WebView - Does an HTML page in WebView have access to the system.CachesDirectory?

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

I wanted to know if it is possible for an HTML page in a WebView to access (embed/play) a video file that has been downloaded to the system.CachesDirectory?

In our app, users can either stream or download some larger video files.  I am able to play the streaming or downloaded videos fine in the app using media.playVideo().  However, I have some instances where I need to embed/play the video in an HTML page using code on the HTML page to embed the video.  

Would an html page in the system.ResourcesDirectory have access to a video in the system.CachesDirectory?

#2

You might be able to use system.pathForFile() and tack a “file://” scheme on the beginning to get a URL to the local file. I don’t know if this will work, but it will be worth trying.

Rob

#3

Thanks Rob.  I had started to go down this path before I posted, but the video was not playing and I was not getting any errors.  Turns out that my path was not complete and there was en error in my video embed code.

For anyone interested, I got this working.  It looks like it is possible for a webview local html file in the system.ResourcesDirectory to access a video downloaded to the system.CachesDirectory

My local HTML page is in the app in the system.ResourcesDirectory and when on the device has the path

/var/containers/Bundle/Application/####/Test.app

The downloaded video file is saved to the system.CachesDirectory that has the path

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/####/Library/Caches/Caches

The #### above are long alpha-numeric sequences.

I count the number of folders deep the HTML page is in the system.ResourcesDirectory and create a URL that backs out of that location and appends the system.CachesDirectory.  It ends up being something like this

…/…/…/…/…/…/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/####/Library/Caches/Caches/

When opening the local HTML file in a webView, I use a url variable in order to pass the location that I created of the system.CachesDirectory to the HTML page.

When the HTML page opens it parses out the path from the URL variable so that it can be used for embedding/playing the videos that get downloaded to the system.CachesDirectory

I wasn’t sure this was all going to work and will need to test more with an app store build, but for now, the dev build is working as expected.

#4

You might be able to use system.pathForFile() and tack a “file://” scheme on the beginning to get a URL to the local file. I don’t know if this will work, but it will be worth trying.

Rob

#5

Thanks Rob.  I had started to go down this path before I posted, but the video was not playing and I was not getting any errors.  Turns out that my path was not complete and there was en error in my video embed code.

For anyone interested, I got this working.  It looks like it is possible for a webview local html file in the system.ResourcesDirectory to access a video downloaded to the system.CachesDirectory

My local HTML page is in the app in the system.ResourcesDirectory and when on the device has the path

/var/containers/Bundle/Application/####/Test.app

The downloaded video file is saved to the system.CachesDirectory that has the path

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/####/Library/Caches/Caches

The #### above are long alpha-numeric sequences.

I count the number of folders deep the HTML page is in the system.ResourcesDirectory and create a URL that backs out of that location and appends the system.CachesDirectory.  It ends up being something like this

…/…/…/…/…/…/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/####/Library/Caches/Caches/

When opening the local HTML file in a webView, I use a url variable in order to pass the location that I created of the system.CachesDirectory to the HTML page.

When the HTML page opens it parses out the path from the URL variable so that it can be used for embedding/playing the videos that get downloaded to the system.CachesDirectory

I wasn’t sure this was all going to work and will need to test more with an app store build, but for now, the dev build is working as expected.