[Feature Request] Support to share videos / preview links

[pwFoo]

Hi @or-else,

I know you're busy with other features / tasks. Just to have the ideas added here.

[tairov]

Hi @pwFoo ! Could you please elaborate how this feature should look like, how it should work?

[or-else]

It's a client-side feature. It's very similar to the way image attachments work. Pick one of the platforms for a start: webapp, Android or iOS. See how image attachments work:

1. Drafty component IM for serialization in the corresponding SDK. Here is the spec: https://github.com/tinode/chat/blob/master/docs/drafty.md#im-inline-image-or-attached-image-with-inline-preview and here are implementations https://github.com/tinode/tinode-js/blob/master/src/drafty.js or https://github.com/tinode/tindroid/blob/master/tinodesdk/src/main/java/co/tinode/tinodesdk/model/Drafty.java or https://github.com/tinode/ios/blob/master/TinodeSDK/model/Drafty.swift. You only need to look at the IM object.
2. Client-side generation and presentation. Here is an Android example:
   images are attached:
   https://github.com/tinode/tindroid/blob/69016a945506ae42fdd9d0eeba9166224604c57b/app/src/main/java/co/tinode/tindroid/MessagesFragment.java#L832
   presented:
   https://github.com/tinode/tindroid/blob/master/app/src/main/java/co/tinode/tindroid/media/SpanFormatter.java#L97

What you would need to go is

1. Come up with a JSON video object for Drafty, similar to IM, say VD or VI. I suppose VD should contain all the data that IM has plus some more, like video duration, presence of sound, static picture of the title screen.
2. Patch Drafty with the VD implementation (this is very small).
3. Implement creation of the VD object on a client. This is nearly identical to other attachments except you need to grab the additional data from the video mentioned above: duration, if video has sound, capture screenshot.
4. Implement download and playback on the client. This is probably the most involved part. Particularly if you want to implement playback while the video is being downloaded.

Let me know if you want to do it and I'll help you with questions or code reviews.

[or-else]

Video sharing is available in https://github.com/tinode/webapp/tree/next. Please test.

[or-else]

Videos release in 0.21.0-rc1

[or-else]

Closing this issue. Link previews moved to #820.