How to play/pause ads with ExoPlayer controller?

[Nishant Patel]

Hello, 

I am using IMA for DAI.

To bring the ExoPlayer controller on top during ad playback, I am using the following.

    @Override

    public void onAdEvent(@NonNull AdEvent adEvent) {

        ....

        switch (adEvent.getType()) {

            case TAPPED:

                log("Tapped on an Ad.");

                if (playerView.isControllerVisible()) {

                    playerView.hideController();

                } else {

                    playerView.showController();

                }

                break;

        ....

        }

    }

But once the controller is visible and I click on the play/pause icon, it's not pausing/playing an Ad. It triggers TAP events, even though I am clicking on the visible control rack.

I am using the same kind of logic with VAST AdTag, and it is working as expected. I can pause and resume the ad playback.

Can you give me any suggestions for achieving desired behavior?

I have also opened an issue on GitHub.
https://github.com/googleads/googleads-ima-android-dai/issues/18

[IMA SDK]

Hi Nishant,

Thank you for reaching out to us. As per our sample implementation, it is advisable to disable video player controls during an ad break, even seeking must be disabled (more information here). Thus, can you share with us your use case here?

Also, it will  be helpful if you could share with us the following information via our testing alias: imate...@gmail.com so we can test further.

• VAST ad tag
• Sample project file (if possible)

Regards,

Sherwin Diesta IMA SDK Team

 

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2DxEZr:ref

[Nishant Patel]

Hi Sherwin,

We just want a user to have the flexibility of playing/pausing an Ad (no seeking).  I have sent an email with project files.  

Thanks

Nishant

[IMA SDK]

Hi Nishant,

I work with Sherwin and will assist you. While pausing ads is an unsupported feature I was able to force this ability in the following way in the 'Tapped' event:

PlayerView videoView = ((Activity)context).findViewById(R.id.videoView);
videoView.bringToFront();
  videoPlayer.enableControls(true);

Note that there is no guarantee that this will not affect viewability metrics or that this fulfills policy requirements. 

Regards,

Aryeh Baker IMA SDK Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2DxEZr:ref

[Nishant Patel]

Hey Aryeh,

It works with  videoPlayer.enableControls(true).

Now I am able to play/pause ads.

Thanks,

Nishant

[IMA SDK]

Hi Nishant,

Thank you for reporting back. When testing further with my solution with bringToFront the ad overlays wouldn't show any more and there's no way to get to the landing page of the ad. Is fine with you?

[Nishant Patel]

Hi Aryeh, 

What do you mean by the landing page of an Ad? 

I noticed that the Ad counter is missing and also Learn More on the top right corner is also not visible.

[IMA SDK]

Hi Nishant,

I used different words to say the same thing you are saying. Please get back to us if this solution doesn't suit your needs.

[Nishant Patel]

Hi Aryeh,

One another way I am able to achieve this is by rearranging the order of adUIContainer by putting ExoPlayer PlayerView on top of adUIContainer (but AdCounter and learn more is not visible as well).

 

So layout looks something like this,

<FrameLayout
  android:id="@+id/adUiContainer"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="match_parent" />

<com.google.android.exoplayer2.ui.PlayerView
  android:id="@+id/playerView"
  android:layout_width="match_parent"
  android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

And onAdEvent() callback will look something like this,

case TAPPED:
     log("Tapped on an Ad event fired.");

     if (playerView.isControllerVisible()) {
       playerView.hideController();
     } else {
       playerView.showController();
     }

With this approach, I do not have to use playerView.bringToFront().

Apart from that, I am also using registerFriendlyObstruction()on all player controls. 

I found one issue ExoPlayer, which is somewhat similar to this.

https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer/issues/7008 

Thanks

Nishant

[IMA SDK]

Hi Nishant,

thank you for reporting this, I was able to replicate what you are saying that just placing the PlayerView later allowed the ad to pause while causing "Learn more" or countdown to not work. Please let us know if you need anything else in this matter.