Play video downloaded through CloudKit as CKAsset - iOS - ios

Question

I'm making an app that records video, uploads it to iCloud using CloudKit with a CKAsset, then downloads the file and plays it in an AVPlayer. This is all written in Swift 2.0
I have gotten the data downloaded, and I think I've been able to reference it but I'm not sure. Data/garbage does print when I convert the URL into an NSData object and print it to the console. The video files gets downloaded as a binary file however. I was able to go to the CloudKit dashboard and download the file and append '.mov' to it, and it opened in Quicktime no problem.
So I think my main issue is that I can't work out how to get the video file to actually play, since the file has no extension. I have tried appending '.mov' to the end with URLByAppendingPathExtension() to no avail. Let me know of any ideas!
Upload Video
func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : AnyObject]) {
let tempURL = info[UIImagePickerControllerMediaURL] as! NSURL
dismissViewControllerAnimated(true) { () -> Void in
self.uploadVideoToiCloud(tempURL)
print("\n Before Upload: \(tempURL)\n")
}
}
func uploadVideoToiCloud(url: NSURL) {
let videoRecord = CKRecord(recordType: "video", recordID: id)
videoRecord["title"] = "This is the title"
let videoAsset = CKAsset(fileURL: url)
videoRecord["video"] = videoAsset
CKContainer.defaultContainer().privateCloudDatabase.saveRecord(videoRecord) { (record, error) -> Void in
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), { () -> Void in
if error == nil {
print("upload successful")
} else {
print(error!)
}
})
}
}
Download Video
func downloadVideo(id: CKRecordID) {
privateDatabase.fetchRecordWithID(id) { (results, error) -> Void in
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) { () -> Void in
if error != nil {
print(" Error Fetching Record " + error!.localizedDescription)
} else {
if results != nil {
print("pulled record")
let record = results!
let videoFile = record.objectForKey("video") as! CKAsset
self.videoURL = videoFile.fileURL
print(" After Download: \(self.videoURL!)")
self.videoAsset = AVAsset(URL: self.videoURL!)
self.playVideo()
} else {
print("results Empty")
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

The root problem is that AVPlayer expects a file extension, for example .mov, but CKAsset's fileURL property points to a file that lacks an extension. The cleanest solution is to create a hard link, which avoids shuffling megabytes of data around and requires no disk space:
- (NSURL *)videoURL {
return [self createHardLinkToVideoFile];
}
- (NSURL *)createHardLinkToVideoFile {
NSError *err;
if (![self.hardURL checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError:nil]) {
if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager] linkItemAtURL:self.asset.fileURL toURL:self.hardURL error:&err]) {
// if creating hard link failed it is still possible to create a copy of self.asset.fileURL and return the URL of the copy
}
}
return self.hardURL;
}
- (void)removeHardLinkToVideoFile {
NSError *err;
if ([self.hardURL checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError:nil]) {
if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager] removeItemAtURL:self.hardURL error:&err]) {
}
}
}
- (NSURL *)hardURL {
return [self.asset.fileURL URLByAppendingPathExtension:#"mov"];
}
Then in the view controller, point AVPlayer to videoURL instead of asset.fileURL.

Answer 2

Solution ended up being that I forgot to specify the filename before I wrote the data to it. I was using URLByAppendingPathExtension and it messed up the URL, ended up using URLByAppendingPathComponent and adding a filename there. Here's the solution that worked for me! Thanks for the comments guys.
func downloadVideo(id: CKRecordID) {
privateDatabase.fetchRecordWithID(id) { (results, error) -> Void in
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) { () -> Void in
if error != nil {
print(" Error Fetching Record " + error!.localizedDescription)
} else {
if results != nil {
print("pulled record")
let record = results as CKRecord!
let videoFile = record.objectForKey("video") as! CKAsset
self.videoURL = videoFile.fileURL as NSURL!
let videoData = NSData(contentsOfURL: self.videoURL!)
let documentsPath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.DocumentDirectory, .UserDomainMask, true)[0]
let destinationPath = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: documentsPath).URLByAppendingPathComponent("filename.mov", isDirectory: false) //This is where I messed up.
NSFileManager.defaultManager().createFileAtPath(destinationPath.path!, contents:videoData, attributes:nil)
self.videoURL = destinationPath
self.videoAsset = AVURLAsset(URL: self.videoURL!)
self.playVideo()
} else {
print("results Empty")
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 3

Here's the solution for multiple video download from CloudKit. Using this you can store the video on multiple destination and get easily file path
import AVKit
import CloudKit
var assetForVideo = [CKAsset]()
var videoURLForGetVideo = NSURL()
database.perform(queryForVideo, inZoneWith: nil) { [weak self] record, Error in
guard let records = record, Error == nil else {
return
}
DispatchQueue.main.async { [self] in
self?.assetForVideo = records.compactMap({ $0.value(forKey: "video") as? CKAsset })
for (i,dt) in self!.assetForVideo.enumerated(){
self!.videoURLForGetVideo = (dt.fileURL as NSURL?)!
let videoData = NSData(contentsOf: self!.videoURLForGetVideo as URL)
let documentsPath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.documentDirectory, .userDomainMask, true)[0]
let destinationPath = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: documentsPath).appendingPathComponent(self!.assetForVideo.count == i ? "filename\(self!.assetForVideo.count).mov" : "filename\(i+1).mov", isDirectory: false)! as NSURL
FileManager.default.createFile(atPath: destinationPath.path!, contents: videoData as Data?, attributes: nil)
self?.videoURLForGetVideo = destinationPath
self!.videoAssett = AVURLAsset(url: self!.videoURLForGetVideo as URL)
let abc = self!.videoAssett.url
let videoURL = URL(string: "\(abc)")
}
}
}