Smart YouTube TV

Imagine that you have ordinary Chinese android box with simple remote controller. What YouTube client you should use? Regular client doesn't understand remote controller. Off course you may use official YouTube TV client for Nexus Player. But there is many drawback. One of them is dependencies (e.g. gapps) that box usually don't have. Another drawback is that official client needs minimum Android 5.0. And there comes Smart YouTube TV. It require zero dependencies, minimum Android 4.4.

Highlights

consist of two parts: app and standalone browser engine:
- smartyoutubetv: main app that using browser engine for rendering
- browser: engine with wide capabilities (e.g. display naked page)
browser engine can be used independently (currently in development)
browser engine based on marshmallow-release branch of android open source project

Quick start

To build project navigate to the root directory then type:

gradlew build

Generated apks will be placed in the directory ./smartyoutubetv/build/outputs/apk/

Browser engine usage

Basic usage

MyActivity extends MainBrowserActivity {
	@Override
	void onCreate(Bundle bundle) {
		super.onCreate();
		Controller controller = new SimpleUiController(this);
		controller.loadUrl("http://ya.ru");
		setController(controller);
	}
}

More lifecircle handling and custom engine usage

MyActivity extends MainBrowserActivity {
	MyActivity() {
		// set preferred engine to XWalk (default - WebView)
		// we must set engine as early as possible
        Browser.setEngineType(EngineType.XWalk);
	}
	@Override
	void onCreate(Bundle bundle) {
		Controller controller = new SimpleUiController(this);
		Intent intent = (bundle == null) ? getIntent() : null;
		controller.start(intent, "http://ya.ru");
		setController(controller);
	}
}

Benefits of this browser engine over regular WebView

ability to choose preferred engine type: WebView, XWalk
you don't have to deal with creating custom methods for managing WebView lifecircle (pause, resume etc)
ability to easily add tabs, settings and other regular browser-specific features
all internal state is saved into persistent memory instead of RAM

Used libraries

Crosswalk - alternative browser engine
Otto - message bus
OkHttp - http processing
Android Logger - logger factory implementation
Crashlytics - multipurpose crash analytics
Butter Knife - simplify layout handling

TODO

exo: fix play from phone (because main app not running: mobizen_20170929_111409.mp4)
exo: add 'share' button
subtitle support

Proposition list

playlist: more informative playlist layout
playlist: add shuffle option
video-item: add comments section
video-item: add description section

DONE

XWalk: remember selected resolution
XWalk: add 4k version
auto update
live video > select higher quality
beta: remember selected resolution
exo: tune rewind step from 1min to 15 sec
auto update
exo: fix brightness (-webkit-filter:brightness(0))
market: add to aptoide
select version on launch
System.exit(0)
add 60 fps support
auto clear cache to maintain small footprint
disable release logging
bug with Resuming webview timers
ability to set video quality
adapt build system to multiple prduct flavors
add Crashlytics crash reporting tool
add Crosswalk backend
apply codec fixes: MiTV3, MiTV3S-55, X92
add DIAL (DIscovery And Launch) support
add adblock
add crash handler
handle intents from external apps
restore state (Bundle) when app unloaded from memory
back key not closes video but exits from app
don't play video in background
keys not working
add wide viewport
fix constant activity reload
remove ActionBar
add system wide logging

NOTES

Activity->onLowMemory() -> throw exception; tune webview to display complex sites
hide TitleBar and other UI (Controller.enableBasicMode())
use logging framework slf4j + android logger backend
add multiple flavors: original (WebView) and beta (XWalk)
- custom resources location: src/originalFlavor and src/regularFlavor
use logging framework slf4j + android logger backend
review crash reporting tools (https://www.captechconsulting.com/blogs/a-comparison-of-android-crash-reporting-tools)
- add Crashlytics crash reporting tool (https://fabric.io/kits/android/crashlytics/)
Crosswalk docs:
update UML diagram for MainController and SubControllers
find more details:
- TabControl.SubWindow
- DataController
- BrowserWebView.CustomView
- SnapshotBar
add tests:
- testThatPageLoadHandlerNotCalledTwise
- testThatUrlIsNotOverridedAndHandledInternally
- testCheckThatBackKeyNotClosesActivity
- testThatCustomUserAgentHeaderNotOverridedBySettings
- testThatWebViewCreatedAndAttachedToTheActivityView
- testThatWebViewHeadersAreProperlySet
add Chrome Custom Tabs backend (unable to implement: lack of api for setUserAgent, setUseWideViewPort)
- https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/customtabs
optimization tips
- android:largeHeap="true"
- android:hardwareAccelerated="true"
- assets folder xwalk-command-line: xwalk --ignore-gpu-blacklist

Other

how to fetch sources from android open source project via console:
- git clone -b marshmallow-release https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Browser

javierpz/SmartYouTubeTV