MediaPlayer.framework (MPMoviePlayerController) playing movie from URL that requires access credentials - ios

Question

i am having problems with playing movie from URL that has basic http authentification.
Here is code:
NSURLCredential *credential = [[NSURLCredential alloc]
initWithUser:#"user"
password:#"password"
persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceForSession];
NSURLProtectionSpace *protectionSpace = [[NSURLProtectionSpace alloc]
initWithHost:#"moze.dyndns.org"
port:80
protocol:#"http"
realm:nil
authenticationMethod:NSURLAuthenticationMethodHTTPBasic];
[[NSURLCredentialStorage sharedCredentialStorage] setDefaultCredential:credential forProtectionSpace:protectionSpace];
NSURL *videoURL = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://moze.dyndns.org/test/test.mov"];
moviePlayerController = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:videoURL];
[moviePlayerController.view setFrame:self.view.bounds];
[self.view addSubview:moviePlayerController.view];
MPMoviePlayerController *mp = [moviePlayerController moviePlayer];
mp.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleDefault;
[mp prepareToPlay];
[[moviePlayerController moviePlayer] play];
I am getting error "The operation couldn't be completed. (MediaPlayerErrorDomain error -1013.)", errorLog in NULL, just like accessLog too.
I am using a apache server with AuthType Basic, credentials are right, tested them on web browser. There are no problems with playback if authentification is disabled.
Please help, I can't find what is wrong.

Answer 1

I couldn't get MPMoviePlayerController to do the authentication challenge properly, even thought the Apple docs say otherwise. The VERY hacky solution I came up with was to use Apple's CustomHTTPProtocol to intercept the response and provide the authentication challenge response. I believe the original purpose for this protocol was to handle authentication for UIWebViews.
Link to CustomHTTPProtocol:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/samplecode/CustomHTTPProtocol/Listings/Read_Me_About_CustomHTTPProtocol_txt.html
My interface declaration:
#interface SampleViewController() <CustomHTTPProtocolDelegate>
Instantiation of MPMoviePlayerController within my SampleViewController:
NSString *fullURLString = #"http://www.samplesite.com/samplemovie.mp4";
NSURL *fullURL = [NSURL URLWithString:fullURLString];
[CustomHTTPProtocol setDelegate:self];
[CustomHTTPProtocol start];
NSURLCredential *credential = [[NSURLCredential alloc]
initWithUser:#"username"
password:#"password"
persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceForSession];
NSURLProtectionSpace *protectionSpace = [[NSURLProtectionSpace alloc]
initWithHost:fullURL.host
port:80
protocol:fullURL.scheme
realm:#"your-realm"
authenticationMethod:NSURLAuthenticationMethodDefault];
[[NSURLCredentialStorage sharedCredentialStorage] setDefaultCredential:credential forProtectionSpace:protectionSpace];
self.moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:fullURL];
[self.moviePlayer prepareToPlay];
[self.moviePlayer setShouldAutoplay:NO];
[self.moviePlayer setControlStyle:MPMovieControlStyleEmbedded];
[self.moviePlayer.view setFrame:self.sampleView.bounds];
[self.moviePlayer.backgroundView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.9 alpha:1.0]];
[self.moviePlayer.view setAutoresizingMask:UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight];
[self.sampleView addSubview:self.moviePlayer.view];
Also in my SampleViewController, I have a couple delegate methods. For basic authentication, it's pretty simple:
- (BOOL)customHTTPProtocol:(CustomHTTPProtocol *)protocol canAuthenticateAgainstProtectionSpace:(NSURLProtectionSpace *)protectionSpace
{
BOOL canAuth = ([[protectionSpace authenticationMethod] isEqual:NSURLAuthenticationMethodHTTPBasic] &&
[[protectionSpace realm] isEqualToString:#"your-realm"]);
return canAuth;
}
- (void)customHTTPProtocol:(CustomHTTPProtocol *)protocol didReceiveAuthenticationChallenge:(NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *)challenge
{
NSURLCredential *newCredential = [NSURLCredential credentialWithUser:#"username"
password:#"password"
persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceForSession];
[[challenge sender] useCredential:newCredential forAuthenticationChallenge:challenge];
}
After you call start, all http and https requests go through the CustomHTTPProtocol module
I didn't include CustomHTTPProtocol since Apple provides the source and it's really long. I made some changes to make it work with ARC but it's mostly the same code.
Hopefully this works for you.