To enable the Video Stitcher API for your project, please reach out to your Account Representative or contact Sales to learn more.

Use the IMA DAI SDK on iOS

Play VOD streams registered with Google Cloud Video Stitcher API

This guide demonstrates how to use the IMA DAI SDK for iOS to request and play a Google Cloud VOD stream session.

This guide expands on the basic example from the Get started guide for IMA DAI.

For information on integrating with other platforms or on using the IMA client-side SDKs, see Interactive Media Ads SDKs.

If you would like to view or follow along with a completed sample integration, download the Cloud video stitcher example for Objective-C or Swift.

Set up a Google Cloud project

Enter the following variables for use in the IMA SDK:

Location

The Google Cloud region where your VOD config was created: LOCATION

Project number

The Google Cloud project number using the Video Stitcher API: PROJECT_NUMBER

OAuth token

A service account's short lived OAuth token with the Video Stitcher user role:

OAUTH_TOKEN

Read more about creating short-lived OAuth tokens. The OAuth token can be reused across multiple requests as long as it has not expired.

Network code

The Ad Manager network code for requesting ads: NETWORK_CODE

VOD config ID

The VOD config ID for the VOD stream: VOD_CONFIG_ID

Read more about creating the VOD config ID in the Cloud stitching create a VOD config guide.

User context: The user context for tracking requests. Can be nil. Defaults to nil in this guide.

Set up the basic example

Go to the IMA iOS DAI GitHub release page and download the basic Objective-C example. This example is an iOS Xcode project that relies on Cocoapods to load the IMA DAI SDK. If you're using Swift, IMA doesn't have an iOS sample app, but check out the Swift code snippet later in this guide for how to implement an IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest in your own app.

To prepare the sample to run, make sure CocoaPods is installed, then open the basic example's folder in the terminal and run the following command:

pod install --repo-update

Once that command completes, you see a file named BasicExample.xcworkspace in your project folder. Open this file in Xcode and run the sample to ensure that the test video and ads play as expected.

Request a VOD stream

To replace the sample stream with your ad stitched VOD stream, use IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest to create an ad session with Google Ad Manager. You can use the Google Ad Manager UI to locate the generated DAI sessions for monitoring and debugging.

In the existing sample, there are examples for requesting a VOD stream or a livestream from Google's DAI servers. To make it work with the Google Cloud Video Stitcher API, you need to replace the current requestStream function with one that uses the IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest class.

Here's an example:

Objective-C

ViewController.m

...

#import <GoogleInteractiveMediaAds/GoogleInteractiveMediaAds.h>
/// The Stream's VOD config ID.
static NSString *const kVODConfigID = @"VOD_CONFIG_ID";
/// The Network Code used by the Video Stitcher API.
static NSString *const kNetworkCode = @"NETWORK_CODE";
/// The Google Cloud project using the Video Stitcher API.
static NSString *const kProjectNumber = @"PROJECT_NUMBER";
/// The Google Cloud region containing your project.
static NSString *const kLocation = @"LOCATION";
/// An OAuth Token created by a Google Cloud account with Video Stitcher API
/// permissions.
static NSString *const kOAuthToken = @"OAUTH_TOKEN";

/// Fallback URL in case something goes wrong in loading the stream. If all goes well, this will not
/// be used.
static NSString *const kBackupStreamURLString =
    @"http://googleimadev-vh.akamaihd.net/i/big_buck_bunny/bbb-,480p,720p,1080p,.mov.csmil/"
    @"master.m3u8";
@interface ViewController () <IMAAdsLoaderDelegate, IMAStreamManagerDelegate>

...

- (void)requestStream {
    // Create an ad display container for ad rendering.
    IMAAdDisplayContainer *adDisplayContainer =
        [[IMAAdDisplayContainer alloc] initWithAdContainer:self.videoView
                                            viewController:self
                                            companionSlots:nil];
    // Create an IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay to give the SDK access to your video player.
    IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay *imaVideoDisplay =
        [[IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay alloc] initWithAVPlayer:self.contentPlayer];
    IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest *streamRequest =
        [[IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest alloc] initWithVODConfigID:kVODConfigID
                                                             region:kLocation
                                                      projectNumber:kProjectNumber
                                                         OAuthToken:kOAuthToken
                                                        networkCode:kNetworkCode
                                                 adDisplayContainer:adDisplayContainer
                                                       videoDisplay:imaVideoDisplay
                                                        userContext:nil
                                        videoStitcherSessionOptions:nil];
    [self.adsLoader requestStreamWithRequest:streamRequest];
}

...

Swift

ViewController.swift

...

class ViewController: UIViewController, IMAAdsLoaderDelegate, IMAStreamManagerDelegate {
  /// The Stream's VOD config ID.
  static let vodConfigID = "VOD_CONFIG_ID"
  /// The Network Code used by the Video Stitcher API.
  static let networkCode = "NETWORK_CODE"
  /// The Google Cloud project using the Video Stitcher API.
  static let projectNumber = "PROJECT_NUMBER"
  /// The Google Cloud region containing your project.
  static let location = "LOCATION"
  /// An OAuth Token created by a Google Cloud account with Video Stitcher API
  /// permissions.
  static let oAuthToken = "OAUTH_TOKEN"

  /// Fallback URL in case something goes wrong in loading the stream. If all goes well, this will
  /// not be used.
  static let backupStreamURLString = """
    http://googleimadev-vh.akamaihd.net/i/big_buck_bunny/\
    bbb-,480p,720p,1080p,.mov.csmil/master.m3u8
    """

  ...

  func requestStream() {
    // Create an ad display container for ad rendering.
    adDisplayContainer = IMAAdDisplayContainer(
      adContainer: videoView,
      viewController: self,
      companionSlots: nil)
    // Create an IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay to give the SDK access to your video player.
    let imaVideoDisplay = IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay(avPlayer: contentPlayer!)
    // Create a VOD stream request.
    let streamRequest = IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest(
      VODConfigID: ViewController.vodConfigID,
      region: ViewController.location,
      projectNumber: ViewController.projectNumber,
      oAuthToken: ViewController.oAuthToken,
      networkCode: ViewController.networkCode,
      adDisplayContainer: adDisplayContainer!,
      videoDisplay: imaVideoDisplay,
      userContext: nil,
      videoStitcherSessionOptions: nil)
    adsLoader?.requestStream(with: streamRequest)
  }

  ...

Run the project, then you can request and play your custom VOD stream.

(Optional) Add streaming session options

Customize your stream request by adding session options to override the default Cloud Video Stitcher API configuration by populating the videoStitcherSessionOptions parameter in your IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest. If you provide an unrecognized option, the Cloud Video Stitcher API will respond with an HTTP 400 error. Consult the troubleshooting guide for assistance.

For example, you can override the manifest options with the following code snippet, which requests two stream manifests with renditions ordered from lowest bitrate to highest.

Objective-C

 // Define session options JSON string.
 // The following session options are examples. Use session options
 // that are compatible with your video stream.
 NSString *sessionOptionsStr =
   @"{"
   "  \"manifestOptions\": {"
   "    \"bitrateOrder\": \"ascending\""
   "  }"
   "}";
 // convert JSON NSString to NSDictionary
 NSData *sessionOptionsData = [sessionOptionsStr dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
 NSError *error = nil;
 NSDictionary *sessionOptions = [NSJSONSerialization
                       JSONObjectWithData:sessionOptionsData
                       options:0
                       error:&error];
 // make stream request
 IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest *streamRequest =
     [[IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest alloc] initWithVODConfigID:kVODConfigID
                                                           region:kLocation
                                                     projectNumber:kProjectNumber
                                                       OAuthToken:kOAuthToken
                                                       networkCode:kNetworkCode
                                               adDisplayContainer:adDisplayContainer
                                                     videoDisplay:imaVideoDisplay
                                                       userContext:nil
                                       videoStitcherSessionOptions:sessionOptions];
 [self.adsLoader requestStreamWithRequest:streamRequest];

Swift

 // Define session options JSON string.
 // The following session options are examples. Use session options
 // that are compatible with your video stream.
 let sessionOptionsStr = """
     {
       "manifestOptions": {
         "bitrateOrder": "ascending"
       }
     }
     """
 // convert JSON string to dictionary
 guard let sessionOptionsData = sessionOptionsStr.data(using: .utf8, allowLossyConversion: false) else { return nil }
 let sessionOptions = try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: sessionOptionsData, options: .mutableContainers)
 // make stream request
 let streamRequest = IMAVideoStitcherVODStreamRequest(
   vodConfigID:ViewController.vodConfigID
   region:ViewController.location
   projectNumber:ViewController.projectNumber
   OAuthToken:ViewController.oAuthToken
   networkCode:ViewController.networkCode
   adDisplayContainer:adDisplayContainer
   videoDisplay:imaVideoDisplay
   userContext:nil
   videoStitcherSessionOptions:sessionOptions)
 adsLoader?.requestStream(with: streamRequest)

Clean up

Now that you have successfully hosted a VOD stream using the Google Cloud Video Stitcher API and requested it using the IMA DAI SDK for iOS, it's important to clean up any serving resources.

Follow the VOD clean up guide to remove any unneeded resources and assets.

HTML5

Roku