Swift iOS -How to manage Notification.Name.AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime for different videos in multiple classes

Question

My app plays video throughout several vcs using AVFoundation. For example FirstController plays a video then a user can push on SecondController which also plays a video then they can push on the ThirdController which also plays a video... The same thing would apply if their switching tabs. There's a video screen on TabOne, TabTwo, and TabThree.

Instead of setting up all the playLayer code associated with AVFoundation in each class I created one class that contains a AVPlayerViewController() and add that class to each vc using addChildViewController().

The problem is since I have one class that manages AVFoundation the Notification.Name.AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime that gets notified when the player finishes playing can't distinguish one video on one vc from another video in a different vc. For example after a video finishes playing I show a replayButton. If the video in the first tab is playing, when I switch to TabTwo I pause that video, after the video on TabTwo finishes and the replayButton appears, if I switch back to TabOne, the replayButton will also appear on TabOne's screen (it should still show the pause button).

The problem is even though I have different instances of the AVFoundationManager, all the instances access the one showReplayButton() function that gets triggered when the notification fires.

How can I get around this?

I know I can check on the parent of the AVFoundationManager to find out which parent is managing it and use that inside the showReplayButton() function but I don't know which check to run on it.

AVFoundationManager:

class AVFoundationManager: UIViewController {

    ....

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        configureAVPlayerController()
    }

    func configureAVPlayerController() {

        let avPlayerVC = AVPlayerViewController()
        avPlayerVC.player = player
        avPlayerVC.view.frame = view.bounds
        avPlayerVC.showsPlaybackControls = false
        avPlayerVC.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill.rawValue
        addChildViewController(avPlayerVC)
        view.addSubview(avPlayerVC.view)
        avPlayerVC.didMove(toParentViewController: self)

        player?.replaceCurrentItem(with: playerItem!)
        player?.play()

        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(showReplayButton), name: NSNotification.Name.AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime, object: nil)

        playerItem?.addObserver(self, forKeyPath: #keyPath(AVPlayerItem.status),
                            options: [.old, .new],
                            context: &itemContext)
    }

    @obj func showReplayButton(){

        // if self.parent ... run a bool on the parent and enclose these two in the paranthesis?
        pausePlayButton.isHidden = true
        replayButton.isHidden = false
    }
}

TabOneClass:

let avFoundationManager = AVFoundationManager()
addChildViewController(avFoundationManager)
avFoundationManager.didMove(toParentViewController: self)

TabTwoClass:

let avFoundationManager = AVFoundationManager()
addChildViewController(avFoundationManager)
avFoundationManager.didMove(toParentViewController: self)

FirstController (root) in TabThree:

let avFoundationManager = AVFoundationManager()
addChildViewController(avFoundationManager)
avFoundationManager.didMove(toParentViewController: self)

SecondController (child) in TabThree:

let avFoundationManager = AVFoundationManager()
addChildViewController(avFoundationManager)
avFoundationManager.didMove(toParentViewController: self)

I had a similar problem, not quite that many videos though. I basically removed the previous notification observer on the setup, then re-added the new one, when setting up the new video — Paulo, Jun 24 '18 at 17:35
so you added the notification outside the class? Instead of me adding it inside the AVFoundationManager(), I remove it from there and add it individually to FirstController, SecondController, etc. Then when viewWillDisappear runs I remove it? — Lance Samaria, Jun 24 '18 at 17:37
Yeah, I created a function in the manager class, and fired that when I needed to — Paulo, Jun 24 '18 at 17:40
I know to how to do it but you should add it as an answer so if it works i'll accept it — Lance Samaria, Jun 24 '18 at 17:41

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 24 '18 at 18:00

I’m not saying this is the best answer, and if anyone else can come up with a better solution, please post :) From my understanding, the player cannot distinguish between the number of observers.

(Side note, currently on my phone, so apologies for the pseudo code)

class PlayerViewController {
// other code and functions
    func removeObservers() {
        NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self)
    }
}

In the viewWillDisappear call the remove observers function

Just remember to re-initialize your observers when you need them, either when you get the view to appear, or when you initialize the next video.

nah it didn’t work. The problem is the function that shows the replay button is inside the ABFoundationManager. Any class that sends it a notification it will notify the play to show the reply button. Thanks for the help anyway — Lance Samaria, Jun 25 '18 at 01:07

Lance Samaria · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-07T22:17:33.393

0

I got the answer from here

Inside the Notification, instead of setting the last argument object to nil set it to player.currentItem:

like this:

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(showReplayButton),
                                     name: NSNotification.Name.AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime,
                                     object: player?.currentItem)

edited Jul 07 '18 at 22:17

answered Jun 28 '18 at 01:40

Lance Samaria

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Swift iOS -How to manage Notification.Name.AVPlayerItemDidPlayToEndTime for different videos in multiple classes

2 Answers2