MPMoviePlayerController's view does not recognize touch

Question

This is my code:

_mediaPlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] init];
_mediaPlayer.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleNone;
_mediaPlayer.shouldAutoplay = NO;
[_mediaPlayer.view setFrame: CGRectMake(5, 5, 600,400)];
[playerHolder addSubview: _mediaPlayer.view];
//
[self prepareScreenContentToPlay];
//
UITapGestureRecognizer *singleFingerTap = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleRollTap:)];
singleFingerTap.numberOfTapsRequired = 1;
[_mediaPlayer.view addGestureRecognizer:singleFingerTap];
[singleFingerTap release];

And action method for gesture recognizer:

-(void)handleRollTap:(UITapGestureRecognizer*)sender{
    NSLog(@"%@", @"touch");
}

MPMoviePlayerController works fine. In addition I want to handle touch on MPMoviePlayerController view but handleRollTap never called. Why MPMoviePlayerController's view not works with UITapGestureRecognizer?

---

OK. If singleFingerTap.numberOfTapsRequired = 2; then all works fine as well. But nothing for single tap..

---

Solution 1

Actually, answer to this is simple:

• set yourself as UIGestureRecognizer delegate
• return YES for delegate methods:

e.g.

UITapGestureRecognizer *tapGestureRecognizer = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleTapGesture)];
tapGestureRecognizer.delegate = self;

and somewhere else in the code:

#pragma mark - gesture delegate
// this allows you to dispatch touches
- (BOOL)gestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer shouldReceiveTouch:(UITouch *)touch {
return YES;
}
// this enables you to handle multiple recognizers on single view
- (BOOL)gestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer shouldRecognizeSimultaneouslyWithGestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)otherGestureRecognizer {
return YES;
}

Solution 2

MPMoviePlayerController has a subview that takes up its entire bounds, and that subview has 3 gesture recognizers on it (in iOS 4.3).

mp = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithURL:movieURL];
mp.frame = aRectangle;

for (UIGestureRecognizer *g in ((UIView *)[mp.view.subviews objectAtIndex:0]).gestureRecognizers) {
    NSLog(@"g %@", g);
}

will output:

g <MPTapGestureRecognizer: 0x6224c30; baseClass = UIGestureRecognizer; state = Possible; cancelsTouchesInView = NO; view = <MPSwipableView 0x6416100>; target= <(action=_tapGestureRecognized:, target=<MPSwipableView 0x6416100>)>>
g <UIPinchGestureRecognizer: 0x6224710; state = Possible; cancelsTouchesInView = NO; delaysTouchesEnded = NO; view = <MPSwipableView 0x6416100>; target= <(action=_pinchGestureRecognized:, target=<MPSwipableView 0x6416100>)>>
g <MPActivityGestureRecognizer: 0x6224640; baseClass = UIGestureRecognizer; state = Possible; cancelsTouchesInView = NO; delaysTouchesEnded = NO; view = <MPSwipableView 0x6416100>; target= <(action=_activityGestureRecognized:, target=<MPSwipableView 0x6416100>)>>

So there is already a GestureRecognizer that handles a single tap, but it isn't a UITapGestureRecognizer, but an MPTapGestureRecognizer (a custom recognizer for the movie player).

If you create a generic view and add it to the movie player view hierarchy, you can add touches to it, but it blocks the touches to the movie player (so a single tap won't make the controls disappear).

e.g.

UIView *aView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:mp.view.bounds];
[aView addGestureRecognizer:tapGesture];
[mp.view addSubview:aView];

This will get your tap, but you break the controls. There may still be a way to allow it to interact with the other gestures.

Solution 3

Just to share my different approach for adding a custom UISwipeGestureRecognizer to the player view without adding a custom view:

[[player.view.subviews objectAtIndex:0] addGestureRecognizer:swipeGesture];

This is to replace the conventional method of calling

[player.view addGestureRecognizer:swipeGesture];

as it only works on iPad non-fullscreen mode and on iPhone. When the player goes to fullscreen mode on iPad, the gesture does not work

Solution 4

You can use UIView UITouch event for this. Take a UIView and put MPMoviePlayerController inside that:

theMovie = [MPMoviePlayerController new];
theMovie.view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 1024, 768);
[theMovie setContentURL:theURL];
[theMovie setScalingMode:MPMovieScalingModeAspectFit];
[theMovie setCurrentPlaybackTime:0.2];
[theMovie setFullscreen:YES animated:YES];
[self addSubview:theMovie.view];
[viewMovie addSubview:theMovie.view];

Use UIView touch delegate methods

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    NSLog(@"touchesBegan");
    UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
    startPosition = [touch locationInView:self];
    [viewMovie touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
}

- (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    NSLog(@"touchesMoved");
    UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
    CGPoint endPosition = [touch locationInView:self];

    if (startPosition.x < endPosition.x)
    {
        NSLog(@"Left to Right");
    }
    else
    {
        NSLog(@"Right to Left");
    }
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{

}

- (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{

}

Where startPosition is a CGPoint declared in .h file.

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Comments

[devdavid]

Just realized you're setting your controlStyle to NONE already, so I guess this should work for you!

[mdomans]

Yes. Normaly a gesture recognizer assumes it should do least damage possible. But in rare cases you want to add custom touch recognizers to a view that has his own recognizers, you can set a delegate that can perform resolution when recognizers should work together. Such delegate can decide on every recognizer added to the view. It's a very usefull patern alleviating a lot of pains caused by previous approaches utilising hacking into view internals.

[Duck]

simply B R I L L I A N T !!! I don't understand why your answer is was not accepted as so.

[Toad]

This didn't seem to work for me. I've added a different solution for people who are still stuck

[Ege Akpinar]

Works very well. And my belief is, this has to do with the fact that MPMoviePlayerController most probably adds its own tap recogniser (to show/hide player controls for instance) so this delegate pattern allows both to work simultaneously

[mdomans]

@EgeAkpinar exactly, MPMoviePlayerController and it views use multiple gesture recognisers

[mdomans]

@onmyway133 that's usually the case when your delegate gets deallocated

[Siten]

[[anyview.subviews objectAtIndex:0] addGestureRecognizer:swipeGesture]; Works like a champ... Bro. well done.

[Randika Vishman]

trick is you giving the hint to add a swipeGesture! So it preserves the tap geusture to keep it available the Player controls! Bravo! (Y)