Better Leanback sample request.

[luiscurini]

Hi,

Sorry for the long post but this isn't a good sample for people that want to port their TV apps to Fire TV auto.
Starting from your own guides on how to create a FireTV app, the recommended way to do so is by using the Androidx Leanback Library.

Leanback provides a lot of templates to simplify the creation of TV apps. It basically simplifies navigation and focus between the different elements that can be shown while using the D-pad.

This library wasn't clearly intended to be used with touch controls or mouse, there are a lot of issues that have been reported to google if one tries to run a leanback app on a tablet and many more things that could be added to this sample.

For example:

• Github swiping a row and its issue on the google tracker
• Another issue on the google tracker complaining about the sample not being compatible with touch.
• How to catch touch events to show player controls
• Video with RowsSupportFragment issues, one can see that even if I scroll a row, they don't gain focus and remain dimmed. Also sometimes scrolling up/down will make a jump to the focused card. This uses the new google sample with kotlin.
• Video with VerticalGridSupportFragment issues One can basically scroll to each side and the grid isn't really shown. Scrolling up/down also has issues.
• Video with DetailSupportFragment issues sometimes the page jumps back to the top.
• Minor issue with GuidedStepSupportFragment options cannot be selected easily.

It'd be nice to have a sample of how to make a leanback app compatible with touch, instead of how to use RecyclerView and add some focusability properties.

Also an emulator for fireTV auto would be nice. An Emulator does the job for now, but there are some specific things of FireTV auto like no connectivity or automotive SDK that are cannot be tested.

We're interested in porting our fireTV auto but we would be fighting against the framework to make it work as intended.

[giolaq]

Hi @luiscurini! Thanks for your post!
It contains a lot of good feedback and idea to improve.
I will take care of them and update here soon!