Allow UIInterfaceOrientationLandscape during UIWebView video playback

Question

My iPhone app is a portrait orientation only app and in my app I have a UITableView that has a UIWebView in the first UITableCell. The UIWebView shows an embedded youtube video. When I click on the video to play it enters fullscreen mode. What I need to do is, allow the user to rotate their device and play the video in landscape mode. Then when the video is stopped only allow portrait again. I setup to listen for the notification when the video enters fullscreen and leaves full screen. But I don't know how to programmatically allow the user to rotate the interface orientation.

so basically I have 2 methods called when the notification is passed

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(youTubeStarted:) name:@"UIMoviePlayerControllerDidEnterFullscreenNotification" object:nil];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(youTubeFinished:) name:@"UIMoviePlayerControllerDidExitFullscreenNotification" object:nil];

-(void)youTubeStarted:(NSNotification *)notification{
    // Entered fullscreen code goes here.
}

-(void)youTubeFinished:(NSNotification *)notification{
    // Left fullscreen code goes here.
}

What would I put in those 2 methods to allow orientation change only during the video playback?

Answer 1

I figured it out. In my 2 methods:

-(void)youTubeStarted:(NSNotification *)notification{
   // Entered Fullscreen code goes here..
   AppDelegate *appDelegate = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
   appDelegate.fullScreenVideoIsPlaying = YES;
}

-(void)youTubeFinished:(NSNotification *)notification{
   // Left fullscreen code goes here...
   AppDelegate *appDelegate = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
   appDelegate.fullScreenVideoIsPlaying = NO;

   //CODE BELOW FORCES APP BACK TO PORTRAIT ORIENTATION ONCE YOU LEAVE VIDEO.
   [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarOrientation:UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait animated:NO];
    //present/dismiss viewcontroller in order to activate rotating.
    UIViewController *mVC = [[UIViewController alloc] init];
    [self presentModalViewController:mVC animated:NO];
    [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:NO];
}

I accessed my App delegate in the above methods by setting the BOOL property of my AppDelegate. Then I called the application method below in my AppDelegate.m:

- (NSUInteger)application:(UIApplication *)application supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow:(UIWindow *)window{
NSUInteger orientations = UIInterfaceOrientationMaskPortrait;
if (self.fullScreenVideoIsPlaying == YES) {
    return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskAllButUpsideDown;
}
else {
    if(self.window.rootViewController){
        UIViewController *presentedViewController = [[(UINavigationController  *)self.window.rootViewController viewControllers] lastObject];
        orientations = [presentedViewController supportedInterfaceOrientations];

    }
    return orientations;
}
}

The self.fullScreenVideoIsPlaying is a BOOL that I set as a property in my AppDelegate.h file.

I hope this helps others the 5 hours I lost figuring it out.

Answer 2

If you only want to support landscape playback in fullscreen. From iOS 8 onwards, video from UIWebView plays inside AVPlayerViewController.

In your AppDelegate check if presenting window contains AVPlayerViewController.

func application(_ application: UIApplication, supportedInterfaceOrientationsFor window: UIWindow?) -> UIInterfaceOrientationMask {

    if let w = window, let root = w.rootViewController {

        if root.childViewControllers.first is AVPlayerViewController {  
            return UIInterfaceOrientationMask.allButUpsideDown
        }
    }

    return UIInterfaceOrientationMask.portrait
}