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This demo Android TV app is built using Contentstack’s Android SDK. It uses Contentstack to store and deliver the content of the TV app.
Here’s a quick guide on how to create an Android TV app using Contentstack’s Android SDK.
Note: For this tutorial, we have assumed that you are familiar with Contentstack and Android. If not, then please refer to the Contentstack docs for more details.
In this tutorial, we will first go through the steps involved in configuring Contentstack and then look at the steps required to customize and use the presentation layer.
Log in to your Contentstack account, and create a new stack. This stack will hold all the data specific to your website. Learn more on how to create a stack.
To add an environment in Contentstack, go to your stack and click the “Settings” icon on the left navigation panel. Select Environments, and click on the + New Environment button. Provide a suitable name for your environment, say “staging”. Specify the base URL (e.g., “http://YourDomainName.com”), and select the language (e.g., English - United States). Then, click on Add. Read more about environments.
A content type is like the structure or blueprint of a page or a section of your web or mobile property. Read more about Content Types.
For this website, four basic content types are required: New Release, Most Watched, TV Shows, and Top Rated. For quick integration, we have already created these content types. You simply need to import them to your stack. (You can also create your own content types. Learn how to do this.
To import these content types, first, save the zipped folder of the JSON files given below on your local machine. Extract the files from the folder. Then, go to your stack in Contentstack. Access the “Content Models” menu from the left panel. Click the “Import” button, and select the JSON file saved on your machine.
Here’s a brief overview of the content types required for this project.
Now that all the content types are ready, let’s add some content for your Android TV app.
Create and publish entries for the ‘New Release’, ‘Most Watched’, ‘TV Shows’, and ‘Top Rated’ content types
Add a few dummy entries for ‘New Release’, ‘Most Watched’, ‘TV Shows’, and ‘Top Rated’ content types. Save and publish these entries. Learn how to create and publish entries.
With this step, you have created sample data for your app. Now, it’s time to use and configure the presentation layer.
To set up Android Studio and initialize Android SDK, refer to our documentations here.
To get your app up and running quickly, we have created a sample Android app for this project. You need to download it and change the configuration. Download the app using the command given below:
$ git clone https://github.com/contentstack/contentstack-android-tv.git
Once you have downloaded the project, add your Contentstack API Key, Delivery Token, and Environment to the project during the SDK initialization step. (Learn how to find your Stack's API Key and Delivery Token.)
Stack stack = Contentstack.stack(context, "API_key","delivery_token","environment_name");
This will initiate your project.
Now that we have a working project, you can build and run it.
Additional Resource: We have used the Contentstack Android SDK to build an example news app. To learn more, read our guide on how to build an Android news app using Contentstack’s Android SDK.
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