Brightcove Native Player for iOS Reference
DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK for iOS, version 6.13.3.8
Installation
DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK provides a dynamic library framework for installation.
The DAI plugin supports version 3.19.1 of the Google IMA SDK for iOS and version 4.9.1 of the Google IMA SDK for tvOS.
CocoaPods
You can use CocoaPods to add the DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project. You can find the latest Brightcove-Player-DAI podspec here. The pod will incorporate the correct version of IMA automatically.
CocoaPod Podfile example:
```bash source ‘https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs' source ’https://github.com/brightcove/BrightcoveSpecs.git'
platform :ios, ‘14.0’ use_frameworks!
target ‘MyDAIPlayer’ do pod ‘Brightcove-Player-DAI’ end ```
Manual
To add the DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project manually:
- Download the Brightcove Player SDK framework.
- Download the DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK framework.
- Download the Google IMA framework.
- On the “General” tab of your application target, add the dynamic framework,
BrightcovePlayerSDK.frameworkorBrightcovePlayerSDK.xcframework, from the Brightcove Player SDK download to the list of Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content. The universal Framework and XCFramework are found in the ios/dynamic directory of the download. The Embed setting must be “Embed & Sign”. - On the “General” tab of your application target, add
BrightcoveDAI.frameworkorBrightcoveDAI.xcframeworkfrom the DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK download to the list of Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content. The Embed setting must be “Embed & Sign”. - On the “General” tab of your application target, add
GoogleInteractiveMediaAds.xcframeworkfrom the Google IMA download to the list of Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content. The Embed setting for the XCFrameworks must be “Embed & Sign”. - On the “Build Settings” tab of your application target, ensure that the “Framework Search Paths” include the paths to the frameworks. This should have been done automatically unless the framework is stored under a different root directory than your project.
- On the “Build Settings” tab of your application target:
- Ensure that
-ObjChas been added to the “Other Linker Flags” build setting.
- Ensure that
- (Universal Framework only) On the “Build Phases” tab, add a “Run Script” phase with the command
bash ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${FRAMEWORKS_FOLDER_PATH}/BrightcoveDAI.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. - (Apple Silicon only) On the “Build Settings” tab of your application target:
- Ensure that
arm64has been added to your “Excluded Architectures” build setting forAny iOS Simulator SDK.
- Ensure that
Swift Package Manager
To add the DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project with Swift Package Manager:
- First follow the steps to add the Core XCFramework with Swift Package Mananger.
- Add the DAI package to Swift Package Manager using
https://github.com/brightcove/brightcove-player-sdk-ios-dai.git. - Download the Google IMA framework.
- On the “General” tab of your application target, add
GoogleInteractiveMediaAds.xcframeworkto the list of Frameworks, Libraries, and Embedded Content. The Embed setting for the XCFrameworks must be “Embed & Sign”. - On the “Build Settings” tab of your application target, ensure that the “Framework Search Paths” include the paths to the frameworks. This should have been done automatically unless the framework is stored under a different root directory than your project.
Imports
The DAI Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK can be imported into code a few different ways; @import BrightcoveDAI;, #import <BrightcoveDAI/BrightcoveDAI.h> or #import <BrightcoveDAI/[specific class].h>. You can import the GoogleInteractiveMediaAds and BrightcovePlayerSDK modules in similar fashion.
Quick Start
The BrightcoveDAI plugin is a bridge between Google IMA iOS SDK v3 and the Brightcove Player SDK for iOS. This snippet shows its basic usage with SourceID.
[1] IMASettings *imaSettings = [IMASettings new];
imaSettings.ppid = kViewControllerIMAPublisherID;
imaSettings.language = kViewControllerIMALanguage;
IMAAdsRenderingSettings *adsRenderingSettings = [IMAAdsRenderingSettings new];
adsRenderingSettings.linkOpenerDelegate = self;
adsRenderingSettings.linkOpenerPresentingController = self;
UIView *videoContainerView = <UIView of video container>;
[2] BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy *adsRequestPolicy = [BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy videoPropertiesAdsRequestPolicy];
BCOVPlayerSDKManager *manager = [BCOVPlayerSDKManager sharedManager];
id<BCOVPlaybackController> controller =
[3] [manager createDAIPlaybackControllerWithSettings:imaSettings
adsRenderingSettings:adsRenderingSettings
adsRequestPolicy:adsRequestPolicy
adContainer:playerView.contentOverlayView
viewController:self
companionSlots:nil
viewStrategy:nil];
controller.delegate = self;
[videoContainerView addSubview:playerView];
NSString *policyKey = <your-policy-key>;
NSString *accountId = <your-account-id>;
NSString *videoID = <your-video-id>;
BCOVPlaybackService *playbackService = [[BCOVPlaybackService alloc] initWithAccountId:accountID
policyKey:policyKey];
NSDictionary *configuration = @{
kBCOVPlaybackServiceConfigurationKeyVideoID:videoID
};
[playbackService findVideoWithConfiguration:configuration
queryParameters:nil
completion:^(BCOVVideo *video,
NSDictionary *jsonResponse,
NSError *error) {
[controller setVideos:@[ video ]];
[controller play];
}];
Breaking the code down into steps:
- Create the same IMA settings, ads rendering settings that you would create if you were using Google’s IMA iOS SDK directly.
- BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy provides methods to specify DAI Streams for VOD and Live. Select the appropriate method to select your ads policy.
- BrightcoveDAI adds some category methods to BCOVPlaybackManager. The first of these is
-createDAIPlaybackControllerWithSettings:adsRenderingSettings:adsRequestPolicy:adContainer:viewController:companionSlots:viewStrategy:. Use this method to create your playback controller.
Play and Pause
The Brightcove DAI Plugin implements custom play and pause logic to ensure the smoothest possible ad experience. Therefore, you will need to make sure that you use the play method on the BCOVPlaybackController or the -[BCOVSessionProviderExtension dai_play] or -[BCOVSessionProviderExtension dai_pause] (BCOVSessionProviderExtension), and not the AVPlayer.
Using the Built-In PlayerUI
In your UIViewController, create a BCOVPUIPlayerView property called the player view, to contain the playback controls, the video content view, and a special view where DAI can display its ads.
// PlayerUI's player view
@property (nonatomic) BCOVPUIPlayerView *playerView;
Then create your player view; supply a nil playback controller which will be added later. This player view contains both the video content view and the view that displays playback controls and ad controls. This setup is the same no matter what plugin you are using. Set up the player view to match the video container from your layout (videoView) when it resizes.
// Create and configure Control View.
BCOVPUIBasicControlView *controlView = [BCOVPUIBasicControlView basicControlViewWithVODLayout];
// Create the player view with a nil playback controller.
self.playerView = [[BCOVPUIPlayerView alloc] initWithPlaybackController:nil options:nil controlsView:controlView];
// Add BCOVPUIPlayerView to your video view.
[self.videoView 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
self.playerView.frame = self.videoView.bounds;
self.playerView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
Auto Layout
self.playerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
[NSLayoutConstraint activateConstraints:@[
[self.playerView.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoView.topAnchor],
[self.playerView.rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoView.rightAnchor],
[self.playerView.leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoView.leftAnchor],
[self.playerView.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.videoView.bottomAnchor],
]];
Creating the playback controller is specific to DAI. Create your playback controller as you did above, but instead of your video container view, pass in the contentOverlayView from the player view as your adContainer. The contentOverlayView is a special view used for overlaying views on the main video content.
// Create the playback controller.
id<BCOVPlaybackController> controller =
[manager createDAIPlaybackControllerWithSettings:imaSettings
adsRenderingSettings:adsRenderingSettings
adsRequestPolicy:adsRequestPolicy
adContainer:playerView.contentOverlayView
viewController:self
companionSlots:nil
viewStrategy:nil];
controller.delegate = self;
// Assign new playback controller to the player view.
// This associates the playerController's session with the PlayerUI.
// You can keep this player view around and assign new
// playback controllers to it as they are created.
self.playerView.playbackController = self.playbackController;
Now, when playing video with ads, you will see the PlayerUI controls while playing video content, plus ad markers on the timeline scrubber.
The PlayerUI is highly customizable. For more information and sample code, please see Custom Layouts section in the README.md file of the Brightcove Native Player SDK repository.
Seek Without Ads
Use -[BCOVPlaybackController seekWithoutAds:(CMTime)seekToTime completionHandler:(void (^)(BOOL finished))completion] to resume playback at a specific time without forcing the user to watch ads scheduled before seekToTime.
In preparation for seekWithoutAds:completionHandler:, disable autoPlay when setting up the BCOVPlaybackController.
Apple recommends waiting for the status of an AVPlayerItem to change to ready-to-play before using the AVPlayerItem. Therefore, call seekWithoutAds:completionHandler: in the kBCOVPlaybackSessionLifecycleEventReady handler of the playbackController:playbackSession:didReceiveLifecycleEvent method of your BCOVPlaybackControllerDelegate.
```objective-c
- (void)playbackController:(NSObject
// seek without playing ads which are scheduled before the seek time, i.e. resume playback.
[controller seekWithoutAds:CMTimeMake(seekWithoutAdsValue, seekWithoutAdsTimescale)
completionHandler:^(BOOL finished) {
if (!finished)
{
NSLog (@"seekWithoutAds failed to finish");
}
typeof(controller) strongController = weakController;
if (strongController)
{
// fade out the shutter to reveal the player view.
strongController.shutterFadeTime = 0.25;
strongController.shutter = NO;
// turn off seek without ads - especially important if this player is being used with a playlist
self.resumePlayback = NO;
}
}];
}
} } ```
The shutter and shutterFadeTime properties of the BCOVPlaybackController can be used along with seekWithoutAds:completionHandler: to hide frame-flicker which can occur as the AVPlayer loads assets. In your BCOVPlaybackController set-up code, enable the shutter to hide the player view:
```objective-c
NSObject
playbackController = [sdkManager createFWPlaybackControllerWithAdContextPolicy:nil viewStrategy:nil]; playbackController.delegate = self;
if (self.resumePlayback) { // set the shutter fade time to zero to hide the player view immediately. playbackController.shutterFadeTime = 0.0; playbackController.shutter = YES;
// disable autoPlay when resuming playback.
playbackController.autoPlay = NO;
} ```
Note that when Seek Without Ads is used in your app, you might observe network traffic which normally occurs as part of setting up the DAI plugin. This traffic is necessary for proper plugin setup, and does not affect the Seek Without Ads functionality.
Customizing Plugin Behavior
There are a couple of configuration points in BCOVDAI. You can combine BCOVDAI with another plugin for the Brightcove Player SDK for iOS, you can create a custom view strategy, and you can supply a custom ads request policy.
Ads Request Policy for VOD and Live
BCOVDAI gives you control over how ads requests are made, via the BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy class. The class provides factory methods for the supported policies. Once you obtain an instance of the correct policy, you need to provide it to the BCOVPlayerSDKManager to create a playback controller or a playback session provider.
In Quick Start, an example using the SourceID is given. Here is a video properties.
IMASettings *imaSettings = [IMASettings new];
imaSettings.ppid = kViewControllerIMAPublisherID;
imaSettings.language = kViewControllerIMALanguage;
IMAAdsRenderingSettings *adsRenderingSettings = [IMAAdsRenderingSettings new];
adsRenderingSettings.linkOpenerDelegate = self;
adsRenderingSettings.linkOpenerPresentingController = self;
UIView *videoContainerView = <UIView of video container>;
[1] BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy *adsRequestPolicy = [BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy videoPropertiesAdsRequestPolicy];
[manager createDAIPlaybackControllerWithSettings:imaSettings
adsRenderingSettings:adsRenderingSettings
adsRequestPolicy:adsRequestPolicy
adContainer:playerView.contentOverlayView
viewController:self
companionSlots:nil
viewStrategy:nil];
Let’s break this code down into steps, to make it a bit simpler to digest:
- This example is the same as the one provided in the quick-start, except that we are now calling a different
BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicypolicy method to specify that we want to use video properties.
BCOVDAIAdsRequestPolicy has two factory methods to generate ads request policy; one for VOD and one for Live. The factory method for VOD is described in more detail below:
+videoPropertiesAdsRequestPolicy:: This method returns an ads request policy which looks for thekBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeySourceIdandkBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeyVideoIdin each BCOVVideo’s properties to determine the DAI Stream.
There is one factory method for Live. The Live policy is as follows:
+videoPropertiesAssetKeyAdsRequestPolicy:This method returns an ads request policy that checks each BCOVVideo’s properties for the keykBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeyAssetKeyto determine the DAI Live Stream.
You can add properties to a video by using the update: method on the BCOVVideo object. The following example adds the properties needed for VOD:
// Objective-C
- (BCOVVideo *)updateVideo:(BCOVVideo *)video
{
return [video update:^(id<BCOVMutableVideo> mutableVideo)
{
NSDictionary *adProperties = @{
kBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeySourceId: kViewControllerGoogleDAISourceId,
kBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeyVideoId: kViewControllerGoogleDAIVideoId
};
NSMutableDictionary *propertiesToUpdate = mutableVideo.properties.mutableCopy;
[propertiesToUpdate addEntriesFromDictionary:adProperties];
mutableVideo.properties = propertiesToUpdate;
}];
}
// Swift
func updateVideo(_ video: BCOVVideo) -> BCOVVideo {
return update { (mutableVideo: BCOVMutableVideo?) in
guard let mutableVideo = mutableVideo else {
return
}
if var updatedProperties = mutableVideo.properties {
updatedProperties[kBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeySourceId] = GoogleDAIConfig.SourceID
updatedProperties[kBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeyVideoId] = GoogleDAIConfig.VideoID
mutableVideo.properties = updatedProperties
}
}
}
Modifying the IMAStreamRequest
The DAI Plugin passes an IMAStreamRequest object to a BCOVDAIPlaybackSessionDelegate immediately before calling IMAAdsLoader -requestStreamWithRequest, allowing the user to first modify the ads request. To receive the ads request callback, create an object that implements the BCOVDAIPlaybackSessionDelegate protocol.
@import BrightcovePlayerSDK;
@import BrightcoveDAI;
@interface MyViewController : UIViewController <BCOVDAIPlaybackSessionDelegate>
Create a BCOVDAISessionProvider using either createDAIPlaybackControllerWithSettings or createDAISessionProviderWithSettings, and provide an NSDictionary of options with an entry having a key of kBCOVDAIOptionDAIPlaybackSessionDelegateKey and a value which is your delegate.
NSDictionary *daiSessionProviderOptions = @{ kBCOVDAIOptionDAIPlaybackSessionDelegateKey: self };
id<BCOVPlaybackSessionProvider> daiSessionProvider =
[sdkManager createDAISessionProviderWithSettings:imaSettings
adsRenderingSettings:renderSettings
adsRequestPolicy:adsRequestPolicy
adContainer:self.playerView.contentOverlayView
viewController:self
companionSlots:ni
upstreamSessionProvider:nil
options:daiSessionProviderOptions];
Implement willCallIMAAdsLoaderRequestAdsWithRequest: in your BCOVDAIPlaybackSessionDelegate.
- (void)willCallIMAAdsLoaderRequestAdsWithRequest:(IMAStreamRequest *)adsRequest
{
adsRequest.adTagParameters = @{
@"rdp" : @"1",
@"myAdTargetingTest": @"1"
};
adsRequest.authToken = @"<your-auth-token>";
adsRequest.apiKey = @"<your-api-key>";
}
View Strategy
You can provide a custom view strategy to the BCOVPlaybackManager when you are constructing your playback controller or session provider, rather than specify the defaultControlsViewStrategy directly. With a custom view strategy, the ad container view and ad companion slots can be tied with the video content view. This is an example of custom view strategy.
BCOVPlaybackControllerViewStrategy customViewStrategy = ^UIView* (UIView *view, id<BCOVPlaybackController> playbackController){
BCOVPlaybackControllerViewStrategy defaultControlsViewStrategy = [playbackManager defaultControlsViewStrategy];
UIView *contentAndDefaultControlsView = defaultControlsViewStrategy(view, playbackController);
[<UIView of video container> addSubview:contentAndDefaultControlsView];
return <UIView of video container>;
};
Composing Session Providers
If you are using more than one plugin to the Brightcove Player SDK for iOS that needs to create a customized playback controller, you must instead compose a chain of session providers and pass the final session provider to the -[BCOVPlayerSDKManager createPlaybackControllerWithSessionProvider:viewStrategy:] method.
When composing session providers, the session preloading can be enabled from BCOVBasicSessionProvider; however, preloading sessions with DAI plugin is strongly discouraged due to a bug in the Google IMA SDK when having multiple AVPlayers in memory.
Registering Ad Overlays
If you are placing any views over ads while they are playing, it is necceessary to register those views with the IMA SDK. Read the Friendly obstructions section of the Open Measurement in the IMA SDK page for more information.
You can get the current IMAAdDisplayContainer object neccessary to register your overlays from the playbackController:playbackSession:didEnterAdSequence: delegate method of your BCOVPlaybackController instance. For example:
- (void)playbackController:(id<BCOVPlaybackController>)controller playbackSession:(id<BCOVPlaybackSession>)session didEnterAdSequence:(BCOVAdSequence *)adSequence
{
NSDictionary *props = session.video.properties;
IMAAdDisplayContainer *adDisplayContainer = props[kBCOVDAIVideoPropertiesKeyAdDisplayContainer];
[adDisplayContainer registerFriendlyObstruction:self.adOverlayView];
}
To unregister the obstructions when the ad sequence is finished, the playbackController:playbackSession:didExitAdSequence: delegate method of your BCOVPlaybackController instance can be used. For example:
- (void)playbackController:(id<BCOVPlaybackController>)controller playbackSession:(id<BCOVPlaybackSession>)session didExitAdSequence:(BCOVAdSequence *)adSequence
{
NSDictionary *props = session.video.properties;
IMAAdDisplayContainer *adDisplayContainer = props[kBCOVIMAVideoPropertiesKeyAdDisplayContainer];
[adDisplayContainer unregisterAllFriendlyObstructions];
}
AirPlay
Brightcove does not offer support for using AirPlay with the DAI plugin. Google’s IMA SDK does not fully support AirPlay, and the usage of AirPlay with the DAI plugin is not recommended at this time. There are likely to be unexpected behaviors and bugs for which no solution exists.
However, if you wish to use this functionality in your apps set enableBackgroundPlayback to YES on IMASettings along with enabling AirPlay on your BCOVPlaybackController. See the “AirPlay” section of the Core SDK README for more information.
Picture-in-Picture
The Brightcove DAI plugin can be used with Brightcove’s Picture-in-Picture support.
Ads can not be started if Picture-in-Picture is active, however if an ad is playing when Picture-in-Picture begins it will continue playing in the Picture-in-Picture window.
AVPlayerViewController Support
Displaying Ad UI
If you’d like to display your own Ad UI during ad playback you can use the playbackController:playbackSession:didReceiveLifecycleEvent: delegate method. Here is an example:
#pragma mark BCOVPlaybackControllerDelegate
- (void)playbackController:(id<BCOVPlaybackController>)controller playbackSession:(id<BCOVPlaybackSession>)session didReceiveLifecycleEvent:(BCOVPlaybackSessionLifecycleEvent *)lifecycleEvent
{
...
if ([lifecycleEvent.eventType isEqualToString:kBCOVDAILifecycleEventAdsManagerDidReceiveAdEvent])
{
IMAAdEvent *adEvent = lifecycleEvent.properties[@"adEvent"];
}
switch (adEvent.type)
{
case kIMAAdEvent_STARTED:
[self displayAdUI];
break;
case kIMAAdEvent_COMPLETE:
[self hideAdUI];
break;
default:
break;
}
}
Known Issues / Limitations
- The use of Brightcove VOD Streams are limited.
- DRM is not supported.
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.