play video from URL retrieved from ALAsset in iOS

Question

I'm still fairly new to Obj-C and the idea of blocks. I read this post about displaying images from url retrieved from ALAssets: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3837115/display-image-from-url-retrieved-from-alasset-in-iphone

Besides being able to view picture files in a UITableView using the ALAsset framework, I want to be able to play a video that is stored in the pictures folder as well. The video asset shows up just as a picture would, so I would like to be able to tap that video listing in the table and have it play. (In other words, I want to play a video using the Assets Library Framework)

Can this be done with MPMoviePlayerController?

From that post above I'm gathering I need code inside this function to get an asset URL for a video file: ALAssetsLibraryAssetForURLResultBlock resultblock = ^(ALAsset *myasset) { };

If this is right, what code would I need to put inside that function so that I could successfully play the video via mpmovieplayercontroller?

Just for reference, my code for displaying the assets in a UITableView is here: " - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath { NSString *CellIdentifier = @"id";

UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
    cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
}

[[cell imageView] setImage:[UIImage imageWithCGImage:[[assets objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] thumbnail]]]; [[cell textLabel] setText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Item %d", indexPath.row+1]];

return cell;

} "

This is my first post so I'm sorry if I post it wrong. Thanks for your help

Answer 1

Okay I found out one can use this block to spit out a log of the asset library address:

void (^assetEnumerator)(struct ALAsset *, NSUInteger, BOOL *) = ^(ALAsset *result, NSUInteger index, BOOL *stop) {

        if(result != nil) {
                NSLog(@"See Asset: %@", result);
                [assets addObject:result];

            }
        };

which will spit out something like "See Asset: ALAsset - Type:Video, URLs:{ "com.apple.m4v-video" = "assets-library://asset/asset.m4v?id=100&ext=m4v"; "

So I can send this asset library address to mpmovieplayercontroller and it will work!

Like so:

NSString *urlAddress = @"assets-library://asset/asset.m4v?id=100&ext=m4v"; NSURL *theURL = [NSURL URLWithString:urlAddress]; mp = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL:theURL]; etc...

now I just gotta figure out how to get that URL string out of the ALAsset object dynamically, which shouldn't be too hard to figure out.. hopefully

Answer 2

Dear Kevin,

You helped mr very much with your answer. CHEERS!!!

Meir