How to auto start a video using exoplayer?

Question

I have a video loaded in a com.google.android.exoplayer2.ui.SimpleExoPlayerView view but I want to make it automatically start when the view loads. Right now, the user has to click the play button.

Answer 1

SimpleExoPlayer works well with a SurfaceView, there are methods to set the surface of the player.

This is how I create the SimpleExoPlayer:

/** Create a default TrackSelector **/
TrackSelector trackSelector = new DefaultTrackSelector(new Handler());

/** Create a default LoadControl **/
LoadControl loadControl = new DefaultLoadControl();

/** Create the player **/
mPlayer = ExoPlayerFactory.newSimpleInstance(context, trackSelector, loadControl);

/** Make the ExoPlayer play when its data source is prepared **/
mPlayer.setPlayWhenReady(true);

I hold these factories so I don't have to create them each time I set a new data source.

/** Produces Extractor instances for parsing the media data **/
mExtractorsFactory = new DefaultExtractorsFactory();

/** Produces DataSource instances through which media data is loaded **/
mDataSourceFactory = new DefaultDataSourceFactory(
        context, Util.getUserAgent(context, "AppName")
);

I use the following method to set a new data source on the player. This method uses the factories created earlier.

For me, the String source is a URI to an MP4 file held on the device's SD card. Having setPlayWhenReady(true) earlier, once this video is prepared & ready to play it will begin immediately.

public void setDataSource(SurfaceView view, String source) {
    stopMedia();
    mPlayer.setVideoSurfaceView(view);
    view.requestFocus();

    // Create the media source
    mVideoSource = new ExtractorMediaSource(Uri.fromFile(
            new File(source)),
            mDataSourceFactory, mExtractorsFactory, null, null);

    // Prepare the player with the source.
    mPlayer.prepare(mVideoSource);
}

Answer 2

just use:

player.setRepeatMode(Player.REPEAT_MODE_ALL);