AVPlayer And Local Files

Question

I am building a MP3 player for iOS that plays audio files hosted on the web. I want to offer the ability to play the files offline so I have the files downloading using ASIHTTP but I am cannot seem to find info on initiallzing AVPlayer with a mp3 in the app documents directory. Has anyone done this before? Is it even possible?

*I posted an answer below that shows how to use the iOS AvPlayer for both local and http files. Hope this helps!

Answer 1

I decided to answer my own question because I felt like there is very little documentation on how to use the Apple provided AVPlayer for both local and stream (over http) files. To help understand the solution, I put together a sample project on GitHub in Objective-C and Swift The code below is Objective-C but you can download my Swift example to see that. It is very similar!

What I found is that the two ways of setting up the files are almost identical except for how you instantiate your NSURL for the Asset > PlayerItem > AVPlayer chain.

Here is an outline of the core methods

.h file (partial code)

-(IBAction) BtnGoClick:(id)sender;
-(IBAction) BtnGoLocalClick:(id)sender;
-(IBAction) BtnPlay:(id)sender;
-(IBAction) BtnPause:(id)sender;
-(void) setupAVPlayerForURL: (NSURL*) url;

.m file (partial code)

-(IBAction) BtnGoClick:(id)sender {

    NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:@""];

    [self setupAVPlayerForURL:url];
}

-(IBAction) BtnGoLocalClick:(id)sender {

    // - - - Pull media from documents folder

    //NSString* saveFileName = @"MyAudio.mp3";
    //NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    //NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
    //NSString *path = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:saveFileName];

    // - - -

    // - - - Pull media from resources folder

    NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"MyAudio" ofType:@"mp3"];

    // - - -

    NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath: path];

    [self setupAVPlayerForURL:url];
}

-(void) setupAVPlayerForURL: (NSURL*) url {
    AVAsset *asset = [AVURLAsset URLAssetWithURL:url options:nil];
    AVPlayerItem *anItem = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:asset];

    player = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:anItem];
    [player addObserver:self forKeyPath:@"status" options:0 context:nil];
}


- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context {

    if (object == player && [keyPath isEqualToString:@"status"]) {
        if (player.status == AVPlayerStatusFailed) {
            NSLog(@"AVPlayer Failed");
        } else if (player.status == AVPlayerStatusReadyToPlay) {
            NSLog(@"AVPlayer Ready to Play");
        } else if (player.status == AVPlayerItemStatusUnknown) {
            NSLog(@"AVPlayer Unknown");
        }
    }
}

-(IBAction) BtnPlay:(id)sender {
    [player play];
}

-(IBAction) BtnPause:(id)sender {
    [player pause];
}

Check out the Objective-C source code for a working example of this. Hope this helps!

-Update 12/7/2015 I now have a Swift example of the source code you can view here.

Answer 2

Yes,thats possible to download and save the .mp3(or any kind of file)into NSDocument directory and then you can retrive from that and play by using AVAudioPlayer.

NSString *downloadURL=**your url to download .mp3 file**

NSURL *url = [NSURLURLWithString:downloadURL];

NSURLConnectionalloc *downloadFileConnection = [[[NSURLConnectionalloc] initWithRequest:      [NSURLRequestrequestWithURL:url] delegate:self] autorelease];//initialize NSURLConnection

NSString *docDir = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask,  YES) objectAtIndex:0];

NSString *fileDocPath = [NSStringstringWithFormat:@"%@/",docDir];//document directory path

[fileDocPathretain];

NSFileManager *filemanager=[ NSFileManager defaultManager ];

NSError *error;

if([filemanager fileExistsAtPath:fileDocPath])
{

//just check existence of files in document directory
}

NSURLConnection is used to download the content.NSURLConnection Delegate methods are used to  support downloading.

(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response
{

}
-(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data
{
NSFileManager *filemanager=[NSFileManagerdefaultManager];
if(![filemanager fileExistsAtPath:filePath])
{
[[NSFileManagerdefaultManager] createFileAtPath:fileDocPath contents:nil attributes:nil];

}
NSFileHandle *handle = [NSFileHandlefileHandleForWritingAtPath:filePath];

[handle seekToEndOfFile];

[handle writeData:data];

[handle closeFile];
 }

-(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
 {
 UIAlertView *alertView=[[UIAlertViewalloc]initWithTitle:@”"message:
 [NSStringstringWithFormat:@"Connection failed!\n Error - %@ ", [error localizedDescription]]   delegate:nilcancelButtonTitle:@”Ok”otherButtonTitles:nil];
  [alertView show];
  [alertView release];
  [downloadFileConnectioncancel];//cancel downloding
  }

Retrieve the downloaded Audio and Play:

   NSString *docDir1 = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,   NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0];

   NSString *myfilepath = [docDir1 stringByAppendingPathComponent:YourAudioNameinNSDOCDir];

   NSLog(@”url:%@”,myfilepath);

   NSURL *AudioURL = [[[NSURLalloc]initFileURLWithPath:myfilepath]autorelease];

Just write your code to play Audio by using AudioURL

I Like to know if u have any clarification in this regard.

Thank you

Answer 3

its very difficult to play a song using a Avplayer why you are not use a MPMoviePlayerController player . i have play song from document directory .i am posting a code pls refer this .its working fine .and also u directly from url live .

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *publicDocumentsDir = [paths objectAtIndex:0];   
NSString *dataPath = [publicDocumentsDir stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Ringtone"];
NSString *fullPath = [dataPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:[obj.DownloadArray objectAtIndex:obj.tagvalue]];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO animated:NO];


NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:fullPath];

videoPlayer =[[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL: url];
[[videoPlayer view] setFrame: [self.view bounds]]; 
[vvideo addSubview: [videoPlayer view]];


videoPlayer.view.frame=CGRectMake(0, 0,260, 100);
videoPlayer.view.backgroundColor=[UIColor clearColor];
videoPlayer.controlStyle =   MPMovieControlStyleFullscreen;
videoPlayer.shouldAutoplay = YES;  
[videoPlayer play];
videoPlayer.repeatMode=YES;


NSNotificationCenter *notificationCenter = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
[notificationCenter addObserver:self selector:@selector(moviePlayerEvent:) name:MPMoviePlayerLoadStateDidChangeNotification object:videoPlayer];


/*  NSNotificationCenter *notificationCenter1 = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
[notificationCenter addObserver:self selector:@selector(moviePlayerEvent1:) name:MPMoviePlaybackStateStopped object:videoPlayer];
*/
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self 
                                         selector:@selector(playbackStateChange:)
                                             name:MPMoviePlayerLoadStateDidChangeNotification
                                           object:videoPlayer];
}

-(void)playbackStateChange:(NSNotification*)notification{

if([[UIApplication sharedApplication]respondsToSelector:@selector(setStatusBarHidden: withAnimation:)])
  { 
      [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO 
                                            withAnimation:UIStatusBarAnimationNone];
   }
  else 
   {

       [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:YES animated:NO];
   }
}

 -(void)moviePlayerEvent:(NSNotification*)aNotification{


   [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO withAnimation:NO];


}

  -(void)moviePlayerEvent1:(NSNotification*)aNotification{

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO withAnimation:NO];

 }

Answer 4

I got AVPlayer to work with local URL by prepending file:// to my local url

NSURL * localURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[@"file://" stringByAppendingString:YOUR_LOCAL_URL]];
AVPlayer * player = [[AVPlayer alloc] initWithURL:localURL];

Answer 5

Try this

NSString*thePath=[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"yourVideo" ofType:@"MOV"];
NSURL*theurl=[NSURL fileURLWithPath:thePath];