Launch App on TV¶
Many TVs and streaming players include support for launching installed apps. The following is a simplified example of how to launch YouTube on a device.
Launch an app¶
// This variable should be a class field
// ConnectableDevice mDevice;
mDevice.getLauncher().launchApp("YouTube", new Launcher.AppLaunchListener() {
@Override
public void onError(ServiceCommandError error) {
Log.d("App Tag", "App Launch error: " + error);
}
@Override
public void onSuccess(LaunchSession object) {
Log.d("App Tag", "App Launch success.");
}
});
Device-specific app identifiers¶
On each device (webOS TV, Roku, etc) apps are identified by different values. Here is an example of the different identifiers in use for the YouTube app.
- webOS: youtube.leanback.v4 (value may change with future updates)
- Netcast: 0000000000017498 (value may be different on each TV)
- DIAL: YouTube (listed in DIAL registry)
- Roku: 837 (Roku-specific channel number)
Launching an app with device-specific identifiers¶
The following snippet shows how to detect the platform of your device and launch with the appropriate app identifier.
String appId = null;
// This should be a class field
// ConnectableDevice mDevice;
if (mDevice.getServiceByName(WebOSTVService.ID) != null)
appId = "youtube.leanback.v4";
else if (mDevice.getServiceByName(NetcastTVService.ID) != null)
appId = "0000000000017498";
else if (mDevice.getServiceByName(RokuService.ID) != null)
appId = "837";
else if (mDevice.getServiceByName(DIALService.ID) != null)
appId = "YouTube";
if (appId == null)
return;
mDevice.getLauncher().launchApp(appId, new Launcher.AppLaunchListener() {
@Override
public void onError(ServiceCommandError error) {
Log.d("App Tag", "App Launch error: " + error);
}
@Override
public void onSuccess(LaunchSession object) {
Log.d("App Tag", "App Launch success.");
}
});
AppInfo helper object¶
You will notice that the previous example refers to an AppInfo object. This object is used internally by Connect SDK to manage an app’s protocol-specific properties. If a device supports app list, the app list will return a set of AppInfo objects for each app installed on the TV.
Launching an app with parameters¶
In most cases, a device’s launcher object will allow you to pass launch parameters to your app. Connect SDK has normalized the parameter input type to a keyed set of values. These values are then parsed into the appropriate format for the protocol (XML, JSON, URL params, etc).
// This should be a class field
// ConnectableDevice mDevice;
JSONObject params = null;
try {
params = new JSONObject() {{
put("someProperty", "someValue");
}};
} catch (JSONException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
AppInfo appInfo = new AppInfo("your_app_id");
mDevice.getLauncher().launchAppWithInfo(appInfo, params, new Launcher.AppLaunchListener() {
@Override
public void onError(ServiceCommandError error) {
Log.d("App Tag", "App Launch error: " + error);
}
@Override
public void onSuccess(LaunchSession object) {
Log.d("App Tag", "App Launch success.");
}
});
Note
Due to the variety of protocols in use, it is strongly recommended that you only use strings for the keys AND values of your parameters.