How to Capture Video With Flutter?

Now a day almost every application requires functionality like Video Conferencing So in this article, Today we are going to Discuss How to Capture Video With Flutter ?

How to Capture Video With Flutter?

Video recording is now enabled by our team on the official camera plugin v0.2.0.

The example app for this plugin uses additional plugins path_provider
and video_player to display a sample of the video recorded.

Flutter provides a packages “camera” and “video_player“. The camera is used for accessing the camera of the phone and video_plater is used for video recording. You can use the camera package and record the video.

Go to your pubspec.yaml file and put a plugin like below:

dependencies:
   camera: 0.10.5+9
   fluttertoast:
   path_provider:
   video_player:

Now consider a code snippet like the below:

import 'dart:async';
import 'dart:io';

import 'package:camera/camera.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';
import 'package:video_player/video_player.dart';
import 'package:fluttertoast/fluttertoast.dart';

class VideoRecorderExample extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _VideoRecorderExampleState createState() {
    return _VideoRecorderExampleState();
  }
}

class _VideoRecorderExampleState extends State<VideoRecorderExample> {
  CameraController controller;
  String videoPath;

  List<CameraDescription> cameras;
  int selectedCameraIdx;

  final GlobalKey<ScaffoldState> _scaffoldKey = GlobalKey<ScaffoldState>();

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();

    // Get the listonNewCameraSelected of available cameras.
    // Then set the first camera as selected.
    availableCameras()
        .then((availableCameras) {
      cameras = availableCameras;

      if (cameras.length > 0) {
        setState(() {
          selectedCameraIdx = 0;
        });

        _onCameraSwitched(cameras[selectedCameraIdx]).then((void v) {});
      }
    })
        .catchError((err) {
      print('Error: $err.code\nError Message: $err.message');
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      key: _scaffoldKey,
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: const Text('Camera example'),
      ),
      body: Column(
        children: <Widget>[
          Expanded(
            child: Container(
              child: Padding(
                padding: const EdgeInsets.all(1.0),
                child: Center(
                  child: _cameraPreviewWidget(),
                ),
              ),
              decoration: BoxDecoration(
                color: Colors.black,
                border: Border.all(
                  color: controller != null && controller.value.isRecordingVideo
                      ? Colors.redAccent
                      : Colors.grey,
                  width: 3.0,
                ),
              ),
            ),
          ),
          Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.all(5.0),
            child: Row(
              mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.start,
              children: <Widget>[
                _cameraTogglesRowWidget(),
                _captureControlRowWidget(),
                Expanded(
                  child: SizedBox(),
                ),
              ],
            ),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }

  IconData _getCameraLensIcon(CameraLensDirection direction) {
    switch (direction) {
      case CameraLensDirection.back:
        return Icons.camera_rear;
      case CameraLensDirection.front:
        return Icons.camera_front;
      case CameraLensDirection.external:
        return Icons.camera;
      default:
        return Icons.device_unknown;
    }
  }

  // Display 'Loading' text when the camera is still loading.
  Widget _cameraPreviewWidget() {
    if (controller == null || !controller.value.isInitialized) {
      return const Text(
        'Loading',
        style: TextStyle(
          color: Colors.white,
          fontSize: 20.0,
          fontWeight: FontWeight.w900,
        ),
      );
    }

    return AspectRatio(
      aspectRatio: controller.value.aspectRatio,
      child: CameraPreview(controller),
    );
  }

  /// Display a row of toggle to select the camera (or a message if no camera is available).
  Widget _cameraTogglesRowWidget() {
    if (cameras == null) {
      return Row();
    }

    CameraDescription selectedCamera = cameras[selectedCameraIdx];
    CameraLensDirection lensDirection = selectedCamera.lensDirection;

    return Expanded(
      child: Align(
        alignment: Alignment.centerLeft,
        child: FlatButton.icon(
            onPressed: _onSwitchCamera,
            icon: Icon(
                _getCameraLensIcon(lensDirection)
            ),
            label: Text("${lensDirection.toString()
                .substring(lensDirection.toString().indexOf('.')+1)}")
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  /// Display the control bar with buttons to record videos.
  Widget _captureControlRowWidget() {
    return Expanded(
      child: Align(
        alignment: Alignment.center,
        child: Row(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
          mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.max,
          children: <Widget>[
            IconButton(
              icon: const Icon(Icons.videocam),
              color: Colors.blue,
              onPressed: controller != null &&
                  controller.value.isInitialized &&
                  !controller.value.isRecordingVideo
                  ? _onRecordButtonPressed
                  : null,
            ),
            IconButton(
              icon: const Icon(Icons.stop),
              color: Colors.red,
              onPressed: controller != null &&
                  controller.value.isInitialized &&
                  controller.value.isRecordingVideo
                  ? _onStopButtonPressed
                  : null,
            )
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  String timestamp() => DateTime.now().millisecondsSinceEpoch.toString();

  Future<void> _onCameraSwitched(CameraDescription cameraDescription) async {
    if (controller != null) {
      await controller.dispose();
    }

    controller = CameraController(cameraDescription, ResolutionPreset.high);

    // If the controller is updated then update the UI.
    controller.addListener(() {
      if (mounted) {
        setState(() {});
      }

      if (controller.value.hasError) {
        Fluttertoast.showToast(
            msg: 'Camera error ${controller.value.errorDescription}',
            toastLength: Toast.LENGTH_SHORT,
            gravity: ToastGravity.CENTER,
            timeInSecForIos: 1,
            backgroundColor: Colors.red,
            textColor: Colors.white
        );
      }
    });

    try {
      await controller.initialize();
    } on CameraException catch (e) {
      _showCameraException(e);
    }

    if (mounted) {
      setState(() {});
    }
  }

  void _onSwitchCamera() {
    selectedCameraIdx = selectedCameraIdx < cameras.length - 1
        ? selectedCameraIdx + 1
        : 0;
    CameraDescription selectedCamera = cameras[selectedCameraIdx];

    _onCameraSwitched(selectedCamera);

    setState(() {
      selectedCameraIdx = selectedCameraIdx;
    });
  }

  void _onRecordButtonPressed() {
    _startVideoRecording().then((String filePath) {
      if (filePath != null) {
        Fluttertoast.showToast(
            msg: 'Recording video started',
            toastLength: Toast.LENGTH_SHORT,
            gravity: ToastGravity.CENTER,
            timeInSecForIos: 1,
            backgroundColor: Colors.grey,
            textColor: Colors.white
        );
      }
    });
  }

  void _onStopButtonPressed() {
    _stopVideoRecording().then((_) {
      if (mounted) setState(() {});
      Fluttertoast.showToast(
          msg: 'Video recorded to $videoPath',
          toastLength: Toast.LENGTH_SHORT,
          gravity: ToastGravity.CENTER,
          timeInSecForIos: 1,
          backgroundColor: Colors.grey,
          textColor: Colors.white
      );
    });
  }

  Future<String> _startVideoRecording() async {
    if (!controller.value.isInitialized) {
      Fluttertoast.showToast(
          msg: 'Please wait',
          toastLength: Toast.LENGTH_SHORT,
          gravity: ToastGravity.CENTER,
          timeInSecForIos: 1,
          backgroundColor: Colors.grey,
          textColor: Colors.white
      );

      return null;
    }

    // Do nothing if a recording is on progress
    if (controller.value.isRecordingVideo) {
      return null;
    }

    final Directory appDirectory = await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory();
    final String videoDirectory = '${appDirectory.path}/Videos';
    await Directory(videoDirectory).create(recursive: true);
    final String currentTime = DateTime.now().millisecondsSinceEpoch.toString();
    final String filePath = '$videoDirectory/${currentTime}.mp4';

    try {
      await controller.startVideoRecording(filePath);
      videoPath = filePath;
    } on CameraException catch (e) {
      _showCameraException(e);
      return null;
    }

    return filePath;
  }

  Future<void> _stopVideoRecording() async {
    if (!controller.value.isRecordingVideo) {
      return null;
    }

    try {
      await controller.stopVideoRecording();
    } on CameraException catch (e) {
      _showCameraException(e);
      return null;
    }
  }

  void _showCameraException(CameraException e) {
    String errorText = 'Error: ${e.code}\nError Message: ${e.description}';
    print(errorText);

    Fluttertoast.showToast(
        msg: 'Error: ${e.code}\n${e.description}',
        toastLength: Toast.LENGTH_SHORT,
        gravity: ToastGravity.CENTER,
        timeInSecForIos: 1,
        backgroundColor: Colors.red,
        textColor: Colors.white
    );
  }
}

class VideoRecorderApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: VideoRecorderExample(),
    );
  }
}

Future<void> main() async {
  runApp(VideoRecorderApp());
}

Conclusion:

In this article, We have been through How to Capture Video With Flutter?

Thanks for being with us a Flutter Journey !!!

Keep Learning !!! Keep Fluttering !!!

FlutterAgency.com is our portal Platform dedicated to Flutter Technology and Flutter Developers. The portal is full of cool resources from Flutter like Flutter Widget Guide, Flutter Projects, Code libs and etc.

FlutterAgency.com is one of the most popular online portal dedicated to Flutter Technology and daily thousands of unique visitors come to this portal to enhance their knowledge on Flutter.

Written by Nirali Patel

Nirali Patel is a dedicated Flutter developer with over two years of experience, specializing in creating seamless mobile applications using Dart. With a passion for crafting user-centric solutions, Nirali combines technical proficiency with innovative thinking to push the boundaries of mobile app development.