Ad Breaks
The Android Sender SDK provides support for Ad Breaks and companion ads within a given media stream.
See the Web Receiver Ad Breaks Overview for more information on how Ad Breaks work.
While breaks can be specified on both the sender and receiver, it is recommended for them to be specified on the Web Receiver and Android TV Receiver to maintain consistent behavior across platforms.
On Android, specify ad breaks in a load command using AdBreakClipInfo
and AdBreakInfo
:
val breakClip1 : AdBreakClipInfo = AdBreakClipInfo . Builder ( "bc0" ) . setTitle ( "Clip title" ) . setPosterUrl ( "https://www.some.url" ) . setDuration ( 60000 ) . setWhenSkippableInMs ( 5000 ) // Set this field so that the ad is skippable . build () val breakClip2 : AdBreakClipInfo = … val breakClip3 : AdBreakClipInfo = … val break1 : AdBreakClipInfo = AdBreakInfo . Builder ( /* playbackPositionInMs= */ 10000 ) . setId ( "b0" ) . setBreakClipIds ({ "bc0" , "bc1" , "bc2" }) … . build () val mediaInfo : MediaInfo = MediaInfo . Builder () … . setAdBreaks ({ break1 }) . setAdBreakClips ({ breakClip1 , breakClip2 , breakClip3 }) . build () val mediaLoadRequestData : MediaLoadRequestData = MediaInfo . Builder () … . setMediaInfo ( mediaInfo ) . build () remoteMediaClient . load ( mediaLoadRequestData )
AdBreakClipInfo breakClip1 = new AdBreakClipInfo . Builder ( "bc0" ) . setTitle ( "Clip title" ) . setPosterUrl ( "https://www.some.url" ) . setDuration ( 60000 ) . setWhenSkippableInMs ( 5000 ) // Set this field so that the ad is skippable . build (); AdBreakClipInfo breakClip2 = … AdBreakClipInfo breakClip3 = … AdBreakInfo break1 = new AdBreakInfo . Builder ( /* playbackPositionInMs= */ 10000 ) . setId ( "b0" ) . setBreakClipIds ({ "bc0" , "bc1" , "bc2" }) … . build (); MediaInfo mediaInfo = new MediaInfo . Builder () … . setAdBreaks ({ break1 }) . setAdBreakClips ({ breakClip1 , breakClip2 , breakClip3 }) . build (); MediaLoadRequestData mediaLoadRequestData = new MediaInfo . Builder () … . setMediaInfo ( mediaInfo ) . build (); remoteMediaClient . load ( mediaLoadRequestData );
Add custom actions
A sender app can extend MediaIntentReceiver
to handle custom actions or override its behavior. If you have implemented your
own MediaIntentReceiver
, you need to add it to the manifest, and also set its
name in the CastMediaOptions
. This example provides custom actions that
override toggle remote media playback, pressing the media button and other types
of actions.
// In AndroidManifest.xml
< receiver
android
:
name
=
"com.example.MyMediaIntentReceiver"
/
>
// In your OptionsProvider var mediaOptions = CastMediaOptions . Builder () . setMediaIntentReceiverClassName ( MyMediaIntentReceiver :: class . java . name ) . build () // Implementation of MyMediaIntentReceiver internal class MyMediaIntentReceiver : MediaIntentReceiver () { override fun onReceiveActionTogglePlayback ( currentSession : Session ) { } override fun onReceiveActionMediaButton ( currentSession : Session , intent : Intent ) { } override fun onReceiveOtherAction ( context : Context?, action : String , intent : Intent ) { } }
// In your OptionsProvider CastMediaOptions mediaOptions = new CastMediaOptions . Builder () . setMediaIntentReceiverClassName ( MyMediaIntentReceiver . class . getName ()) . build (); // Implementation of MyMediaIntentReceiver class MyMediaIntentReceiver extends MediaIntentReceiver { @Override protected void onReceiveActionTogglePlayback ( Session currentSession ) { } @Override protected void onReceiveActionMediaButton ( Session currentSession , Intent intent ) { } @Override protected void onReceiveOtherAction ( Context context , String action , Intent intent ) { } }
Add a custom channel
For the sender app to communicate with the receiver app, your app needs to
create a custom channel. The sender can use the custom channel to send string
messages to the receiver. Each custom channel is defined by a unique
namespace and must start with the prefix urn:x-cast:
, for example, urn:x-cast:com.example.custom
. It is possible to have multiple custom
channels, each with a unique namespace. The receiver app can also send and receive messages
using the same namespace.
The custom channel is implemented with the Cast.MessageReceivedCallback
interface:
class HelloWorldChannel : MessageReceivedCallback { val namespace : String get () = "urn:x-cast:com.example.custom" override fun onMessageReceived ( castDevice : CastDevice , namespace : String , message : String ) { Log . d ( TAG , "onMessageReceived: $ message " ) } }
class HelloWorldChannel implements Cast . MessageReceivedCallback { public String getNamespace () { return "urn:x-cast:com.example.custom" ; } @Override public void onMessageReceived ( CastDevice castDevice , String namespace , String message ) { Log . d ( TAG , "onMessageReceived: " + message ); } }
Once the sender app is connected to the receiver app, the custom channel can
be created using the setMessageReceivedCallbacks
method:
try { mCastSession . setMessageReceivedCallbacks ( mHelloWorldChannel . namespace , mHelloWorldChannel ) } catch ( e : IOException ) { Log . e ( TAG , "Exception while creating channel" , e ) }
try { mCastSession . setMessageReceivedCallbacks ( mHelloWorldChannel . getNamespace (), mHelloWorldChannel ); } catch ( IOException e ) { Log . e ( TAG , "Exception while creating channel" , e ); }
Once the custom channel is created, the sender can use the sendMessage
method to send string messages to the receiver over that channel:
private fun sendMessage ( message : String ) { if ( mHelloWorldChannel != null ) { try { mCastSession . sendMessage ( mHelloWorldChannel . namespace , message ) . setResultCallback { status - > if ( ! status . isSuccess ) { Log . e ( TAG , "Sending message failed" ) } } } catch ( e : Exception ) { Log . e ( TAG , "Exception while sending message" , e ) } } }
private void sendMessage ( String message ) { if ( mHelloWorldChannel != null ) { try { mCastSession . sendMessage ( mHelloWorldChannel . getNamespace (), message ) . setResultCallback ( status - > { if ( ! status . isSuccess ()) { Log . e ( TAG , "Sending message failed" ); } }); } catch ( Exception e ) { Log . e ( TAG , "Exception while sending message" , e ); } } }
Supporting autoplay
See the section Autoplay & Queueing APIs .
Override image selection for UX widgets
Various components of the framework (namely the Cast dialog, the mini
controller, and the UIMediaController, if so configured) will display artwork
for the currently casting media. The URLs to the image artwork are typically
included in the MediaMetadata
for the media, but the sender app may have an
alternate source for the URLs.
The ImagePicker
class defines a means for selecting an appropriate image from the list of images
in a MediaMetadata
, based on the use of the image, for example, notification
thumbnail or full screen background. The default ImagePicker
implementation
always chooses the first image, or returns null if no image is available in the MediaMetadata
. Your app can subclass ImagePicker
and override the onPickImage(MediaMetadata, ImageHints)
method to provide an alternate implementation, and then select that subclass
with the setImagePicker
method of CastMediaOptions.Builder
. ImageHints
provides hints to an ImagePicker
about the type and size of an image to be
selected for display in the UI.
Customizing Cast dialogs
Managing Session Lifecycle
SessionManager
is the central place for managing session lifecycle. SessionManager
listens
to Android MediaRouter
route selection state changes to start, resume and end sessions. When a route is
selected, SessionManager
will create a Session
object and tries to start or resume it. When a route is unselected, SessionManager
will end the current session.
Therefore, to ensure SessionManager
manages session lifecycles properly, you
must make sure that:
- In the route selector dialog
,
call
MediaRouter.selectRoute(MediaRouter.RouteInfo)when a user selects a device. - In the route controller dialog (either in connected
state
or casting
state
),
call
MediaRouter.unselect(int)when the user stops casting.
Depending on how you create the Cast dialogs, additional actions may need to be done:
- If you create Cast dialogs using
MediaRouteChooserDialogandMediaRouteControllerDialog, then these dialogs will update route selection inMediaRouterautomatically, so nothing needs to be done. - If you set up your Cast button using
CastButtonFactory.setUpMediaRouteButton(Context, Menu, int)orCastButtonFactory.setUpMediaRouteButton(Context, MediaRouteButton), then the dialogs are actually created usingMediaRouteChooserDialogandMediaRouteControllerDialog, so nothing needs to be done, too. - For other cases, you will be creating custom Cast dialogs, so you need to
follow the above instructions to update the route selection state in
MediaRouter.
Zero Devices State
If you create custom Cast dialogs, your custom MediaRouteChooserDialog
should properly handle the case of zero devices being
found. The dialog should have indicators making it clear to your users when your
app is still attempting to find devices and when the discovery attempt is no
longer active.
If you are using the default MediaRouteChooserDialog
, the zero devices state
is already handled.
Next steps
This concludes the features that you can add to your Android Sender app. You can now build a sender app for another platform ( iOS or Web ), or build a Web Receiver app .
