nexxPLAY Flutter

Features

Flutter plugin serves as a wrapper for the Android nexxPLAY, and, combined with the custom code that the "example" app provides, enables next features:

• nexxPLAY native view wrapped with a widget available for use
• Dynamic configuration support
• Public API, consisting from methods falling under these categories: 'Preparing and Configuring the Player', 'Playback Control', 'Requesting Player Status and Details'
• Player events observation
• Fullscreen mode
• PiP mode Please note that iOS is not supported by this plugin.

Integration guide

1. First of all, nexxPLAY dependency has to be included into pubspec.yaml.

2. Secondly, there is a set of Gradle preparations that need to be done:

   2.1. Exclude META-INF & LICENCE files from the packaging options:

   packagingOptions {
      exclude 'META-INF/ASL2.0'
      exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
      exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
      exclude 'LICENSE.txt'
      exclude 'META-INF/license.txt'
      exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
      exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'
      exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'
      exclude 'META-INF/notice.txt'
   }
   

   Refer to example/android/app/build.gradle for more details.

   2.2. Minification has to be disabled. Either the native nexxPLAY package can be excluded by the minifier tool (tv.nexx.*) or the whole process could be disabled completely like this:

   minifyEnabled false
   shrinkResources false
   

   Refer to example/android/app/build.gradle for more details.

3. Thirdly, a set of Android native configurations have to be done:

   3.1. In the Android app's main manifest file, add tools:replace="android:label" to the application tag. Refer to example/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml for more details.

   3.2. In the Android app's main manifest file, add android:resizeableActivity="true" and android:supportsPictureInPicture="true" to the tag of the Activity you are using. Refer to example/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml for more details.

   Refer to `example/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml` for more details.
   
   3.3. In the Activity's code add (or extend) overrides for `onUserLeaveHint` and `onPictureInPictureModeChanged` methods like this:
   ```java
   public class MainActivity extends FlutterActivity {
       // ...
       @Override
       public void onUserLeaveHint() {
           super.onUserLeaveHint();
           NexxPlugin.post(OnUserLeaveHintEvent.create());
       }
      
       @Override
       public void onPictureInPictureModeChanged(boolean isInPictureInPictureMode, Configuration newConfig) {
           super.onPictureInPictureModeChanged(isInPictureInPictureMode, newConfig);
           NexxPlugin.post(OnPIPModeChangedEvent.create(isInPictureInPictureMode, newConfig));
       }
   }
   

   Refer to example/android/app/src/main/java/tv/nexx/flutter/android_example/MainActivity.java for more details.

   Kotlin version:

   class MainActivity : FlutterActivity {
       override fun onUserLeaveHint() {
           super.onUserLeaveHint()
           NexxPlugin.post(OnUserLeaveHintEvent.create())
       }
   
       override fun onPictureInPictureModeChanged(isInPictureInPictureMode: Boolean, newConfig: Configuration) {
           super.onPictureInPictureModeChanged(isInPictureInPictureMode, newConfig)
           NexxPlugin.post(OnPIPModeChangedEvent.create(isInPictureInPictureMode,newConfig))
       }
   }
   

4. Next, inherit from the AppCompat theme for the Android native app part (required by ChromeCast, even if you don't use it, unfortunately):

<style name="NormalTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.DayNight.NoActionBar">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">?android:colorBackground</item>
</style>

Ensure that you have the AndroidX AppCompat dependency, a transitive or a direct one ( implementation "androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.4.0"). Refer to example/android/app/build.gradle, example/android/app/src/main/res/values/styles.xml and example/android/app/src/main/res/values-night/styles.xml for more details.

5. Kotlin Gradle Plugin (KGP) with the newer Android Gradle Plugin versions are including a set of the androidx.* dependencies necessary for the native library; the example project uses 1.9.20 for Kotlin and 8.5 for AGP, Gradle Wrapper's version being 8.7. One of the exceptions hinting to the Gradle environment update is Fatal Exception: java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to get provider androidx.startup.InitializationProvider: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "androidx.startup.InitializationProvider".

6. Lastly, there is a set of things to be done from the Flutter PoV for proper fullscreen and PiP support. Example app's main.dart file contains all the documentation necessary for that. INTEGRATION_GUIDE markers were placed all over the documentation for navigation to make the integration process easier.

7. OPTIONAL Sharing Android's MediaSessionCompat instance for all the native nexxPLAY instances.

   7.1. In the build.gradle's dependencies block, the following line should be present: implementation "androidx.media:media:1.6.0". Refer to example/android/app/build.gradle for more details.

   7.2. In the host Activity class code, protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) method should be overriden (or, for Kotlin, protected onCreate(@Nullable savedInstanceState: Bundle)). Refer to example/android/app/src/main/java/tv/nexx/flutter/android_example/MainActivity.java for more details.

   7.3. Inside the onCreate(Bundle) method, the following lines should be present:

   final MediaSessionCompat mediaSession = new MediaSessionCompat(getApplicationContext(), getPackageName());
   NexxPlayPlugin.addEnvironmentConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_MEDIA_SESSION, mediaSession);
   

   Or, for Kotlin:

   val mediaSession = MediaSessionCompat(applicationContext, packageName)
   NexxPlayPlugin.addEnvironmentConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_MEDIA_SESSION, mediaSession)
   

   The following import has to be present:

   import android.support.v4.media.session.MediaSessionCompat;
   

   For the Kotlin version, omit the ending semicolon.

8. OPTIONAL Advertisements support.

   8.1. In the build.gradle's dependencies block, the following line should be present: implementation "tv.nexx.android:admanager:1.0.05". Refer to example/android/app/build.gradle for more details.

   8.2. In the host Activity class code, protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) method should be overriden (or, for Kotlin, protected onCreate(@Nullable savedInstanceState: Bundle)). Refer to example/android/app/src/main/java/tv/nexx/flutter/android_example/MainActivity.java for more details.

   8.3. Inside the onCreate(Bundle) method, the following lines should be present:

   NexxPlayPlugin.addEnvironmentConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_AD_MANAGER, NexxPlayAdManager::new);
   

   Or, for Kotlin:

   NexxPlayPlugin.addEnvironmentConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_AD_MANAGER, ::NexxPlayAdManager)
   

   The following import has to be present:

   import tv.nexx.android.admanager.NexxPlayAdManager;
   

   For the Kotlin version, omit the ending semicolon.

9. OPTIONAL Chromecast support.

   9.1. The next native integration guide items have to be ensured to reproduced.

   9.2. Application's activity should extend FlutterFragmentActivity or it's inheritor.

   9.3. When resolving the CastContext instance as described by the native integration guide, a modification has to be applied so the CastContext instance is be included into the plugin's configuration:

   CastContext.getSharedInstance(this, Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor())
       .addOnSuccessListener(castContext ->  NexxPlayPlugin.addEnvironmentConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_CAST_CONTEXT, castContext))
       .addOnFailureListener(exception ->  Log.e("nexxPLAY", "Could not resolve CastContext", exception));
   

   Or, for Kotlin:

   CastContext.getSharedInstance(this, Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor())
   .addOnSuccessListener { NexxPlayPlugin.addEnvironmentConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_CAST_CONTEXT, it) }
   .addOnFailureListener { Log.e("nexxPLAY", "Could not resolve CastContext", it) }
   

   The following imports have to be present:

   import com.google.android.gms.cast.framework.CastContext;
   import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
   import android.util.Log;
   

   For the Kotlin version, omit the ending semicolons.

10. OPTIONAL Custom notification icon.

    10.1. Custom notification icon can be set to an Android's R.* resource via the native hook. First, the image resource has to be added to the Android's resources bundle. In case of PNGs or JPGs, it's sufficient to just put the file into **/android/app/src/main/res/drawable directory. Otherwise, official documentation contains additional information.

    10.2. Then the image resource reference has to be used in the configuration. NexxPlayPlugin class includes the addNativeConfigurationEntry and a static "key" value KEY_NOTIFICATION_ICON; value to be passed is the image resource reference — Android framework creates those automatically using the file name itself as the corresponding variable name (e.g. if your image is called "my_image.png" and is placed into the **/res/drawable directory, then Android will generate the R.drawable.my_image variable). Regular place for it is the native Android application's MainActivity class, specifically the onCreate method override:

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        // ... other configuration code
        NexxPlayPlugin.addNativeConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_NOTIFICATION_ICON, R.drawable.widget_icon);
    }
    

    Or, for Kotlin:

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        // ... other configuration code
        NexxPlayPlugin.addNativeConfigurationEntry(NexxPlayPlugin.KEY_NOTIFICATION_ICON, R.drawable.widget_icon)
    }
    

    10.3. Refer to the example project for complete integration sample.