Plugin for Apple AVPlayer

This article details how to integrate CDN Mesh Delivery into your mobile app using Apple's AVPlayer on iOS.

Project setup 

CocoaPods

CocoaPods is a dependency manager for Cocoa projects.

To integrate AVPlayerDNAPlugin into your Xcode project using CocoaPods, specify this in your Podfile:

use_frameworks!
pod 'AVPlayerDNAPlugin', '~> 1.1.25'

Carthage 

Add the dependencies to the Cartfile:

github "streamroot/avplayer-dna-plugin" ~> 1.1.25

Link the frameworks to your project: 

Integrate Streamroot Plugin

Set the streamrootKey

In the Project Navigator, right click on "Info.plist", and "Open as" → "Source Code".

Add the following lines with the right parameters values:

<key>Streamroot</key>
<dict>
  <key>Key</key>
  <string>streamrootKey</string>
</dict>

Here, <streamrootKey> refers to your Streamroot key that you will find in the Account section of the Streamroot Dashboard. If you don't have a Streamroot Key, you can register for a free trial account on our website.

Import the plugin 

import AVPlayerDNAPlugin

Start and link the plugin to the player

do {
    dnaPlugin = AVPlayerDNAPlugin(manifestUrl: <#ManifestUrl#>)
    if let localPath = try dnaPlugin?.start() {
        player = AVPlayer(url: localPath)
        try dnaPlugin?.linkPlayer(player)
        player?.play()
    }
} catch let error {
    // handle error
}

<#ManifestUrl#> refers to the HLS .m3u8 master playlist URL.

Add custom options

The plugin can be started with an optional configuration.

let config = DNAConfig()
config.streamrootKey = <#streamrootKey#>
config.latency = 30
config.contentId = <#ContentId#>
config.property = <#Property#>

To get the best offload capacity, we recommend setting 30s for latency.

In order to improve the Mesh Delivery traffic offload, different buffer levels will be setted for each player.

Here, we will distribute the buffer target between 10 and the latency set above (30s recommended).

Start and link the plugin to the player

do {
    dnaPlugin = AVPlayerDNAPlugin(manifestUrl: <#ManifestUrl#>, config: config)
    if let localPath = try dnaPlugin?.start() {
        player = AVPlayer(url: localPath)
        try dnaPlugin?.linkPlayer(player)
        player?.play()
    }
} catch let error {
    // handle error
}

Stop the plugin

dnaPlugin?.stop() 

Disable App Transport security

In the Project Navigator, right click on "Info.plist", and "Open as" → "Source Code".

Add the following lines with the corresponding parameters values.

<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict> 
    <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
    <true/>
</dict>