custom VMAP source URL and do not need to use the `BCOVPlaybackService` you can manually create a `BCOVVideo` with your URL like this:

BCOVVideo *video = [BCOVVideo videoWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@“https://sdks.support.brightcove.com/assets/ads/ssai/sample-vmap.xml”]]; [self.playbackController setVideos:@[video]]; ```

Obtaining Ad Playback Information

BrightcoveSSAI provides ad playback information via the BCOVPlaybackControllerAdsDelegate. For example, if you want to hide your controls during an ad, you could implement -[BCOVPlaybackControllerAdsDelegate playbackController:playbackSession:didEnterAdSequence:] to hide them.

For more information on how to use these delegate methods, please see Brightcove Player SDK for iOS.

Seeking

The BrightcoveSSAI plugin provides a seeking function that should be used when implementing controls. This seek function is exposed on the session through the providerExtension property. Here is how it is used:

```objc
CMTime contentTimeToSeekTo = <calculation-from-scrub-bar>; [self.currentSession.providerExtension ssai_seekToTime:contentTimeToSeekTo completionHandler:^(BOOL finished) {

if (finished) { [self.currentSession.player play]; }

}]; ```

The completionHandler will execute at the completion of a successful seek. It will not execute if a seek was already initiated by a previous call to [BCOVSessionProviderExtension ssai_seekToTime:completionHandler:] or if an ad is playing back. To test whether a seek attempt can be made, check the [BCOVSessionProviderExtension ssai_canSeek] property. For more information on both of these methods, be sure to read the headerdoc.

Seek Without Ads

The BrightcovePlayerSDK provides the adsDisabled BOOL property for disabling ads while seeking, allowing an application to resume playback without requiring the end-user to view previously played ads.

Ad-disabling logic should be added to the kBCOVPlaybackSessionLifecycleEventReady handler of the -playbackController:playbackSession:didReceiveLifecycleEvent: method of your BCOVPlaybackController delegate.

```objc - (void)playbackController:(id)controller playbackSession:(id)session didReceiveLifecycleEvent:(BCOVPlaybackSessionLifecycleEvent *)lifecycleEvent { if ([kBCOVPlaybackSessionLifecycleEventReady isEqualToString:lifecycleEvent.eventType]) { // disable ads. _playbackController.adsDisabled = YES;

// seek somewhere into the video content.
[session.providerExtension ssai_seekToTime:resumeTime completionHandler:^(BOOL finished)
{
    // re-enable ads.
    _playbackController.adsDisabled = NO;

    // open the shutter.
    _playbackController.shutterFadeTime = 0.25;
    _playbackController.shutter = NO;
}];

} ```

When calling ssai_seekToTime:completionHandler: to resume playback at a particular time, the first frame of the video might be visible until the seek completes. For a cleaner presentation, temporarily cover the video view during seeking by setting the shutter property of BCOVPlabackController to YES before calling -setVideos:. When seeking is complete, dismiss the shutter by setting the shutter property to NO. The shutterFadeTime property defines the duration of the shutter fade animation.

```objc self.playbackController = [sdkManager createSSAIPlaybackController];

// activate the shutter before loading video. self.playbackController.shutterFadeTime = 0.0; self.playbackController.shutter = YES;

// load the video. ```

Note that for performance reasons, small tolerances are built into video seeking. A seek to a content playhead position which is close to the start of an ad sequence can result in a seek to the start of the ad sequence. If autoPlay is NO in this case, AVPlayer will be paused on the first frame of the ad sequence.

Player UI Built-In Controls

The BrightcovePlayerSDK provides a built-in set of UI controls that can be used with the SSAI plugin for both basic playback and ad controls. To use the controls, create a BCOVPUIPlayerView, and associate it with your SSAI playback controller.

First, create a playerView property in your class.

objc @property (nonatomic) BCOVPUIPlayerView *playerView;

Create the BCOVPUIPlayerView instance and save a reference to the object.

objc BCOVPUIBasicControlView *controlView = [BCOVPUIBasicControlView basicControlViewWithVODLayout]; self.playerView = [[BCOVPUIPlayerView alloc] initWithPlaybackController:nil options:nil controlsView:controlView]; // Insert the playerView into your own video view. [self.videoContainer addSubview:self.playerView];

You’ll need to set up the layout for the player view, you can do this with Auto Layout or the older Springs & Struts method.

Springs & Struts

Set its frame to match your container view, then add the player view to the container view in your view hierarchy. Note that videoContainer is your own view object in your app’s layout.

objc self.playerView.frame = self.videoContainer.bounds; self.playerView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;

Auto Layout

objc self.playerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO; [NSLayoutConstraint activateConstraints:@[ [self.playerView.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoContainer.topAnchor], [self.playerView.rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoContainer.rightAnchor], [self.playerView.leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoContainer.leftAnchor], [self.playerView.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoContainer.bottomAnchor], ]]; Now create the BCOVPlaybackController, assign it to your player view, and then start playing videos.

```objc // Initialize companion slots BCOVSSAIAdComponentDisplayContainer *displayContainer = [[BCOVSSAIAdComponentDisplayContainer alloc] initWithCompanionSlots:@[]];

// Create the playback controller BCOVPlayerSDKManager *manager = [BCOVPlayerSDKManager sharedManager]; id playbackController = [sdkManager createSSAIPlaybackControllerWithViewStrategy:nil];

// Listen for display/companion ad messages [playbackController addSessionConsumer:displayContainer];

// Tell the player view this is the playback controller we’re using self.playerView.playbackController = playbackController;

// Create and play your video. For Unicorn Once-style VMAP URLs, create the BCOVVideo object directly. BCOVPlaybackService playbackService = [[BCOVPlaybackService alloc] initWithAccountId:accoundId policyKey:policyKey]; [playbackService findVideoWithVideoID:videoID parameters:{ kBCOVPlaybackServiceParamaterKeyAdConfigId: <valid-ad-config-id> } completion:^(BCOVVideo video, NSDictionary jsonResponse, NSError error) {

                         [playbackController setVideos:@[ video ]];
                         [playbackController play];

                      }];


See the README in the BrightcovePlayerSDK for more details about how to use and customize the PlayerUI controls.

Access to VMAP Response Data
==========================
Should you want access to the VMAP response data you can subscribe to the `kBCOVSSAIVMAPResponseReceivedNotification` notification. Once received, the notification's userInfo dictionary will contain the VMAP response as NSData. You can use the `kBCOVSSAIVMAPResponseReceivedNotificationDataUserInfoKey` constant to access it from userInfo. Since you may have multiple playback controllers, and thus multiple VMAP responses, you can check the notification's object, `id playbackController = notification.object` to verify which video the VMAP data is for. Additionally, when you subscribe to the notification you can set a playback controller as the object so that only VMAP data notifications regarding that playback controller will be received. For example:

```objc
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(vmapResponseReceived:) name:kBCOVSSAIVMAPResponseReceivedNotification object:self.playbackController];

You can also access the VMAP response data through the BCOVOUXSession object:

// Obj-C
- (void)playbackController:(id<BCOVPlaybackController>)controller didAdvanceToPlaybackSession:(id<BCOVPlaybackSession>)session
{    
    if ([session respondsToSelector:NSSelectorFromString(@"vmapResponseData")])
    {
        NSData *vmapResponseData = [(NSObject *)session valueForKeyPath:@"vmapResponseData"];
        NSString *xmlString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:vmapResponseData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSLog(@"VMAP XML: %@", xmlString);
    }
}

// Swift
func playbackController(_ controller: BCOVPlaybackController!, didAdvanceTo session: BCOVPlaybackSession!) {
    if (session.responds(to: NSSelectorFromString("vmapResponseData")))
    {
        let vmapResponseData = (session as? NSObject)?.value(forKeyPath: "vmapResponseData") as? Data
        var xmlString: String? = nil
        if let vmapResponseData = vmapResponseData {
            xmlString = String(data: vmapResponseData, encoding: .utf8)
        }
        print("VMAP XML: \(xmlString ?? "")")
    }
}

Known Issues

  • Because tvOS does not support Web browsing, Companion Ads, Learn More and all ad clickthroughs are ignored on that platform.

  • You cannot use BrightcoveSSAI with any other Brightcove plugins except for the BrightcoveFairPlay plugin, or the BrightcoveIMA plugin (for pre-roll ads only).

  • If you want to use the BrightcoveSSAI plugin along with the BrightcoveFairPlay plugin then the BrightcoveFairPlay plugin must be the upstreamSessionProvider of the SSAI session provider.

  • The SSAI plugin does not support playing non-SSAI content. If you need to play non-SSAI content you need to create another playback controller that does not use the SSAI plugin.

Support

If you have questions, need help or want to provide feedback, please use the Support Portal or contact your Account Manager. To receive notification of new SDK software releases, subscribe to the Brightcove Native Player SDKs Google Group.

Class References

Protocol References

Category References