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Version: 11.8.0

How to add and remove request and response interceptors on iOS

A request interceptor runs before the player opens the connection, so it can change properties of the request such as its URL, method, headers or body. It can also respond to the request immediately, without contacting the server.

A response interceptor runs before the player consumes the response, so it can change the status, the headers or the body of the response.

On iOS, you intercept the requests and responses of HLS playlists with a MediaPlaylistInterceptor. This guide uses a simple UIKit UIViewController.

Set up THEOplayer​

Add your interceptor to the Network API after creating the player:

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    private var player: THEOplayer?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        let player = THEOplayer()
        self.player = player
        player.frame = view.bounds
        player.addAsSubview(of: self.view)
        player.network.addMediaPlaylistInterceptor(self)
    }
}

Intercepting the requests and responses​

Use the type parameter of each method below to filter for HLS playlist types, such as the master playlist, a video playlist or a subtitles playlist.

extension ViewController: MediaPlaylistInterceptor {
    // For modifications that you would make to the request, ie. add custom headers, query parameters, etc...
    func shouldInterceptPlaylistRequest(type: THEOplayerSDK.HlsPlaylistType) -> Bool { true }

    // For modifications that you would make to the response, ie. edit the m3u8 file content, vtt file content etc...
    func shouldInterceptPlaylistResponse(type: THEOplayerSDK.HlsPlaylistType) -> Bool { true }

    // Will be called if shouldInterceptPlaylistRequest returns true
    func didInterceptPlaylistRequest(type: THEOplayerSDK.HlsPlaylistType, request: URLRequest) async throws -> URLRequest {
        var modifiedRequest = request
        // modify
        // ...
        return modifiedRequest
    }

    // Will be called if shouldInterceptPlaylistResponse returns true
    func didInterceptPlaylistResponse(type: THEOplayerSDK.HlsPlaylistType, url: URL, response: URLResponse, data: Data) async throws -> Data {
        var modifiedResponseData = ""
        // customize the data string that you would like to return, should be a valid HLS playlist file
        // ...
        let customDataResponse = modifiedResponseData.data(using: .utf8)
        return customDataResponse ?? data // `customDataResponse` is empty so playback will fail in this demo; return `data` to play
    }

    // Handle failure.
    func failedToPerformURLRequest(request: URLRequest, response: URLResponse) {}
}

DRM request interception​

The MediaPlaylistInterceptor API does not intercept DRM requests. To intercept FairPlay DRM requests, take a look at our DRM integration sample.