How to use the camera view in GoCoder SDK for Android

Learn how to use the UI component of WZCameraView, a subclass of the SurfaceView class in the Wowza GoCoder™ SDK for Android, to display a preview of the active camera.

Contents

Display the camera preview

Use WZCameraView class with the standard set of View operations or within an app's XML-based UI layout definition to create the camera preview. Use the startPreview and stopPreview methods, respectively, to start and stop the camera preview display.

1. Use the following custom parameters to specify the initial state for the WZCameraView view element.
    

   Parameter	Default Value	Description
   scaleMode	fill	Specifies the preview scaling mode. Valid values are fill and crop.
   defaultCamera	back	Specifies the default camera to preview. Valid values are back and front.
   frameSizePreset	frameSize640x480	Specifies a preset frame size for the preivew. Valid values are frameSize320x240, frameSize640x480, frameSize960x540, frameSize1280x720, frameSize1920x1080, and frameSize3840x2160.

2. Use the setCameraView method to associate the camera view with the GoCoder SDK.
    

   // Initialize the SDK
   goCoder = WowzaGoCoder.init(this, SDK_SAMPLE_APP_LICENSE_KEY);
   
   // Assign the camera view
   goCoderCameraView = (WZCameraView) findViewById(R.id.cameraPreview);
   
   // Start the camera preview
   goCoderCameraView.startPreview();

3. Create the camera view programmatically or by modifying the app layout definition file.
   • The following is an example that creates the camera view programmatically.
      

     // Programmatically create and add the camera view
     goCoderCameraView = new WZCameraView(this);
     
     // Get the parent view and define the layout behavior
     FrameLayout cameraViewContainer = (FrameLayout)findViewById(R.id.cameraView);
     FrameLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams = new FrameLayout.LayoutParams(
         FrameLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, FrameLayout.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
     
     // Add the camera view to the parent containing view
     cameraViewContainer.addView(this.goCoderCameraView, layoutParams);
     
     // Associate the camera view with the GoCoder SDK
     this.goCoder.setCameraView(goCoderCameraView);

   • The following is an example app layout definition file ([project_root]/app/src/main/res/layout/activity_main.xml) that uses the WZCameraView  class.
      

     <!-- The root of the application layout -->
     <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
       xmlns:wowza="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
       android:layout_width="fill_parent"
       android:layout_height="fill_parent"
       tools:context=".MainActivity">
     
       <!-- The camera preview display -->
       <com.wowza.gocoder.sdk.api.devices.WZCameraView
         android:layout_width="match_parent"
         android:layout_height="match_parent"
         android:id="@+id/cameraPreview"
         wowza:scaleMode="fill"
         wowza:defaultCamera="back"
         wowza:frameSizePreset="frameSize1280x720"/>
     
     </RelativeLayout>
     

Detect the cameras available

Use the getNumberOfDeviceCameras static method to return the number of cameras available and the getCameras method to return an array of WZCamera objects for each camera.

// Enable the switch camera button if more than one camera is available
int numCameras = WZCamera.getNumberOfDeviceCameras();
switchCameraButton.setEnabled(numCameras > 1);

Set the active camera

Use the setCamera property to specify the active camera and the switchCamera method to switch between cameras when multiple cameras are available.

// Set the active camera to the front camera if it is not already active
if (!goCoderCameraView.getCamera().isFront())
  goCoderCameraView.switchCamera();

Set the preview frame size

Use the setFrameSize method to set the frame size for the camera preview.

Note: If you specify a frame size that the active camera doesn't support, the closest supported frame size is used. In this case, the setFrameSize method returns the frame size that is used. Use the getSupportedFrameSizes method of the WZCamera class to determine which frame sizes are supported for a particular camera.

// Set the camera preview to 720p
WZSize actualFrameSize = goCoderCameraView.setFrameSize(new WZSize(1280, 720));

Set the crop and scale behavior

Use the setScaleMode method to specify how the camera preview should be displayed when the active frame size or aspect ratio of the camera does not match the view. The following modes are available:

Use the following command to set the previewGravity mode.

// Set the cropping mode so that the full frame is displayed, potentially cropped
goCoderCameraView.setScaleMode(WZMediaConfig.FILL_VIEW);

If you're having problems or want to discuss this article, post in our forum.