Playing Video From UITableView

Question

My main goal is to be able to click on a table view item and load a video. The table view is populated with the contents of the documents directory and I have been able to do this successfully and add the filename to the cell's label, I have done this with the following code:

void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0]; // Get documents folder
    NSString *dataPath = documentsDirectory;
    filePathsArray = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] subpathsOfDirectoryAtPath:dataPath  error:nil];

}

-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{

   return [filePathsArray count];

}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *simpleTableIdentifier = @"SimpleTableCell";

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:simpleTableIdentifier];

    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:simpleTableIdentifier];
    }

    cell.textLabel.text = [filePathsArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    return cell;
}

However the part I am finding difficult is opening the file part. This is my code so far:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSLog(@"didSelectRowAtIndexPath");
    myURL=[NSURL URLWithString:[filePathsArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]];
    MPMoviePlayerController *moviePlayerController = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:myURL];
    [self.view addSubview:moviePlayerController.view];
    moviePlayerController.fullscreen = YES;
    [moviePlayerController play];
    [self setController:moviePlayerController];
    [tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];
}

What happens when a user clicks on a UITableView cell is that the video player opens full screen and it just says "loading..." the entire time and the video does not load, no errors are reported either in the debugger. What should the variable myURL be set equal to? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Finally figured it out after a while there was two problems it was only fetching the name not the full file directory e.g. var/mobile... and there was a problem with the video player too, this is the working code for anyone wanting to do the same as me:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
NSLog(@"didSelectRowAtIndexPath");

NSString *currentFileName = [filePathsArray[indexPath.row] lastPathComponent];
NSString *documentsDirectoryPath = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectoryPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:currentFileName];

//Play the movie now
NSURL *videoURL =[NSURL fileURLWithPath:filePath];
MPMoviePlayerViewController *videoPlayerView = [[MPMoviePlayerViewController alloc] initWithContentURL:videoURL];
videoPlayerView.moviePlayer.fullscreen=TRUE;

[self presentMoviePlayerViewControllerAnimated:videoPlayerView];
[videoPlayerView.moviePlayer play];
[tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];

}

Answer 2

A NSURL is different from a path as in it contains the protocol used to access the resource. For example, the http:// in the http://stackoverflow.com

I guess the problem is that you're creating a URL from a path string, try this:

NSString *urlStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"file://%@", [filePathsArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]];
myURL = [NSURL URLWithString:urlStr];