Get started with the Wowza Flowplayer Android SDK

This page describes how to get started with the Wowza Flowplayer Android SDK. We assume you understand Android development and are familiar with Android Studio and Gradle.

Before you begin, check these requirements. You can then start integrating the SDK framework into your Android projects. As part of this process, you have to first import the SDK, then configure your application-level settings.

Migrate from legacy to v2.0

There are several breaking changes to consider if migrating to   v2.0 of the Wowza Flowplayer Android SDK. If migrating from an earlier version of the SDK, see our migration guide.

Import the Android SDK

Use this section to add the SDK to your existing Android project and to configure your project-level settings. We recommend using Gradle and the Maven Central repository to download the SDK's core and modules. To download the mavenCentral dependency, use these steps.

1. In Android Studio, open your application.
2. In the project-level build.gradle file, add the mavenCentral repository to the allprojects script block:
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   allprojects {
      repositories {
          mavenCentral()
      }
   }

3. Add the SDK as a dependency in the application-level build.gradle file. Replace the X.X.X version placeholder with the version information in this badge:
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   dependencies {
      implementation 'com.flowplayer.android.player:flowplayer:X.X.X'
   }

Configure your application

To be able to compile and run your application using the Wowza Flowplayer Android SDK, complete the steps described in this section.

Set a minimum SDK version

The minimum SDK parameter defines the compatibility for your application on different Android devices. To work with this SDK, you must set the minimum SDK version to API level 19 (Android 4.4). Follow these steps to complete this task.

1. In Android Studio, find the build.gradle file for you application-level module.
2. Add the following minSdkVersion configuration:
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   android {
      defaultConfig {
          minSdkVersion 19
      }
   }

Add Java 8 compatibility

The Wowza Flowplayer Android SDK is written using Java 8 language features. To make your project compatible with Java 8, ensure that you're compiling for Java 8 or above by following these steps.

1. In Android Studio, find the build.gradle file for you application-level module.
2. Add the following sourceCompatibility and targetCompatibility :
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   android {
      compileOptions {
          sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
          targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
      }
   }

Update the AndroidManifest

Follow the steps in this section to update your app/manifests/AndroidManifest.xml. For more, check the AndroidManifest.xml included in our demo application.

1. To enable the player content, add a <meta-data> tag with your Wowza Flowplayer access token. For more information about getting an access token, see Create or revoke a player token in Wowza Video.
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   <meta-data
      android:name="com.flowplayer.accessToken"
      android:value="[my-flowplayer-access-token]" />

2. In every <activity> element that contains the player, add the following configuration. This prevents the activity from being destroyed on orientation changes.
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   android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize"

   A correctly configured manifest file looks similar to this:

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   <application>
      <activity
          android:name="com.my.package.MyAwesomePlayerActivity"
          android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize" />
      <meta-data
          android:name="com.flowplayer.accessToken"
          android:value="[my-flowplayer-access-token]" />
   </application>