YouTube Android API: YouTubePlayerFragment loading spinner

Question

I am using the Android YouTube API samples to create a chromeless YouTube player in my app. I am having an issue that the buffering / loading progress bar carries on displaying over my video even after it has loaded and started playing. I can reproduce this in the FragmentDemoActivity sample with a couple of small modifications:

public class FragmentDemoActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements YouTubePlayer.OnInitializedListener {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.fragments_demo);

        YouTubePlayerFragment youTubePlayerFragment =
            (YouTubePlayerFragment) getFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.youtube_fragment);
        youTubePlayerFragment.initialize(DeveloperKey.DEVELOPER_KEY, this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onInitializationSuccess(YouTubePlayer.Provider provider, YouTubePlayer player,
          boolean wasRestored) {
        if (!wasRestored) {
            player.setPlayerStyle(YouTubePlayer.PlayerStyle.CHROMELESS);
            player.loadVideo("nCgQDjiotG0", 10);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onInitializationFailure(YouTubePlayer.Provider provider, YouTubeInitializationResult youTubeInitializationResult) {}

}

I have changed FragmentDemoActivity to inherit from AppCompatActivity instead of YouTubeFailureRecoveryActivity, as the documentation says is fine to do. I have also changed the player style to be chromeless in onInitializationSuccess. Finally, I have changed cueVideo to loadVideo, just to trigger auto play.

This happens on multiple devices including Nexus 5X. I am using library version 1.2.2. No error is triggered in onInitializationFailure.

The video starts playing after buffering. The player is chromeless. However the buffering spinner never disappears. Is this a bug, or am I doing something I am not allowed to do?

Answer 1

I encountered this too, it really looks like a bug. Here is how I managed to work around it.

In your onInitializationSuccess, set a PlaybackEventListener on the player. Override the onBuffering and do something like this:

ViewGroup ytView = (ViewGroup)ytPlayerFragment.getView();
ProgressBar progressBar;
try {
    // As of 2016-02-16, the ProgressBar is at position 0 -> 3 -> 2 in the view tree of the Youtube Player Fragment
    ViewGroup child1 = (ViewGroup)ytView.getChildAt(0);
    ViewGroup child2 = (ViewGroup)child1.getChildAt(3);
    progressBar = (ProgressBar)child2.getChildAt(2);
} catch (Throwable t) {
    // As its position may change, we fallback to looking for it
    progressBar = findProgressBar(ytView);
    // TODO I recommend reporting this problem so that you can update the code in the try branch: direct access is more efficient than searching for it
}

int visibility = isBuffering ? View.VISIBLE : View.INVISIBLE;
if (progressBar != null) {
    progressBar.setVisibility(visibility);
    // Note that you could store the ProgressBar instance somewhere from here, and use that later instead of accessing it again.
}

The findProgressBar method, used as a fallback just in case the YouTube code changes:

private ProgressBar findProgressBar(View view) {
    if (view instanceof ProgressBar) {
        return (ProgressBar)view;
    } else if (view instanceof ViewGroup) {
        ViewGroup viewGroup = (ViewGroup)view;
        for (int i = 0; i < viewGroup.getChildCount(); i++) {
            ProgressBar res = findProgressBar(viewGroup.getChildAt(i));
            if (res != null) return res;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

This solution works perfectly fine for me, enabling the ProgressBar when the player is buffering and disabling it when it's not.

EDIT: If anyone using this solution discovers that this bug has been fixed or that the position of the ProgressBar has changed, please share so that I can edit my answer, thanks!