How to display ToolBar Buttons on MPMoviePlayerController

Question

I am trying to display UIToolBar with BarButtonItems on MPMoviePlayerController. Not sure how will I implement it.

I am trying to play the video file when user taps on one of the cell of UITableView. At that time I would like to give an option to user to share the video on FB or tweeter.

Not sure how will I display the share BarButtonItem on MPMoviePlayerController. I am trying to implement something similar to the photo app that comes with iPhone.

Can anyone please help me out? Thank you!

Answer 1

MPMovieplayer is not the right choice for this purpose. You can create a custom movie player with AVPlayer(found under AVFoundation.framework) that would serve your purpose. Create any normal ViewController in your project and add an AVPlayer with code something like below:

-(void)viewDidLoad {
//prepare player
self.videoPlayer = [AVPlayer playerWithURL:<# NSURL for the video file #>];
self.videoPlayer.actionAtItemEnd = AVPlayerActionAtItemEndPause;

//prepare player layer
self.videoPlayerLayer = [AVPlayerLayer playerLayerWithPlayer:self.videoPlayer];
self.videoPlayerLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill;
self.videoPlayerLayer.frame = self.view.bounds;
[self.view.layer addSublayer:self.videoPlayerLayer];

//add player item status notofication handler
[self addObserver:self forKeyPath:@"videoPlayer.currentItem.status" options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew context:NULL];

//notification handler when player item completes playback
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(playerItemDidReachEnd:) name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification object:self.videoPlayer.currentItem];
}

//called when playback completes
-(void)playerItemDidReachEnd:(NSNotification *)notification {
[self.videoPlayer seekToTime:kCMTimeZero]; //rewind at the end of play

 //other tasks
 }

-(void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context {
if ([keyPath isEqualToString:@"videoPlayer.currentItem.status"]) {
    //NSLog(@"player status changed");

    if (self.videoPlayer.currentItem.status == AVPlayerItemStatusReadyToPlay) {
        //player is ready to play and you can enable your playback buttons here
    }
}
}

As this would be normal view controller, you can add a toolbar buttons/buttons to it, for playing/sharing, etc. and trigger the player actions and any other related action like below:

-(IBAction)play:(id)sender {
    [self.videoPlayer play];
}
-(IBAction)pause:(id)sender {
    [self.videoPlayer pause];
}
//etc.

Also make sure to remove the observers in your dealloc:

-(void)dealloc {
    //remove observers
    @try {
    [self removeObserver:self forKeyPath:@"videoPlayer.currentItem.status" context:NULL];
    }
    @catch (NSException *exception) {}
    @try {
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self name:AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTimeNotification object:self.videoPlayer.currentItem];
    }
    @catch (NSException *exception) {}

    //other deallocations
    [super dealloc];
}

More detailed and sophisticated explanation of the process can be found under apples companion guide, available here