Sidecar Subtitles Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK for iOS and tvOS, version 2.1.6.129

Supported Platforms

iOS 8.0 and above.

tvOS 9.0 and above.

Installation

The Sidecar Subtitles plugin for Brightcove Player SDK provides two installation packages for iOS; a static library framework and a dynamic framework. For tvOS, the Sidecar Subtitles plugin provides a dynamic framework only.

CocoaPods

You can use [CocoaPods][cocoapods] to add the Sidecar Subtitles Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project. You can find the latest Brightcove-Player-SDK-SidecarSubtitles podspec [here][podspecs].

Specifying the default pod Brightcove-Player-SDK-SidecarSubtitles will install the static library framework. To install the dynamic framework, declare the pod with the dynamic subspec: Brightcove-Player-SDK-SidecarSubtitles/dynamic

Static Framework example:

pod 'Brightcove-Player-SDK-SidecarSubtitles'

Dynamic Framework example:

pod 'Brightcove-Player-SDK-SidecarSubtitles/dynamic'    

Maintaining an up-to-date master podspec repo is necessary to ensure that you are always using the latest versions of Brightcove software. As of CocoaPods 1.0.0, podspec repo updates are no longer an automatic feature, so to update your master repo, run the following on the command line:

pod repo update

Manual

To add the Sidecar Subtitles Plugin for Brightcove Player SDK to your project manually:

1. Install the latest version of the [Brightcove Player SDK][bcovsdk].
2. Download the latest zipped release of the BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles plugin from our [release page][release].
3. Add BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles.framework to your project.
4. On the "Build Settings" tab of your application target, ensure that the "Framework Search Paths" include the path to the framework. This should have been done automatically unless the framework is stored under a different root directory than your project.
5. (Dynamic Framework only) On the "General" tab of your application target, add 'BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles.framework' to the "Embedded Binaries" section.
6. (Dynamic Framework only) On the "Build Phases" tab, add a "Run Script" phase with the command bash ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${FRAMEWORKS_FOLDER_PATH}/BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles.framework/strip-frameworks.sh. Check "Run script only when installing". This will remove unneeded architectures from the build, which is important for App Store submission.
7. (Static Framework only) On the "Build Settings" tab of your application target, add -ObjC to the "Other Linker Flags" build setting.

Imports

The Brightcove Player SDK for iOS can be imported into code a few different ways:

• @import BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles;
• #import <BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles/BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles.h>
• #import <BrightcoveSidecarSubtitles/[specific class].h>.

[cocoapods]: http://cocoapods.org [podspecs]: https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs/tree/master/Specs/9/5/e/Brightcove-Player-SDK-SidecarSubtitles [release]: https://github.com/brightcove/brightcove-player-sdk-ios-sidecarsubtitles/releases [bcovsdk]: https://github.com/brightcove/brightcove-player-sdk-ios Quick Start

    NSString *policyKey = <your-policy-key>;
    NSString *accountId = <your-account-id>;
    NSString *videoID = <your-video-id>;

    BCOVPlayerSDKManager *manager = [BCOVPlayerSDKManager sharedManager];
[1] id<BCOVPlaybackController> controller = [playbackManager createSidecarSubtitlesPlaybackControllerWithViewStrategy:nil];
    [self.view addSubview:controller.view];

    BCOVPlaybackService *playbackService = [[BCOVPlaybackService alloc] initWithAccountId:accoundId
                                                                                policyKey:policyKey];
[2] [playbackService findVideoWithVideoID:videoID
                               parameters:nil
                               completion:^(BCOVVideo    *video,
                                            NSDictionary *jsonResponse,
                                            NSError      *error) {

                                 [controller setVideos:@[ video ]];
                                 [controller play];

                             }];

BCOVSidecarSubtitles adds some category methods to BCOVPlaybackManager. The first of these is -createSidecarSubtitlesPlaybackControllerWithViewStrategy:. Use this method to create your playback controller. Alternately (if you are using more than one session provider), you can create a BCOVSSSessionProvider and pass that to the manager method that creates a playback controller with upstream session providers.* If you are developing for tvOS, the ViewStrategy passed to createSidecarSubtitlesPlaybackControllerWithViewStrategy must be nil.

* Note that BCOVSSSessionProvider should come before any session providers in the chain passed to the manager when constructing the playback controller. This plugin is not compatible with the Widevine plugin.

If you have questions or need help, visit the support forum for Brightcove Native Player SDKs at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/brightcove-native-player-sdks .

Using the Built-In PlayerUI Controls

The code snippet above presents a video player without any controls. You can add playback controls to your code like this.

Add a property to keep track of the BCOVPUIPlayerView:

// PlayerUI's Player View
@property (nonatomic) BCOVPUIPlayerView *playerView;

Create the BCOVPUIBasicControlView, and then the BCOVPUIPlayerView. This is where we associate the Playback Controller (and thus all the videos it plays) with the controls. Set the player view to match the video container from your layout (yourVideoView) when it resizes.

BCOVPUIBasicControlView *controlView = [BCOVPUIBasicControlView basicControlViewWithVODLayout];
self.playerView = [[BCOVPUIPlayerView alloc] initWithPlaybackController:controller options:nil controlsView:controlView];

// Match parent view size
self.playerView.frame = self.yourVideoView.bounds;
self.playerView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;

// Add BCOVPUIPlayerView to your video view.
[self.yourVideoView addSubview:self.playerView];

If you use the BCOVPUIPlayerView, you also need to remove one line above:

[self.view addSubview:controller.view]; // no longer needed when using PlayerUI

If you want to reuse the player with with another playback controller, you can simply make a new assignment:

self.playerView.playbackController = anotherPlaybackController;

The player view will automatically add the playback controller's view to its own view hierarchy.

Please see the Brightcove Native Player SDK's README for more information about adding and cumstomizing PlayerUI controls in your app.

If you have questions or need help, visit the Brightcove Native Player SDK support forum.

Manually populating subtitle data

The BCOVSidecarSubtitle plugin will look for the presence of an array of subtitle metadata in the BCOVVideo object properties, keyed by kBCOVSSVideoPropertiesKeyTextTracks. If you are using BCOVPlaybackService to retrieve videos and those videos have text tracks associated with them, this will be populated automatically.

If you are a providing your own videos or are a Perform customer, you will need to structure the data as shown below:

NSArray *subtitles = @[
@{
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySource: ..., // required
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySourceLanguage: ..., // required
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyLabel: ..., // required
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyDuration: ..., // required/optional [1]
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyKind: kBCOVSSTextTracksKindSubtitles or kBCOVSSTextTracksKindCaptions, // required
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyDefault: ..., // optional
	kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyMIMEType: ..., // optional
},
@{...}, // second text track dictionary
@{...}, // third text track dictionary
];
   
BCOVVideo *video = [BCOVVideo alloc] initWithSource:<source>
                         cuePoints:<cuepoints>
                        properties:@{ kBCOVSSVideoPropertiesKeyTextTracks:subtitles }];

The kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySource key holds the source URL of your subtitle track, and can be supplied as either a WebVTT URL or an M3U8 playlist URL.

WebVTT files should have a ".vtt" extension, and M3U8 files should have an ".M3U8" extension. If you cannot follow these conventions, you must include a kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySourceType key, and specify either kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySourceTypeWebVTTURL or kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySourceTypeM3U8URL to indicate the type of file referred to by the URL.

If you are supplying tracks to a video retrieved from Video Cloud, you should add your subtitles to any existing tracks rather than overwriting them. This code shows how you can add tracks to an existing video:

BCOVVideo *updatedVideo = [video update:^(id<BCOVMutableVideo> mutableVideo) {
	
	// Save the current tracks
	NSArray *originalTracks = video.properties[kBCOVSSVideoPropertiesKeyTextTracks];
	
	// Create your text track dictionary
	NSArray *subtitles = @[
	@{
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySource: ..., // required
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeySourceLanguage: ..., // required
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyLabel: ..., // required
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyDuration: ..., // required/optional [1]
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyKind: kBCOVSSTextTracksKindSubtitles or kBCOVSSTextTracksKindCaptions, // required
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyDefault: ..., // optional
		kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyMIMEType: ..., // optional
	},
	@{...}, // second text track dictionary
	@{...}, // third text track dictionary
	];
	
	// Append new tracks to the original tracks, if any
	NSArray *combinedTextTracks = ((originalTracks != nil)
									? [originalTracks arrayByAddingObjectsFromArray:subtitles]
									: subtitles);
					
	// Update the current dictionary (we don't want to lose the properties already in there)
	NSMutableDictionary *updatedDictionary = [mutableVideo.properties mutableCopy];
		
	// Store text tracks in the text tracks property
	updatedDictionary[kBCOVSSVideoPropertiesKeyTextTracks] = combinedTextTracks;
		
	mutableVideo.properties = updatedDictionary;
  
}];

Notes

• kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyDuration is a required key if you are using caption files with a .vtt extension. kBCOVSSTextTracksKeyDuration is an optional key if you are using using caption files with a .m3u8 extension.

Please refer to the code documentation in the BCOVSSComponent.h header file for more information on usage of these keys.

Known Issues

• Subtitles will not be displayed when viewing 360 degree videos.

• This plugin currently does not support integrating with the Widevine Plugin for Brightcove Brightcove Player SDK for iOS.

• When retrieving your videos from the Brightcove Playback API, your renditions must include a master M3U8 playlist. The Sidecar Subtitle plugin does not work with single rendition M3U8 playlists.

• If you are providing a subtitle playlist to the plugin, and that subtitle playlist includes links to web vtt files that respond as 404, playback will fail. This is a bug in Apple's AVPlayer.