Changing the time format on a Spark VideoPlayer control in Flex 4

By Peter deHaan On December 11, 2009 · 4 Comments

The following example shows you how you can modify the time value format on the Spark VideoPlayer control in Flex 4 by overriding the formatTimeValue() method.

Full code after the jump.

The following example(s) require Flash Player 10 and the Adobe Flex 4 SDK. To download the Adobe Flash Builder 4 trial, see http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/. To download the latest nightly build of the Flex 4 SDK, see http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Download+Flex+4.
For more information on getting started with Flex 4 and Flash Builder 4, see the official Adobe Flex Team blog.

The following example shows how you can create a custom VideoPlayer component using MXML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/12/11/changing-the-time-format-on-a-spark-videoplayer-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:VideoPlayer name="CustomVideoPlayer"
        xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
        xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
        xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx">
 
    <fx:Declarations>
        <mx:DateFormatter id="fmt" formatString="Nm:SSs" />
    </fx:Declarations>
 
    <fx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            override protected function formatTimeValue(value:Number):String {
                if (isNaN(value)) {
                    return "";
                }
                return fmt.format(new Date(value * 1000)); /* convert to seconds */
            }
        ]]>
    </fx:Script>
 
</s:VideoPlayer>

The following example shows how you can create a custom VideoPlayer component using ActionScript:

/** http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/12/11/changing-the-time-format-on-a-spark-videoplayer-control-in-flex-4/ */
package comps {
    import mx.formatters.DateFormatter;
    import spark.components.VideoPlayer;
 
    public class CustomVideoPlayer2 extends VideoPlayer {
        protected static const fmt:DateFormatter = new DateFormatter();
 
        public function CustomVideoPlayer2() {
            super();
            fmt.formatString = "Nm:SSs";
        }
 
        override protected function formatTimeValue(value:Number):String {
            if (isNaN(value)) {
                return "";
            }
            return fmt.format(new Date(value * 1000)); /* convert to seconds */
        }
    }
}

And finally, you can call the custom components using the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2009/12/11/changing-the-time-format-on-a-spark-videoplayer-control-in-flex-4/ -->
<s:Application name="Spark_VideoPlayer_formatTimeValue_test"
               xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" 
               xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" 
               xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx"
               xmlns:custom="comps.*">
    <s:layout>
        <s:VerticalLayout />
    </s:layout>
 
    <custom:CustomVideoPlayer source="http://helpexamples.com/flash/video/caption_video.flv" />
    <custom:CustomVideoPlayer2 source="http://helpexamples.com/flash/video/water.flv" />
 
</s:Application>

This entry is based on a beta version of the Flex 4 SDK and therefore is very likely to change as development of the Flex SDK continues. The API can (and will) change causing examples to possibly not compile in newer versions of the Flex 4 SDK.

Tagged with: formatTimeValue() • Gumbo

About The Author

Peter deHaan

Peter deHaan currently works for Adobe on the Flex SDK QA team. While not working on Flex, Flash, and ColdFusion applications, Peter enjoys making up bios and writing in 3rd person. Peter's rarely updated blog can be found at blogs.adobe.com/pdehaan/, actionscriptexamples.com, airexamples.com, and coldfusionexamples.com.

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4 Responses to Changing the time format on a Spark VideoPlayer control in Flex 4

Billy White says:

December 18, 2009 at 1:06 pm

Thanks ^______^

Reply
Brian Russel Davis says:

June 10, 2010 at 5:11 pm

Ok I am trying to figure out how to skin the data tip that comes up when scrubbing in the video player. Any documentation on this?

Reply
- Peter deHaan says:
  
  June 10, 2010 at 8:47 pm
  
  @Brian Russel Davis,
  
  I don’t think I’ve tried this before, but from the looks of the code you may to create a custom ScrubBarSkin (you can just copy and paste the spark.skins.spark.mediaClasses.normal.ScrubBarSkin.mxml and tweak the data tip component as desired). Then you’ll probably need to create a custom Spark VideoPlayer which calls your custom scrub bar skin.
  
  Peter
  
  Reply
  - Peter deHaan says:
    
    June 17, 2010 at 10:46 am
    
    Posted; “Styling the scrub bar data tip on a Spark VideoPlayer control in Flex 4″.
    
    Peter