[API][Android] API feature proposal and wishlist.

No cant be skinned, the TV app is relatively new and under heavy development. The issue seems to-be the difference between Android 9 and AndroidTV Ui settings.
I also just found out that JellyfinTV app hardcodes a bunch of those PosterView layout parameters, instead of calculating exactly how many rows/columns can fit in the view.

 

Ah OK, hopefully they'll add some extra functionality in soon.

 

Is there any news regarding the documentation for the API?

 

No,even through a dev reach out to me asking what i need, yet after i gave a list of possible changes/wishes i never heard anything back...

I reached the point where i have nearly given-up expecting any changes or communication from Zidoo. So for now i begrudgingly just use whats there and try to find hacks/workarounds, via reverse-engineering there code.

PS: Its super frustrating, since as i noted most of the changes i would love to see take like 1-2 days of a single dev at best.

 

Ok, thanks for your effort. Have you asked again? My experience with such things is to nag zidoo until they give up and give you what you want. The best thing is to send an email to zidoo every day or every other day. Our request will certainly have been lost on them...

 

Just to-be clear, i work for free as a senior software dev. just so we can use a modern, open media-center on Zidoo devices. So no i don't need to "beg" them for attention over and over, this is not a bug/issue request.

They can take it or leave it....

 

Yes, of course you're right...I just meant that such large organisations like zidoo are usually very sluggish and until something happens you first have to attract some attention.

The stupid thing is that their HomeTheatre has too many mistakes to be a real alternative to the ZDMC. That's why I don't understand why they are so hesitant...

In any case, many many thanks for your encouragement...

 

So things seem to finally move after more poking. We will get a android api and hopefully most of my wishlist will be added.

 

Excellent news!

 

Wow, did you ask again? In any case, it's great that something is slowly moving... Have they also mentioned a timetable?

 

Nope, our forum Prince did the work.

The dev has the basic api ready to test, just need to setup a process how i can download those changes.

 

Cool, then thanks to the person responsible...

Can you explain to me in simple terms what this API actually is? Is it some kind of interface for which a proper documentation of the individual functions was missing? Or how can I imagine that?

 

In simple terms, its a way to communicate between different Android "Activities". In our case Jellyfin app has its own "activities" and the internal zidoo player is also its own activity.
So we want to tell the player what to play and how and than the player should tell the Jellyfin app, if this worked and what the playback positions are if you close/stop the player.

Atm this can only be done with the existing http api, which is clunky and adds extra complexity.
The Android API we are getting will allow us to-do similar things, but more direct, faster and less clunky.

As example, this allows for seek/resume, watched state and automatic audio/subtitle selection.
We can also implement much smarter transcoding setups with a better Android API.
Than it also allows to implement some "smart" features, like applying audio/sub settings to the whole series if it was changed by the user once.

 

Like!
Just posted my own request for the missing streaming functions on the Rest API function. (although I did have a small breakthrough on this front - watch out for the next HA component release )

 

Thank you very much for the explanation. Let's hope that zidoo publishes it soon and that you can implement everything without major problems. It would be really wonderful to have a fully functional ZDMC...

 

Oh, i'm not using ZDMC so my main focus is on the JellyfinTV app. My feature/wish-list is really long, so i don't see me working on ZDMC at all for now.

So we need to ping a Zidoo dev to update ZDMC with the new api.

PS: Regarding a timeline, i should receive the new firmware to test early next week. So after i confirmed all is working, we can release a beta firmware for the public.

 

Oh, I thought that was your main focus originally? What do you have to change in ZDMC to get full compatibility with Zidoo's native player? Do you really only have to implement the new API somehow?

Why are you pushing this other app so much now? Wouldn't it be easier to continue developing the ZDMC? It has a lot more functions and so on...

 

Initially yes, since ZDMC was the only open-source app that had the "secret" player changes, so since ZDMC = KODI and kodi is GPL, they had to somehow make those changes public.
I shifted my focus after reverse-engineering the ZDMC code and how the internal player behaves, since i saw a good chance i could add this to the Jellyfin app.

Yeah someone needs to add the new API to ZDMC, so at least some of the new stuff can work.

I guess i'm just excited that i got my favorite media app to work, the way i want.
The other reason is that i work with some Jellyfin Anime plugin devs, as a result we just finished a anime scrobbling plugin that's superior to anything out there.

So, while Kodi is fine, its a dying breed of media-centers and lacks the anime plugins i need.
Jellyfin is a "modern" Kodi alternative, with a healthy community and growing plugin repository and importantly completely free.
In comparison Plex/Emby tries to "force" you to pay a subscription to access basic features.

There are ofc areas/use-cases where Kodi is still superior, yet for my personal use-case i'm happy so far.

The last part is the most important, you will hardly find any "free" open-source developer that is working on stuff he/she personally don't use.
After all its our spare-time, so why would we "waste" it on something we can't get excited about?

PS: Also the part most users don't see, is that from a developer standpoint, working with Kodi is a real pain.
The reason being kodi has lots of outdated coding paradigms and how it expects stuff.

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification. One more quick question, does the Jellyfin app work the same as kodi or does it run on the NAS?

 

Its a client/server architecture, so the server has to run somewhere, which can be a NAS or a PC/MAC.