4

I want to implement video Player in Angular using Spring Boot Rest API. I can play the video but I can't make video seeking. Every time the video starts over and over again when I use Chrome or Edge.

I tried this endpoint:

@RequestMapping(value = "/play_video/{video_id}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    @ResponseBody public ResponseEntity<byte[]> getPreview1(@PathVariable("video_id") String video_id, HttpServletResponse response) {
        ResponseEntity<byte[]> result = null;
        try {
            String file = "/opt/videos/" + video_id + ".mp4";
            Path path = Paths.get(file);
            byte[] image = Files.readAllBytes(path);

            response.setStatus(HttpStatus.OK.value());
            HttpHeaders headers = new HttpHeaders();
            headers.setContentType(MediaType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM);
            headers.setContentLength(image.length);
            result = new ResponseEntity<byte[]>(image, headers, HttpStatus.OK);
        } catch (java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException e) {
            response.setStatus(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND.value());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            response.setStatus(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.value());
        }
        return result;
    }

I found this post which gives some ides: How to Implement HTTP byte-range requests in Spring MVC

But currently it's not working. Video is again playing from the start when I try to shift the position.

I use this player: https://github.com/smnbbrv/ngx-plyr

I have configured it this way:

<div class="media">
        <div
          class="class-video mr-3 mb-1"
          plyr
          [plyrPlaysInline]="true"
          [plyrSources]="gymClass.video"
          (plyrInit)="player = $event"
          (plyrPlay)="played($event)">
        </div>
        <div class="media-body">
          {{ gymClass.description }}
        </div>
      </div>

Do you know how I can fix this issue?

Peter Penzov
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2 Answers2

11

First solution: Using FileSystemResource

FileSystemResource internally handles byte-range header support, reading and writing the appropriate headers.

Two problems with this approach.

  1. It uses FileInputStream internally for reading files. This is fine for small files, but not for large files served through byte-range requests. FileInputStream will read the file from the beginning and discard the not needed content until it reches the requested start offset. This can cause slowdowns with larger files.

  2. It sets "application/json" as the "Content-Type" response header. So, I provide my own "Content-Type" header. See this thread

import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import org.springframework.core.io.FileSystemResource;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;

@Controller
public class Stream3 {
    @GetMapping(value = "/play_video/{video_id}")
    @ResponseBody
    public ResponseEntity<FileSystemResource> stream(@PathVariable("video_id") String video_id) {
        String filePathString = "/opt/videos/" + video_id + ".mp4";        
        final HttpHeaders responseHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
        responseHeaders.add("Content-Type", "video/mp4");
        return new ResponseEntity<>(new FileSystemResource(filePathString), responseHeaders, HttpStatus.OK);
    }
}

Second solution: Using HttpServletResponse and RandomAccessFile

With RandomAccessFile you can implement support for byte-range requests. The advantage over FileInputStream, is that you don't need to read the file from the beginning every time there is a new range request, making this method usable also for larger files. RandomAccessFile has a method called seek(long) which calls the C method fseek(), which directly moves the pointer for the file to the requested offset.

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestHeader;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;

@Controller
public class Stream {
    @GetMapping(value = "/play_video/{video_id}")
    @ResponseBody
    public void stream(        
            @PathVariable("video_id") String video_id,
            @RequestHeader(value = "Range", required = false) String rangeHeader,
            HttpServletResponse response) {

        try {
            OutputStream os = response.getOutputStream();
            long rangeStart = 0;
            long rangeEnd;
            String filePathString = "/opt/videos/" + video_id + ".mp4";
            Path filePath = Paths.get(filePathString);
            Long fileSize = Files.size(filePath);
            byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
            RandomAccessFile file = new RandomAccessFile(filePathString, "r");
            try (file) {
                if (rangeHeader == null) {
                    response.setHeader("Content-Type", "video/mp4");
                    response.setHeader("Content-Length", fileSize.toString());
                    response.setStatus(HttpStatus.OK.value());
                    long pos = rangeStart;
                    file.seek(pos);
                    while (pos < fileSize - 1) {                        
                        file.read(buffer);
                        os.write(buffer);
                        pos += buffer.length;
                    }
                    os.flush();
                    return;
                }

                String[] ranges = rangeHeader.split("-");
                rangeStart = Long.parseLong(ranges[0].substring(6));
                if (ranges.length > 1) {
                    rangeEnd = Long.parseLong(ranges[1]);
                } else {
                    rangeEnd = fileSize - 1;
                }
                if (fileSize < rangeEnd) {
                    rangeEnd = fileSize - 1;
                }

                String contentLength = String.valueOf((rangeEnd - rangeStart) + 1);
                response.setHeader("Content-Type", "video/mp4");
                response.setHeader("Content-Length", contentLength);
                response.setHeader("Accept-Ranges", "bytes");
                response.setHeader("Content-Range", "bytes" + " " + rangeStart + "-" + rangeEnd + "/" + fileSize);
                response.setStatus(HttpStatus.PARTIAL_CONTENT.value());
                long pos = rangeStart;
                file.seek(pos);
                while (pos < rangeEnd) {                    
                    file.read(buffer);
                    os.write(buffer);
                    pos += buffer.length;
                }
                os.flush();

            }

        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            response.setStatus(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND.value());
        } catch (IOException e) {
            response.setStatus(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.value());
        }

    }

}

Third solution: Also using RandomAccessFile, but StreamingResponseBody instead of HttpServletResponse

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestHeader;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.StreamingResponseBody;

@Controller
public class Stream2 {
    @GetMapping(value = "/play_video/{video_id}")
    @ResponseBody
    public ResponseEntity<StreamingResponseBody> stream(
            @PathVariable("video_id") String video_id,
            @RequestHeader(value = "Range", required = false) String rangeHeader) {        
        try {
            StreamingResponseBody responseStream;
            String filePathString = "/opt/videos/" + video_id + ".mp4";
            Path filePath = Paths.get(filePathString);
            Long fileSize = Files.size(filePath);
            byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];      
            final HttpHeaders responseHeaders = new HttpHeaders();

            if (rangeHeader == null) {
                responseHeaders.add("Content-Type", "video/mp4");
                responseHeaders.add("Content-Length", fileSize.toString());
                responseStream = os -> {
                    RandomAccessFile file = new RandomAccessFile(filePathString, "r");
                    try (file) {
                        long pos = 0;
                        file.seek(pos);
                        while (pos < fileSize - 1) {                            
                            file.read(buffer);
                            os.write(buffer);
                            pos += buffer.length;
                        }
                        os.flush();
                    } catch (Exception e) {}
                };
                return new ResponseEntity<>(responseStream, responseHeaders, HttpStatus.OK);
            }

            String[] ranges = rangeHeader.split("-");
            Long rangeStart = Long.parseLong(ranges[0].substring(6));
            Long rangeEnd;
            if (ranges.length > 1) {
                rangeEnd = Long.parseLong(ranges[1]);
            } else {
                rangeEnd = fileSize - 1;
            }
            if (fileSize < rangeEnd) {
                rangeEnd = fileSize - 1;
            }

            String contentLength = String.valueOf((rangeEnd - rangeStart) + 1);
            responseHeaders.add("Content-Type", "video/mp4");
            responseHeaders.add("Content-Length", contentLength);
            responseHeaders.add("Accept-Ranges", "bytes");
            responseHeaders.add("Content-Range", "bytes" + " " + rangeStart + "-" + rangeEnd + "/" + fileSize);
            final Long _rangeEnd = rangeEnd;
            responseStream = os -> {
                RandomAccessFile file = new RandomAccessFile(filePathString, "r");
                try (file) {
                    long pos = rangeStart;
                    file.seek(pos);
                    while (pos < _rangeEnd) {                        
                        file.read(buffer);
                        os.write(buffer);
                        pos += buffer.length;
                    }
                    os.flush();
                } catch (Exception e) {}
            };
            return new ResponseEntity<>(responseStream, responseHeaders, HttpStatus.PARTIAL_CONTENT);

        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            return new ResponseEntity<>(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
        }
    }
}

In your component.ts:

You can change the currently displaying video with playVideoFile()

export class AppComponent implements OnInit {
  videoSources: Plyr.Source[];
  ngOnInit(): void {
    const fileName = 'sample';
    this.playVideoFile(fileName);
  }

  playVideoFile(fileName: string) {
    this.videoSources = [
      {
        src: `http://localhost:8080/play_video/${fileName}`,
      },
    ];
  }
}

And the html:

<div
  #plyr
  plyr
  [plyrPlaysInline]="false"
  [plyrSources]="videoSources"
></div>

Dani
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  • I updated my answer. I checked, all three java controllers are working, I can also skip in the video. – Dani Jan 01 '21 at 11:56
  • Which one of the solutions will consume less resources if we have hundreds of clients? – Peter Penzov Jan 02 '21 at 14:27
  • 2. or 3. You can also check out spring reactive. Spring reactive lets you handle function execution in an asynchronous way. That approach works well with `AsynchronousFileChannel`, which is using the native function `readFile(long handle, long address, int len, long offset, long overlapped)`. The offset here is the position in the file being read. This is not the case with `FileInputStream`, which is using `readBytes(byte b[], int off, int len)` where the offset is the position in the destination buffer. – Dani Jan 02 '21 at 15:07
  • In azure-core there is already an implementation of bridging reactor(the reactive library that spring reactive uses) and `AsynchronousFileChannel` together. So if you want to do it that way, you can find documentation here https://azuresdkdocs.blob.core.windows.net/$web/java/azure-core/1.1.0/com/azure/core/util/FluxUtil.html – Dani Jan 02 '21 at 15:34
0

If you are using the <video /> element in Chrome, seeking only works if the endpoint implements partial content requests by honouring requests with a Range header and respond with a 206 Partial Content response.

Josh Aguilar
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