This section summarizes some common business processes in the e-commerce live streaming scenario, helping you better understand the implementation process of the entire scenario.
Anchor Starting and Ending Live Streaming
Anchor Initiating Cross-Room Mic-Connection PK
RTC Audience Entering the Room for Mic-Connection
Product Management for Merchandising
The following diagram shows the process of an anchor (room owner) local preview, creating a room, entering a room to start live streaming, and leaving the room to end the live streaming.
The following diagram shows the process of Anchor A inviting Anchor B for a cross-room PK. During the cross-room PK, the audiences in both rooms can see the PK mic-connection live streaming of the two room owners.
The following diagram shows the process for RTC live interactive streaming audience to enter the room, apply for the mic-connection, end the mic-connection, and exit the room.
The diagram below shows the process in live streaming merchandising scenarios, where the anchor edits and lists products, while audience browses and purchases products.
Integration Preparation
Step 1. Activating the Services
E-commerce livestreaming scenarios usually require paid PaaS services for construction, including RTC Engine, Beauty AR, and Player SDK. RTC Engine provides real-time audio and video interaction capabilities. Beauty AR provides beauty effect capabilities. The player offers live and on-demand playback. You can freely choose to activate these services based on actual business needs.
Activating RTC Engine Service
Activating Beauty AR Service
Activate Player Service
1. First, log in to the RTC Engine console to create an application. Based on your needs, you can upgrade the RTC Engine application version, such as the Professional Edition, which unlocks more value-added features and services.
Note:
It is recommended to create two applications for testing and production environments, respectively. Each Tencent Cloud account (UIN) is given 10,000 minutes of free duration every month for one year.
RTC Engine monthly packages are divided into Trial Edition (default), Lite Edition, Standard Edition, and Professional Edition, unlocking different value-added features and services. For details, see Version Features and Monthly Package Description.
2. After an application is created, you can see the basic information of the application in the Application Management - Application Overview section. It is important to keep the SDKAppID and SDKSecretKey safe for later use and to avoid key leakage that could lead to traffic theft.
1. Log in to the Beauty AR console > Mobile Terminal License, and click Create Trial License (the trial license has a free trial period of 14 days and can be renewed once, totaling 28 days). Select Mobile, and enter App Name, Package Name, and Bundle ID based on your actual needs. Check the features you want to try: All Beauty Features, Virtual Background, Face Recognition, Gesture Recognition, and Gift AR, then click Confirm.
2. After activation, you can view your information on the current page and refer to the integration guide at the top for integration. You can see how to use the License Key and License URL in the Integration Guide.
1. Log in to VOD console or CSS console > License Management > Mobile, and click Create trial license.
2. Enter App Name, Package Name and Bundle ID according to actual needs, select Player Pro Edition, and click Create.
3. After the Trial License is successfully created, the page will display the generated License information. When initializing the SDK configuration, you need to enter two parameters: License Key and License URL, so carefully save the following information.
Note:
The License URL and Key for the same application are unique; after the Trial License is upgraded to the official version, the License URL and Key remain unchanged.
Step 2: Importing the SDK
The RTC Engine SDK and the Beauty AR SDK have been published to the CocoaPods repository. You can configure CocoaPods to download updates automatically.
1. Install CocoaPods by entering the following command in the terminal window (ensure that the Ruby environment is pre-installed on your Mac):
sudo gem install cocoapods
2. Create a Podfile. Navigate to the project directory and enter the following command. A Podfile will then be generated in the project directory.
pod init
3. Edit Podfile. Choose appropriate version for your project needs and edit Podfile:
platform :ios, '8.0'
target 'App'do
# The full feature version of SDK
# Includes features such as RTC Engine, live streaming player (TXLivePlayer), RTMP streaming (TXLivePusher), VOD player (TXVodPlayer), and short video recording and editing (UGSV).
pod 'TXLiteAVSDK_Professional', :podspec =>'https://liteav.sdk.qcloud.com/pod/liteavsdkspec/TXLiteAVSDK_Professional.podspec'
# Tencent Effect SDK example of S1-07 package is as follows:
pod 'TencentEffect_S1-07'
end
Note:
Implementation of e-commerce live streaming scenarios typically needs the combination of multiple capacities such as RTC Engine and player. To avoid the symbol conflict issues arising from single integration, integrating the LiteAVSDK_Professional SDK is recommended.
4. Update and install the SDK.
Enter the following command in a terminal window to update the local repository files and install the SDK:
pod install
Or run this command to update the local repository:
pod update
Upon the completion of pod command execution, a project file suffixed with .xcworkspace and integrated with the SDK will be generated. Double-click to open it.
Note:
If the pod search fails, it is recommended to try updating the local repo cache of pod. The update command is as follows:
5. Add beauty resources to actual project engineering.
5.1 Download and decompress the corresponding package's SDK and beauty resources, then add the bundle resources under the resources/motionRes folder to the actual project.
5.2 Add -ObjC in Other Linker Flags of Build Settings.
6. Modify the Bundle Identifier to match the applied trial authorization.
Step 3: Project Configuration
1. Configure the permissions.
For e-commerce live streaming scenarios, LiteAVSDK and Special Effect SDK require the following permissions. Add the following two items to the App's Info.plist, corresponding to the microphone and camera prompts in the system pop-up authorization dialog box.
Privacy - Microphone Usage Description. Enter a prompt specifying the purpose of microphone use.
Privacy - Camera Usage Description. Enter a prompt specifying the purpose of camera use.
2. To allow the App to continue running certain features in the backend, select the current project in XCode, set the setting item Background Modes to ON under Capabilities, and check Audio, AirPlay and Picture in Picture, as shown below:
Step 4: Authentication and Authorization
RTC Engine Authentication Credential
Beauty AR Authentication Permission
Player Authentication License
UserSig is a security signature designed by Tencent Cloud to prevent attackers from stealing your right of using cloud services. RTC Engine validates this authentication credential upon room entry.
Debugging Stage: UserSig can be generated through two methods for debugging and testing purposes only: client sample code and console access.
Formal Operation Stage: It is recommended to use a higher security level server computation for generating UserSig. This is to prevent key leakage due to client reverse engineering.
The specific implementation process is as follows:
1. Before calling the SDK's initialization function, your app must first request UserSig from your server.
2. Your server computes the UserSig based on the SDKAppID and UserID.
3. The server returns the computed UserSig to your app.
4. Your app passes the obtained UserSig into the SDK through a specific API.
5. The SDK submits the SDKAppID + UserID + UserSig to Tencent Cloud CVM for verification.
6. Tencent Cloud verifies the UserSig and confirms its validity.
7. After the verification passes, Tencent Real-Time Communication (TRTC) services will be provided for RTC Engine SDK.
Note:
The method of generating UserSig locally during the debugging and testing stage is not recommended for the online environment because it may be easily decompiled and reversed, causing key leakage.
We provide UserSig server side computation source code in multiple languages (Java/Go/PHP/Node.js/Python/C#/C++). For details, see Server-Side Calculation of UserSig.
Before using Beauty AR, you need to verify the license credential with Tencent Cloud. Configuring License requires License Key and License URL. The example code is as follows.
It is recommended to trigger the authentication permission in the initialization code of related business modules. Ensure to avoid having to download the License temporarily before use. Additionally, during authentication, network permissions must be ensured.
The actual application's Bundle ID must match exactly with the Bundle ID associated with the creation of License. Otherwise, it will lead to License verification failure. For details, see Authentication Error Code.
Live streaming and on-demand playback features require player license authorization to achieve playback success, otherwise playback failure (screen going black) will occur. It needs to be set globally only once. If you haven't obtained a license, you can apply for a free trial license for normal playing. An official license should be purchased. After successfully applying for a license, you will obtain 2 strings, License URL and License Key.
Before your App calls the SDK-related features (recommended in - [AppDelegate application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:]), set the following settings:
After the License is successfully set (you need to wait for a while, the specific time depends on the network conditions), you can use the following method to view the License information:
NSLog(@"%@",[TXLiveBase getLicenceInfo]);
Note:
The actual application's Bundle ID must match exactly with the Bundle ID associated with the License creation. Otherwise, it will lead to License verification failure.
The License is a strong online verification logic. When the TXLiveBase#setLicence is called after the application is started for the first time, the network must be available. At the first launch of the App, if the network permission is not yet authorized, you need to wait until the permission is granted before calling TXLiveBase#setLicence again.
Listen to the loading result of TXLiveBase#setLicence: For onLicenceLoaded API, if it fails, you should retry and guide according to the actual situation. If it fails multiple times, you can limit the frequency and supplement with product pop-ups and other guides to allow users to check the network conditions.
TXLiveBase#setLicence can be called multiple times. It is advisable to call TXLiveBase#setLicence in the case of entering the main interface of the App to ensure successful loading.
For multi-process Apps, ensure that every process using the player calls TXLiveBase#setLicence when it starts. For example, for Apps on the Android side that use a separate process for video playback, when the process is killed and restarted by the system during background playback, TXLiveBase#setLicence should also be called.
Step 5: Initializing the SDK
Initializing RTC Engine SDK
Initializing Beauty AR SDK
Initializing Player SDK
// Create an RTC Engine SDK instance (singleton mode)
self.trtcCloud =[TRTCCloud sharedInstance];
// Set event listeners.
self.trtcCloud.delegate =self;
// Notifications from various SDK events (e.g., error codes, warning codes, audio and video status parameters, etc.).
// Received event that the player is ready, now you can call pause, resume, getWidth, getSupportedBitrates, etc. } else if (EvtID == PLAY_EVT_PLAY_BEGIN) {
// Received the start playback event } else if (EvtID == PLAY_EVT_PLAY_END) {
Call the above API before enterRoom. The SDK will only start the camera preview and audio capture, and wait until you call enterRoom to start streaming.
Call the above API after enterRoom. The SDK will start the camera preview and audio capture and automatically start streaming.
2. The anchor sets rendering parameters for the local video, and the encoder output video mode (optional).
// Event callback for the result of entering the room.
-(void)onEnterRoom:(NSInteger)result {
if(result >0){
// result indicates the time taken (in milliseconds) to join the room.
NSLog(@"Enter room succeed!");
}else{
// result indicates the error code when you fail to enter the room.
NSLog(@"Enter room failed!");
}
}
Note:
RTC Engine room IDs are divided into integer type roomId and string type strRoomId. Rooms of different types are not interconnected. It is advisable to unify the room ID type.
RTC Engine user roles include anchor and audience. Only hosts have permission to streaming. The user role should be specified upon room entry. If it's not specified, the default role is anchor.
In the e-commerce live streaming scenario, it is recommended to choose TRTCAppSceneLIVE as the room entry mode.
Step 2: the Audience Enters the Room to Pull Streams
NSLog(@"Proactively call exitRoom to exit the room");
}elseif(reason ==1){
NSLog(@"Removed from the current room by the server");
}elseif(reason ==2){
NSLog(@"The current room is dissolved");
}
}
Note:
After all resources occupied by the SDK are released, the SDK will throw the onExitRoom callback notification to inform you.
If you wish to call enterRoom again or switch to another audio and video SDK, wait for the onExitRoom callback before proceeding. Otherwise, you may encounter various exceptional issues such as the camera, microphone device being forcibly occupied.
2. Dissolve the room.
Server dissolves the room.
RTC Engine provides the server side numeric type room dissolving API DismissRoom and the string type room dissolving API DismissRoomByStrRoomId. You can call the server side numeric type room dissolving API to remove all users from the room and dissolve the room.
Client dissolves the room.
The clients have no API for directly dissolve a room, and each is required to call exitRoom to exit the room. After all anchors and audiences exit the room, the room will be automatically dissolved according to RTC Engine room lifecycle rules. For details, see RTC Engine > Exit the Room.
Note:
It is recommended that after the end of live streaming, you call the room dissolvement API on the server to ensure the room is dissolved. This will prevent audiences from accidentally entering the room and incurring unexpected charges.
Advanced Features
Product Information Pop-Up
The product information pop-up window feature can be implemented through Chat Custom Message or through SEI Information. The 2 implementation methods are introduced as follows.
SEI information will be inserted into the anchor's video stream for transmission, achieving precise sync between the product information pop-up and the anchor's live streaming.
1. Send SEI information. The anchor sends SEI messages related to product pop-up windows in the RTC Engine client.
By playing pre-recorded product explanation videos, the product explanation replay feature is implemented.
First, it is necessary to initialize the player, then start playing the recorded video. TXVodPlayer supports two playback modes, which you can choose according to your needs:
// The psign means player signature. For more information about the signature and how to generate it, see: https://cloud.tencent.com/document/product/266/42436
p.sign =@"psignxxxx";// Player signature
[_txVodPlayer startVodPlayWithParams:p];
Playback control: adjust the progress, pause playback, resume playback, and end playback.
// Adjust the progress (seconds)
[_txVodPlayer seek:time];
// Pause playback
[_txVodPlayer pause];
// Resume playback
[_txVodPlayer resume];
// End playback
[_txVodPlayer stopPlay];
Note:
When stopping playback, remember to use removeVideoWidget to Destroy the view control before exiting the current UI interface. Otherwise, it may cause a memory leak or screen flash.
// Destroy the view control
[_txVodPlayer removeVideoWidget];
Cross-Room Mic-Connection PK
1. Either party initiates the cross-room competition.
// The user ID of the anchor in the other room you want to initiate the cross-room link-up.
// Error code. ERR_NULL indicates the request is successful.
// Error message.
}
Note:
Both local and remote users participating in the cross-room mic-connection must be in the anchor role and must have audio/video uplink capabilities.
Cross-room mic-connection PK with multiple room anchors can be achieved by calling ConnectOtherRoom() multiple times. Currently, a room can connect with up to three other room anchors at most, and up to 10 anchors in a room can conduct cross-room mic-connection competition with anchors in other rooms.
2. All users in both rooms will receive a callback indicating that the audio and video streams from the PK anchor in the other room are available.
After calling DisconnectOtherRoom(), you may exit the cross-room competition with all other room anchors.
Either the initiator or the receiver can call DisconnectOtherRoom() to exit the cross-room competition.
Integrating Third-Party Beauty Features
RTC Engine supports integrating third-party beauty effect products. The example of Beauty AR is used next to demonstrate the process of integrating the third-party beauty effects.
1. Integrate the Beauty AR SDK, and apply for authorization License. For details, see the Access Preparation step for implementation.
3. Set video data callback for third-party beauty effects by passing the results of the beauty effect SDK processing each frame of data into the RTC Engine SDK for rendering processing.
// RTC Engine SDK sets video data callback for third-party beauty effects
Step 1 and Step 2 vary depending on differing implementation methods of third-party beauty effect products, and Step 3 is a universal and important step for RTC Engine's integration with third-party beauty effects.
Dual-Stream Encoding Mode
When the dual-stream encoding mode is enabled, the current user's encoder outputs two video streams, a high-definition large screen and a low-definition small screen, at the same time (but only one audio stream). In this way, other users in the room can choose to subscribe to the high-definition large screen or low-definition small screen based on their network conditions or screen sizes.
When the dual-stream encoding mode is enabled, it will consume more CPU and network bandwidth. Therefore, it may be considered for use on Mac, Windows, or high-performance Pads. It is not recommended for mobile devices.
2. Choose the type of remote user's video stream to pull.
// Optional video stream types when subscribing to a remote user's video stream.
When the dual-stream encoding mode is enabled, you can specify the video stream type as TRTCVideoStreamTypeSmall with streamType to pull a low-quality small video for viewing.
View Rendering Control
If your business is involved in interaction scenarios that require switching display areas, you can use the RTC Engine SDK to update the local preview screen and the remote user's video rendering control feature.
// Update local preview screen rendering control.
[self.trtcCloud updateLocalView:view];
// Update the remote user's video rendering control.
The parameter view refers to the target video rendering control. And streamType only supports TRTCVideoStreamTypeBig and TRTCVideoStreamTypeSub.
Exception Handling
Exception Handling
When the RTC Engine SDK encounters an unrecoverable error, the error is thrown in the onError callback. For details, see Error Code Table.
1. UserSig related errors.
UserSig verification failure leads to room-entering failure. You can use the UserSig tool for verification.
Enumeration
Value
Description
ERR_TRTC_INVALID_USER_SIG
-3320
Room entry parameter userSig is incorrect. Check if TRTCParams.userSig is empty.
ERR_TRTC_USER_SIG_CHECK_FAILED
-100018
UserSig verification failed. Check if the parameter TRTCParams.userSig is filled in correctly or has expired.
2. Room entry or exit related errors.
If entering room is failed, you should first verify the correctness of the room entry parameters. It is essential that the room entry and exit APIs are called in a paired manner. This means that, even in the event of a failed room entry, the room exit API must still be called.
Enumeration
Value
Description
ERR_TRTC_CONNECT_SERVER_TIMEOUT
-3308
Room entry request timed out. Check if your internet connection is lost or if a VPN is enabled. You may also attempt to switch to 4G for testing.
ERR_TRTC_INVALID_SDK_APPID
-3317
Room entry parameter sdkAppId is incorrect. Check if TRTCParams.sdkAppId is empty.
ERR_TRTC_INVALID_ROOM_ID
-3318
Room entry parameter roomId is incorrect. Check if TRTCParams.roomId or TRTCParams.strRoomId is empty. Note that roomId and strRoomId cannot be used interchangeably.
ERR_TRTC_INVALID_USER_ID
-3319
Room entry parameter userId is incorrect. Check if TRTCParams.userId is empty.
ERR_TRTC_ENTER_ROOM_REFUSED
-3340
Room entry request is denied. Check if enterRoom is called consecutively to enter rooms with the same ID.
3. Devices related errors.
Exceptions for related monitoring devices. Users are prompted via UI in case of relevant errors.
Enumeration
Value
Description
ERR_CAMERA_START_FAIL
-1301
Failed to open the camera. For example, if there is an exception for the camera's configuration program (driver) on a Windows or macOS device, you should try disabling then re-enabling the device, restarting the machine, or updating the configuration program.
ERR_MIC_START_FAIL
-1302
Failed to open the mic. For example, if there is an exception for the mic's configuration program (driver) on a Windows or macOS device, you should try disabling then re-enabling the device, restarting the machine, or updating the configuration program.
ERR_CAMERA_NOT_AUTHORIZED
-1314
The device of camera is unauthorized. This typically occurs on mobile devices and may be due to the user having denied the permission.
ERR_MIC_NOT_AUTHORIZED
-1317
The device of mic is unauthorized. This typically occurs on mobile devices and may be due to the user having denied the permission.
ERR_CAMERA_OCCUPY
-1316
The camera is occupied. Try a different camera.
ERR_MIC_OCCUPY
-1319
The mic is occupied. This occurs when, for example, the user is currently having a call on the mobile device.
Remote Mirror Mode Not Functioning Properly
In RTC Engine, video mirrors are set to be divided into local preview mirror setLocalRenderParams and video encoding mirror setVideoEncoderMirror. These mirrors separately affect the mirror effect of the local preview video and that of the video encoding output video (the mirror mode for remote audiences and on-cloud recordings). If you expect the mirror effect seen in the local preview to also take effect on the remote audiences' end, follow the following encoding procedures.
// Set the rendering parameters for the local video.
params.mirrorType = TRTCVideoMirrorTypeEnable;// Video mirror mode
params.fillMode = TRTCVideoFillMode_Fill;// Video fill mode
params.rotation = TRTCVideoRotation_0;// Video rotation angle
[self.trtcCloud setLocalRenderParams:params];
// Set the video mirror mode for the encoder output.
[self.trtcCloud setVideoEncoderMirror:YES];
Adjustment of Camera Scale, Focus, and Switch
In e-commerce livestreaming scenarios, the anchor may need custom adjustment of the camera. The RTC Engine SDK's device management class provides APIs for such needs.
1. Query and set the zoom factor for the camera.
// Get the maximum zoom factor for the camera (only for mobile devices).
// Set the zoom factor for the camera (only for mobile devices).
// Value range is 1 - 5. 1 means the furthest field of view (normal lens), and 5 means the closest field of view (zoom lens). The maximum recommended value is 5, exceeding this may result in blurry video.