Pass tap gesture from UIView to underlying AVPlayer - ios

Question

I have an AVPlayerViewController that will have some views on top of it (only when it's in fullscreen). The views have gesture recognizers on them (these work). The problem is that when a user taps on one of the views (they are invisible) the player doesn't also receive the touch... I need the player to show the player controls then..
This is how I add the views
_topHelperView = [[UIView alloc] init];
_topHelperView.backgroundColor = [UIColor purpleColor];
_middleHelperView = [[UIView alloc] init];
_middleHelperView.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
[self setHelperFrames];
_topTapGestureRecognizer = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:#selector(handleHelperTapGesture:)];
_topTapGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;
_topTapGestureRecognizer.cancelsTouchesInView = NO;
_middleTapGestureRecognizer = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:#selector(handleHelperTapGesture:)];
_middleTapGestureRecognizer.cancelsTouchesInView = NO;
_middleTapGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;
I also implemented the delegate:
- (BOOL)gestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer shouldReceiveTouch:(UITouch *)touch {
return YES;
}
// this enables you to handle multiple recognizers on single view
- (BOOL)gestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer shouldRecognizeSimultaneouslyWithGestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)otherGestureRecognizer{
NSLog(#"should Handle simultaneously %# %#",gestureRecognizer,otherGestureRecognizer);
return YES;
}
This doesn't work .. the player doesn't show the controls when either view is tapped.. it only shows them when it's tapped directly ..
Any workaround for this?

Answer 1

Touch events stop when a view (actually a UIResponder) responds to them. So if you have a gesture recognizer attached to a view on top of your AVPlayerViewController, the gesture recognizer will catch the events and the AVPlayerViewController will not. This is by design.
Why not have your view send messages to the AVPlayerViewController in response to the user's gestures? AVPlayerViewController has a property showsPlaybackControls. Set that to YES if you want the player to show its controls.