Hi everyone, I would like to introduce you this Youtube library (from the oficial Youtube Android Api provided by google), its not actually a View, its a fragment, but you can use it almost as a view. It will allow you to have full control of the video via code (play, pause, seek to a specific time, listen to lot of events, etc).
Here is an example of what it looks like:
Before you continue reading, I'll first say the main drawback: Its only supported by Android 4.0+.
Why? (You can skip the explanation if you want) Well, because there are basically 4 ways for playing videos with this API:
1) Using the YoutubeStandalonePlayer, which allows you to play videos in fullscreen (its an other activity) or in a lightbox which you can't control the position. You can find this wrapper in Erel's post.
2) Working with Intents, which basically opens the Youtube app, and you can play around with some parameters.
3) Using YoutubePlayerView, which is the real interesting one, it allows you to embed a view in your applications, as if were a button, imageview, etc. The problem for making a wrapper for this view is that the activity in which you are going to use this view, needs to extend an activity called YouTubeBaseActivity, and the Activities in B4A doesn't extend this activity.
4) Using YoutubePlayerFragment, which is the wrapper I made. A fragment is a piece of an application's user interface or behavior that can be placed in an activity, and contains views (this fragment contains a YoutubePlayerView). Fragments are only natively supported by Android 4.0+. There is a support for fragments for android < 4.0, but the activity needs to extend an activity called FragmentActivity, which leads to the same problem as point 3).
Ok, after saying that, here is how to setup:
Setup instructions:
1. Download the native library: https://developers.google.com/youtube/android/player/downloads/
2. Copy libs\YouTubeAndroidPlayerApi.Jar from the zip file to Basic4android libraries folder.
3. Download the attached library, unzip it and copy the files to the libraries folder.
4. Get a developer key. Follow these instructions: https://developers.google.com/youtube/android/player/register
Note that you can leave the SHA1 field empty.
Now, for using the view, you need to pass a Panel as argument in the initialization method. The Panel is the one that will contain the real Youtube View. The fragment will fill both height and width of the Panel, and the video will actually play with a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I suggest you to make the panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio or you will have black edged at the bottom or right of the panel.
Also, the documentation of the API says:
Here is an example code:
Note that after initialization, you need to wait to the "OnFinishedInitialization" event before actually starting playing videos.
Here is the complete reference:
SNYoutube
Version: 1
Here is an example of what it looks like:
Before you continue reading, I'll first say the main drawback: Its only supported by Android 4.0+.
Why? (You can skip the explanation if you want) Well, because there are basically 4 ways for playing videos with this API:
1) Using the YoutubeStandalonePlayer, which allows you to play videos in fullscreen (its an other activity) or in a lightbox which you can't control the position. You can find this wrapper in Erel's post.
2) Working with Intents, which basically opens the Youtube app, and you can play around with some parameters.
3) Using YoutubePlayerView, which is the real interesting one, it allows you to embed a view in your applications, as if were a button, imageview, etc. The problem for making a wrapper for this view is that the activity in which you are going to use this view, needs to extend an activity called YouTubeBaseActivity, and the Activities in B4A doesn't extend this activity.
4) Using YoutubePlayerFragment, which is the wrapper I made. A fragment is a piece of an application's user interface or behavior that can be placed in an activity, and contains views (this fragment contains a YoutubePlayerView). Fragments are only natively supported by Android 4.0+. There is a support for fragments for android < 4.0, but the activity needs to extend an activity called FragmentActivity, which leads to the same problem as point 3).
Ok, after saying that, here is how to setup:
Setup instructions:
1. Download the native library: https://developers.google.com/youtube/android/player/downloads/
2. Copy libs\YouTubeAndroidPlayerApi.Jar from the zip file to Basic4android libraries folder.
3. Download the attached library, unzip it and copy the files to the libraries folder.
4. Get a developer key. Follow these instructions: https://developers.google.com/youtube/android/player/register
Note that you can leave the SHA1 field empty.
Now, for using the view, you need to pass a Panel as argument in the initialization method. The Panel is the one that will contain the real Youtube View. The fragment will fill both height and width of the Panel, and the video will actually play with a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I suggest you to make the panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio or you will have black edged at the bottom or right of the panel.
Also, the documentation of the API says:
Here is an example code:
B4X:
Sub Process_Globals
'These global variables will be declared once when the application starts.
'These variables can be accessed from all modules.
End Sub
Sub Globals
'These global variables will be redeclared each time the activity is created.
'These variables can only be accessed from this module.
Dim Youtube As SNYouTube
Dim Panel1 As Panel
End Sub
Sub Activity_Create(FirstTime As Boolean)
'Do not forget to load the layout file created with the visual designer. For example:
Activity.LoadLayout("Layout1")
Youtube.Initialize("Youtube","xxxxxxxx",Panel1)
End Sub
Sub Activity_Resume
End Sub
Sub Activity_Pause (UserClosed As Boolean)
End Sub
Sub Youtube_OnFinishedInitialization(Success As Boolean)
Log("Success: " & Success)
If Success Then
Youtube.loadVideo("0xdZXOM_Otc")
End If
End SubNote that after initialization, you need to wait to the "OnFinishedInitialization" event before actually starting playing videos.
Here is the complete reference:
SNYoutube
Version: 1
- SNYouTube
Events:- OnAdStarted
- OnBuffering (Buffering As Boolean )
- OnError (Error As String )
- OnFinishedInitialization (Success As Boolean)
- OnFullScreen (B As Boolean)
- OnLoaded
- OnLoading
- OnPaused
- OnPlaying
- OnStopped
- OnVideoEnded
- OnVideoStarted
- Initialize (EventName As String, Key As String, P As PanelWrapper)
- cuePlaylist (playList As String)
Cues the specified playlist, but does not download any of the video streams or start playing until play() or seekToMillis(int) is called. - cuePlaylist2 (playlistId As String, startIndex As Int, timeMillis As Int)
Cues the specified playlist, but does not download any of the video streams or start playing until play() or seekToMillis(int) is called. - cueVideo (videoId As String)
Loads the specified video's thumbnail and prepares the player to play the video, but does not download any of the video stream until play() is called. - cueVideo2 (videoId As String, timeMillis As Int)
Loads the specified video's thumbnail and prepares the player to play the video, but does not download any of the video stream until play() is called. - cueVideos (videoIds As List)
Cues a list of videos, but does not download any of the video streams or start playing until play() or seekToMillis(int) is called. - cueVideos2 (videoIds As List, startIndex As Int, timeMillis As Int)
Cues a list of videos, but does not download any of the video streams or start playing until play() or seekToMillis(int) is called. - hasNext As Boolean
Determines whether the currently loaded playlist has a next video. - hasPrevious As Boolean
Determines whether the currently loaded playlist has a previous video. - isPlaying As Boolean
Determines whether the player is currently playing. - loadPlaylist (playlistId As String)
Loads and plays the specified playlist. - loadPlaylist2 (playlistId As String, startIndex As Int, timeMillis As Int)
Loads and plays the specified playlist. - loadVideo (videoId As String)
Loads and plays the specified video. - loadVideo2 (videoId As String, timeMillis As Int)
Loads and plays the specified video. - loadVideos (videoIds As List)
Loads and plays a list of videos. - loadVideos2 (videoIds As List, startIndex As Int, timeMillis As Int)
Loads and plays a list of videos. - nextVideo
Plays the next video in the loaded playlist. - pause
Pauses the currently playing video. - play
Starts video playback of the currently cued / loaded video. - previousVideo
Plays the previous video in the loaded playlist. - release
Stop any loading or video playback and release any system resources used by this YouTubePlayer. - seekRelativeMillis (milliSeconds As Int)
Seeks forward or backwards by the specified number of seconds. - seekToMillis (milliSeconds As Int)
Seeks to the specified time in the video.
- android.permission.INTERNET
- CurrentTimeMillis As Int [read only]
Gets the current elapsed time of the playing video relative to its start. - DurationMillis As Int [read only]
Gets the duration of the currently loaded video. - Fullscreen As Boolean [write only]
Inform the player that it is being laid out fullscreen. - FullscreenControlFlags As Int
Gets the currently set fullscreen control flags. - ManageAudioFocus As Boolean [write only]
Specifies whether or not the player will handle audio focus as part of its playback lifecycle. - ShowFullscreenButton As Boolean [write only]
Shows or hides the fullscreen button on the player controls.
