Learn more about the Brightcove Native Player SDKs.
ios-player-samples.git is a collection of sample applications for the Brightcove Player SDKs for iOS and tvOS, organized by subject area. The sample apps consume the Brightcove SDK through Swift Package Manager. The PlayerUI/Flutter and PlayerUI/ReactNative samples instead use CocoaPods.
- Xcode 15.0+
- iOS 12.0+ or tvOS 12.0+ (some samples require a higher deployment target — see the sample's own README)
- CocoaPods 1.11+ — only for the
PlayerUI/FlutterandPlayerUI/ReactNativesamples
An Apple Developer Program account is required to run any sample app on a physical device. In order to provision your device, edit the sample app bundle identifier to make it unique to your organization.
Most samples consume the Brightcove SDK through Swift Package Manager. Open the sample's .xcodeproj in Xcode and the required packages are resolved automatically on the first build — there is no separate install step.
The PlayerUI/Flutter and PlayerUI/ReactNative samples use CocoaPods. To ensure you are using the latest releases of the Brightcove software components, update your Podspec repository before building them:
pod repo update
For SDK development against those two samples, you can switch between the published SDK and a local development build with the BRIGHTCOVE_LOCAL_SDK environment variable (configured in Podfile.common.rb at the repository root):
# Published SDK (default)
pod install
# Local SDK at the default path (../videocloud_agave)
BRIGHTCOVE_LOCAL_SDK=true pod install
# Local SDK at a custom path
BRIGHTCOVE_LOCAL_SDK=/path/to/your/sdk pod installThe ENABLE_BITCODE setting has been removed from all sample projects and the default value of the IDE is used instead. Xcode 14.0 has deprecated bitcode and the default setting is NO. The default bitcode setting in Xcode 13 is YES.
Brightcove SDK versions 6.10.6 and above do not include bitcode images. If you are building sample projects using Xcode 13.4.1 or earlier, you must manually disable bitcode in your project settings.
From the Xcode 14 Release Notes:
Starting with Xcode 14, bitcode is no longer required for watchOS and tvOS applications, and the App Store no longer accepts bitcode submissions from Xcode 14.
Xcode no longer builds bitcode by default and generates a warning message if a project explicitly enables bitcode: “Building with bitcode is deprecated. Please update your project and/or target settings to disable bitcode.” The capability to build with bitcode will be removed in a future Xcode release. IPAs that contain bitcode will have the bitcode stripped before being submitted to the App Store. Debug symbols for past bitcode submissions remain available for download. (86118779)
The Swift sample apps are written in Swift 5.
Unless otherwise instructed, samples can be run by following these steps:
- Open the sample's
.xcodeprojin Xcode. - Build and run. Swift Package Manager resolves the Brightcove SDK — and, where applicable, the Google IMA and Google Cast packages — automatically on the first build.
- Several samples require an additional third-party SDK (for example FreeWheel, Pulse, or Adobe) that must be added manually; those samples have their own README.md with the extra steps.
The PlayerUI/Flutter and PlayerUI/ReactNative samples use CocoaPods instead — run pod install and open the generated .xcworkspace, as described in their READMEs.
Note: package resolution requires network access on the first build. Once resolved, Xcode caches the packages for offline use.
FairPlay samples demonstrate how to play protected videos using FairPlay plugin that is integrated into the core BrightcovePlayerSDK framework.
In both of the FairPlay sample apps, there are references to FairPlayPublisherId and FairPlayApplicationId. These terms refer to FairPlay credentials that Brightcove does not provide, which are instead acquired through Apple directly.
iOS does not allow FairPlay-protected video to display in a simulator so it's important to develop on an actual device.
FreeWheel samples demonstrate how to play ads managed by FreeWheel. These are intended to cover the basic configuration to retrieve linear and companion ads.
GoogleCast samples demonstrate how to extend your app to direct its streaming video to a Chromecast device using the Google Cast plugin. The BasicCastPlayer app is intended to cover use of a custom cast manager and BCOVGoogleCastManager. The BrightcoveCastReceiver app supports more features such DRM protected videos, SSAI and HLSv3 or superior.
IMA samples demonstrate how to play ads managed by Google Interactive Media Ads (IMA). These are intended to cover use cases like VMAP, VAST, Server Side Ad rules, and advanced ad topics.
Offline samples demonstrate downloading offline-enabled HLS videos and playing them back with or without a network connection.
iOS does not allow video downloads to a simulator so it's important to develop on an actual device.
Omniture sample demonstrates how to track analytics using the Omniture plugin.
Player samples demonstrate how to use the core SDK. These are intended to cover use cases like custom controls, analytics, and playback.
PlayerUI samples demonstrate how to customize the player look and feel. These are intended to cover the modification of the BCOVPlayerUI, the customization of VoiceOver properties for accessibility and the use of the view strategy.
Pulse samples demonstrate how to play ads managed by INVIDI Technologies Pulse. These are intended to cover different configurations for the content.
SidecarSubtitles sample demonstrates how to add WebVTT subtitles to an HLS manifest from within an iOS/tvOS app using SidecarSubtitles plugin that is integrated into the core BrightcovePlayerSDK framework.
SSAI samples demonstrate how to use the SSAI plugin. These are intended to cover playback of Dynamic Delivery with or without Server-Side Ad Insertion, and play pre-rolls using Google IMA for SSAI Live Streams.
SubtitleRendering samples demonstrate how to parse and display WEBVTT files so that you can customize the positioning and look of your subtitles.
SwiftUIPlayer demonstrates how to use BCOVUIPlayerView and AVPlayerViewController with SwiftUI and how to present content in fullscreen over a SwiftUI TabView.
- An example of creating a
BCOVPlaybackSessionConsumercan be found in theOfflinePlayerandCustomControlssample apps. - Picture-in-Picture functionality can be found in the
VideoCloudBasicPlayersample app. - An example of configuring AVAudioSession based on the
mutestate of AVPlayer can be found in theVideoCloudBasicPlayersample app. - An example of setting up lock screen playback controls can be found in the
VideoCloudBasicPlayersample app. - An example of creation a
BCOVPlaybackControllerusing a view strategy can be found in thePlayerUIsection. - An example of creating a custom Audio & Subtitles menu can be found in
CustomControls
The Brightcove iOS SDK is localized for the following languages:
- English - en
- Arabic - ar
- German - de
- Spanish - es
- French - fr
- Japanese - ja
- Korean - ko
- Chinese traditional - zh-hant
- Chinese simplified - zh-hans
The following sample projects take advantage of this localization:
- Player/VideoCloudBasicPlayer
- Player/AppleTV
- IMA/BasicIMAPlayer
- SSAI/BasicSSAIPlayer