Android Network Request/Response Interceptor

THEOplayer Android SDK makes a number of network requests and receives responses while playing video. These requests and responses can be intercepted to make a new or modified request or respond with a new response.

The Network API thus allows easy access to handle the network efficiently.

This guide explains how you set up THEOplayer Android SDK to add and remove request/response interceptors.

Prerequisites

• This guide expects that you have a THEOplayer license. If you aren't using THEOplayer yet, you can start by registering at THEOportal here to get access to THEOplayer.

• You need to be using at least THEOplayer Android SDK version 5.11.0.

Set up THEOplayer in your app

To set up THEOplayer Android SDK in your app follow the steps in our Getting started on Android guide.

Adding and removing an interceptor

The THEOplayer Android SDK provides the HTTPInterceptor interface which contains 2 methods (onRequest, onResponse) where each can be optionally implemented based on the use-case.

• suspend fun onRequest(request: InterceptableHTTPRequest): Intercepts an HTTP request before opening the connection.
• suspend fun onResponse(response: InterceptableHTTPResponse): Intercepts an HTTP response before consuming the response body.

To start intercepting HTTP requests, add the interceptor to our Network API:

theoPlayerView.player.network.addHTTPInterceptor(httpInterceptor)

To stop intercepting HTTP requests, remove the interceptor from our Network API:

theoPlayerView.player.network.removeHTTPInterceptor(httpInterceptor)

Intercepting a request

The suspend fun onRequest(request: InterceptableHTTPRequest) provides a request parameter that can be used to read/write properties or to interrupt the request providing a direct response.

In the below snippet, we show some common use-cases.

override suspend fun onRequest(request: InterceptableHTTPRequest) {
    // Read request properties
    Log.d("Interceptor", "onRequest - url: ${request.url}")

    // Add/override request headers
    request.headers["newKey"] = "newValue"

    // Replace properties
    request.method = "GET|POST|.."
    request.url = URL("new_url")
    request.headers = HashMap()

    // Replace POST/PUT request body
    request.body = "new post body".toByteArray()

    // Perform another async computation
    delay(1000) // simulating an async call

    // Interrupt the request and respond with a CompleteHTTPResponse
    request.respondWith(
        CompleteHTTPResponse(
            request,
            request.url,
            request.headers,
            200,
            "OK",
            "new post body".toByteArray()
        )
    )
}

Intercepting a response

The suspend fun onResponse(response: InterceptableHTTPResponse) provides a response parameter that can be used to read and write properties from the received response.

In the below snippet we show some common use-cases.

override suspend fun onResponse(response: InterceptableHTTPResponse) {
    // Read response properties
    Log.d("Interceptor", "onResponse - headers: ${response.headers}")

    // Add/override response headers
    response.headers["newKey"] = "newValue"

    // Replace properties
    response.url = URL("new_url")
    response.headers = HashMap()
    response.status = 200
    response.statusText = "OK"

    // Get the chunks of the response body as they are read from the HTTP connection
    response.onChunk { chunk: ByteArray ->
        Log.d("Interceptor", "onResponse - onChunk: ${chunk.size}")
        delay(100)
        chunk
    }

    // Read the complete response body
    response.onBody { body: ByteArray ->
        Log.d("Interceptor", "onResponse - onBody: ${body.size}")

        // Read response body
        val string = body.decodeToString()
        val json = JSONObject(string)

        // Perform another async computation
        delay(1000) // simulating an async call

        // Replace response body
        "new response body".toByteArray()
    }
}