how to cache or preload youtube video in uiwebview - ios

Question

I have a youtube video that plays in a uiwebview in my app. The cell signal is not very good in most areas I am using the app.
How can I cache the youtube video for better performance when playing the video?

Answer 1

Try this
I start downloading the video file with a NSURLConnection
I then implement the received data delegate method like the following.
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)aConnection didReceiveData:(NSData *)aData
{
bytesFetched += aData.length;
if( bytesFetched > kBytesRequiredBeforeStart && !hasCachedData ) // kBytesRequiredBeforeStart = 160000
{
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:kVideoURLCacheHasDataNotification object:self];
hasCachedData = YES;
}
[self.fileHandle writeData:aData]; // this file handle is not closed until after the video has finished downloading
}
The fileHandle is created like this
- (NSFileHandle *)fileHandle
{
if( fileHandle == nil )
{
NSError * theError = nil;
cachedURL = [[NSURL fileURLWithPath:[NSTemporaryDirectory() stringByAppendingFormat:#"/%#", kTempFileName]] retain];
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] createFileAtPath:[self.cachedURL path] contents:nil attributes:nil];
fileHandle = [[NSFileHandle fileHandleForWritingToURL:self.cachedURL error:&theError] retain];
if( fileHandle == nil )
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:kVideoURLCacheErrorOccuredNotification object:self];
}
return fileHandle;
}
*I also have a did finish delegate handling method like this*
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection
{
if( hasCachedData == NO )
{
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:kVideoURLCacheHasDataNotification object:self];
hasCachedData = YES;
}
hasFinishedCaching = YES;
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:kVideoURLCacheDidFinishLoadingNotification object:self];
}
I then have a method to observer the notification like the following
- (void)videoURLCacheHasDataNotification:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
[self.videoController play];
}
where the videoController is an instance of MPMoviePlayerController created like below, cachedURL is the same one defined above.
- (MPMoviePlayerController *)videoController
{
if( videoController == nil )
{
NSURL * theURL = self.videoURLCache.cachedURL;
NSLog( #"Video URL = '%#'", theURL );
videoController = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:theURL];
videoController.shouldAutoplay = NO;
[videoController setFullscreen:NO animated:NO];
videoController.view.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleLeftMargin|UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleRightMargin|UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
videoController.repeatMode = MPMovieRepeatModeOne;
videoController.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded;
videoController.view.frame = self.videoView.bounds;
[videoView addSubview:self.videoController.view];
}
NSParameterAssert(videoController != nil);
return videoController;
}