Chromecast

This module’s goal is to ease the integration of GoogleCast and the Akamai AMP Player for iOS. With just a few steps we can achieve this integration, let’s see how.

Installation

Just import the AmpChromecast.framework into your project. For more information check out the AmpCore’s documentation.

Note: Make sure to add the frameworks as Embedded Binaries or you’ll get an error about a missing image.

How to Use

Let’s first import the required frameworks:

import AmpCore
import AmpChromecast

Then, let’s add the related variables in our UIViewController:

var ampPlayer: AmpPlayer!
var ampChromecast: AmpChromecastManager!

And it’s time to instantiate them now in your viewDidLoad function:

ampPlayer = AmpPlayer(parentView: self.view)
ampPlayer.registerObserver(self)
ampPlayer.setLicense(license)
ampChromecast = AmpChromecastManager(ampPlayer: ampPlayer, parentViewController: self)
ampPlayer.play(url: url)

You will also need to send a new object with the media info of the active playback.

let builder = GCKMediaInformationBuilder()
builder.contentID = "https://sample-url/video.m3u8"
builder.streamType = .buffered
builder.contentType = "application/x-mpegURL"
ampChromecast.mediaInfo = builder.build()

For starting the video cast to a Chromecast device, just add your own button and assign it the custom class GCKUICastButton that way video cast will start the video cast flow automatically.

You will also be able to listen to several events from the AmpChromecastManager by implementing AmpChromecastObserver and assigning it to the manager as an observer. The way to achieve this is by using the ampChromecast.registerObserver(observer) method.

Chromecast Configuration.

Use these variables and methods to configure AMP Chromecast.

Variables

Methods

Playback

These are the playback related variables

Variables

Action Sheet

The following properties can be modified to configure the Action Sheet.

Variables

Queue management

The Chromecast queue can also be managed through several methods provided to the user by using the following methods.

Variables

Methods

Player Event Observer

List of the observable events by the Chromecast Player Event Observer.

External Playback Delegate

This is the list of the External Playback Delegate Methods

Captions set up

To implement Closed Captions for a custom receiver with the AMP iOS SDK:

First, set the captions type and source.

For embedded captions, create a new track for the captions, using the GCKMediaTrack init, setting the contentIdentifier to an empty string and the contentType to “text/cea608”.

let captionsTrack = GCKMediaTrack.init(identifier: 1, contentIdentifier: "", contentType: "text/cea608", type: GCKMediaTrackType.text, textSubtype: GCKMediaTextTrackSubtype.captions, name: "English Captions", languageCode: "en", customData: nil)

For VTT captions, create a new track for the captions, using the GCKMediaTrack init, setting the contentIdentifier to the VTT captions file URL and the contentType to “text/vtt”

let captionsTrack = GCKMediaTrack.init(identifier: 1, contentIdentifier: "https://some-url/caption_en.vtt", contentType: "text/vtt", type: GCKMediaTrackType.text, textSubtype: GCKMediaTextTrackSubtype.captions, name: "English Captions", languageCode: "en", customData: nil)

Next, create an array of tracks that contains the previously created track.

let tracks = [captionsTrack]

Finally, create the mediaInfo file using the parameters shown, setting them as required by your implementation.

var mediaInfo = GCKMediaInformation(contentID: url, streamType: .buffered, contentType: "application/x-mpegURL", metadata: metadata, streamDuration: TimeInterval(100), mediaTracks:tracks, textTrackStyle:nil, customData: nil)