Permission Denied using file constructor for video_player - dart

Question

Okay so I have a relatively simple flutter program set up to test the video_player plugin (https://pub.dartlang.org/documentation/video_player/0.5.1/.)
The player works fine when I use the "Network" or "Asset" constructors for the controller but when I try to use the "file" constructor I run into permission denied errors. The file I am pointing to is an mp4 file that lives in the application documents folder ...
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:video_player/video_player.dart';
import 'dart:async';
import 'dart:io';
import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';
void main() => runApp(new MyApp());
//WILL NOT CHANGE
class MyApp extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_MyAppState createState() => new _MyAppState();
}
//WILL CHANGE
class _MyAppState extends State<MyApp> {
String _title = 'App Bar Demo';
String _myState = 'NO STATE';
VideoPlayerController _controller;
bool _isPlaying = false;
void setControllerDir() async{
}
Future<String> appDir() async{
final directory = await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory();
return directory.path;
}
void _pressed(String message) async {
//CORRECT
setState(() {
_myState = message;
}
);
var testPath = await appDir();
print(testPath);
//WRONG
//_myState = message;
print(_myState);
}
#override
void initState() {
super.initState();
//_controller = new VideoPlayerController.network('http://www.sample-videos.com/video/mp4/720/big_buck_bunny_720p_20mb.mp4',)
//_controller = new VideoPlayerController.asset('assets/test.mp4')
var file = new File('/data/user/0/com.example.videotest/app_flutter/test.mp4');
//_controller = new VideoPlayerController.asset('assets/test.mp4')
//final directory = await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory();
_controller = new VideoPlayerController.file(file)
..addListener(() {
final bool isPlaying = _controller.value.isPlaying;
if (isPlaying != _isPlaying) {
setState(() {
_isPlaying = isPlaying;
});
}
})
..initialize();
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new MaterialApp(
title: _title,
home: new Scaffold(
appBar: new AppBar(
title: new Text(_title),
actions: <Widget>[
new Text('text'),
new IconButton(icon: new Icon(Icons.add_alert), onPressed: () {_pressed('Alert Pressed');}),
new IconButton(icon: new Icon(Icons.print), onPressed: () {_pressed('Print Pressed');}),
new IconButton(icon: new Icon(Icons.people), onPressed: () {_pressed('People Pressed');}),
new RaisedButton(child: new Text('Button'),onPressed: () {_pressed('Button Pressed');}),
],
),
body: new Container(
padding: const EdgeInsets.all(10.0),
child: new AspectRatio(
aspectRatio: 1280 / 720,
child: new VideoPlayer(_controller),
),
),
floatingActionButton: new FloatingActionButton(
onPressed:
_controller.value.isPlaying ? _controller.pause : _controller.play,
child: new Icon(
_controller.value.isPlaying ? Icons.pause : Icons.play_arrow,
),
),
),
);
}
}
I'm new to Android and Flutter development. I tried adding external storage permissions to my manifest but that did not help. Anyway I am running flutter beta 2 and flutter doctor checks out fine. I added the video file using the uploader in the Device File Explorer in Android Studio and I can see the file there. Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks :-D

Answer 1

Okay, let me clarify what is going on here in case anyone stumbles upon this issue and needs some clarification. So I have a simple video_player application example that was not working when I tried to access a video file I had uploaded to the /data/user/0/com.example.videotest/app_flutter directory in my emulator using the device file explorer in Android Studio. I was getting permission denied errors. It turns out that I needed to open a terminal and use the "adb" tool to "push" the video file to that directory in order to get the permissions correct on the file and get the file constructor for the VideoController object to work with the file. But first I had to set the adb deamon to run as root to get the permission to push the file. So it boiled down to ...
adb root
adb push test.mp4 /data/user/0/com.example.videotest/app_flutter/