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ChromeCastCore: An open source implementation of the Google Cast SDK for macOS
This framework implements the Google Cast APIs so they can be used in macOS apps. Google provides an official SDK but it is only for iOS and closed source.
🔴 Project status: experimental
This project is currently on its infancy, I have only implemented the features I needed to support ChromeCast streaming on Apple Events, but I plan on supporting more stuff in the future. The code is also not very well organized, needs some refactoring =]
OS Support
I have only tested on 10.12, but it should work on 10.11 and even on iOS (with some minor changes).
Building
Important: you need automake, libtool and protobuf on your system to build this project, the easiest way to install them is by using Homebrew.
To build the framework, you need to clone this repository and its dependencies:
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/ChromeCastCore/ChromeCastCore.git && cd ChromeCastCore
After cloning, run the bootstrap script to build the dependencies:
$ ./bootstrap.sh
Basic usage
Finding ChromeCast devices on the network
import ChromeCastCore
var scanner = CastDeviceScanner()
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: DeviceScanner.DeviceListDidChange, object: scanner, queue: nil) { [unowned self] _ in
// self.scanner.devices contains the list of devices available
}
scanner.startScanning()Connecting to a device
CastClient is the class used to establish a connection and sending requests to a specific device, you instantiate it with a CastDevice instance received from CastDeviceScanner.
import ChromeCastCore
var client = CastClient(device: scanner.devices.first!)
client.connect()Getting information about status changes
CastClient currently implements two block-based callbacks for you to get notifications about status changes:
-
statusDidChangeis called when the device's overall status has changed (running apps, volume, etc) -
mediaStatusDidChangeis called when the device's playback status has changed (current media item, current time, etc). NOTE: this is not called automatically during playback, you must send a request asking for the media info
You can also implement the CastClientDelegate protocol to get information about the connection and the device's status:
protocol CastClientDelegate {
optional func castClient(_ client: CastClient, willConnectTo device: CastDevice)
optional func castClient(_ client: CastClient, didConnectTo device: CastDevice)
optional func castClient(_ client: CastClient, didDisconnectFrom device: CastDevice)
optional func castClient(_ client: CastClient, connectionTo device: CastDevice, didFailWith error: NSError)
optional func castClient(_ client: CastClient, deviceStatusDidChange status: CastStatus)
optional func castClient(_ client: CastClient, mediaStatusDidChange status: CastMediaStatus)
}Launching an app
To launch an app on the device, you use the launch method on CastClient:
// .defaultMediaPlayer is the 'generic' player that can stream any video URL of a supported type
client.launch(appId: .defaultMediaPlayer) { [weak self] error, app in
guard let app = app else {
if let error = error {
NSLog("Error launching app: \(error)")
} else {
NSLog("Unknown error launching app")
}
return
}
// here you would probably call client.load(...) to load some media with the app,
// or hold onto the app instance to send commands to it later
}Notice the .defaultMediaPlayer enum above, it represents the 'generic' player that can stream any supported video URL you send it. The framework only supports this and .youTube for now.
Loading media
After you have an instance of CastApp, you can tell the client to load some media with it using the load method:
let videoURL = URL(string: "http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/bipbopall.m3u8")!
let posterURL = URL(string: "https://i.imgur.com/GPgh0AN.jpg")!
// create a CastMedia object to hold media information
let media = CastMedia(title: "Test Bars",
url: videoURL,
poster: posterURL,
contentType: "application/vnd.apple.mpegurl",
streamType: CastMediaStreamType.buffered,
autoplay: true,
currentTime: 0)
// app is the instance of the app you got from the client after calling launch, or from the status callbacks
client.load(media: media, with: app) { error, status in
guard let status = status else {
if let error = error {
NSLog("Error loading media: \(error)")
} else {
NSLog("Unknown error loading media")
}
return
}
// this media has been successfully loaded, status contains the initial status for this media
// you can now call requestMediaStatus periodically to get updated media status
}Getting media status periodically
After you start streaming some media, you will probably want to get updated status every second, to update the UI. You should call the method requestMediaStatus on CastClient, this sends a request to the device to get the most recent media status, to get the response you must have registered a mediaStatusDidChange callback or implemented the castClient(_ client: CastClient, mediaStatusDidChange status: CastMediaStatus) delegate method.
func updateStatus() {
// app is a CastApp instance you got after launching the app
// mediaSessionId is the current media session id you got from the latest CastStatus
client.requestMediaStatus(for: app, mediaSessionId: status.mediaSessionId)
}
func castClient(_ client: CastClient, mediaStatusDidChange status: CastMediaStatus) {
NSLog("media status did change: \(status)")
}
