Accelerator Home UI v3

Overview

The RDK Accelerator Home UI version 3 is the latest version (3.8) of the RDK reference UI which provides a full featured UI with a modern minimalistic design using a dark theme.

This single UI currently supports IP-STB, Hybrid-STB and TV profile RDK stacks. UI uses DTV Plugin and HDMIInput plugins to distinguish the platform profile; UI will consider the platform as TV if stack has HDMIInput plugin support, Hybrid STB if DTV plugin is present else the default IP-STB.

The UI uses Lightning SDK Plugins such as  Language, Router, Storage and supports Premium apps such as Amazon, YouTube, Xumo along with a selection of Lightning apps from the Metrological App Store.  It also includes a wide section of settings which allow a user to take full advantage of the device features such as Audio, Video, Network, Language and more.

The sequential flow this UI provides to the user is listed in below sections.

In summary, the features includes in version 3 are:

• OEM logo with color accents which are customizable
• Multiple Language Support
• Casting Feature from mobile phones to premium apps such as YouTube
• Overlay Screen
• Extensive settings pages to interact with various Video, Audio, Connectivity options
• Generic UI Keymap option
• On-screen Keyboard Component for Bluetooth & Wi-Fi
• Partner-App side loading

Splash Screen

The app loads a new splash logo when the device boots up which remains for a few seconds and then leads to user on-boarding screens if device is booting up afresh.

User on-boarding

This screens shall appear only once the device is booting up.  Criteria used to detect the fresh boot is by verifying whether any previous Remote Control Unit (hereafter RCU) pairing information is available or not. If yes, device shall skip these on-boarding screens and land at the Home screen.

Same features and functionalities are exposed under Settings menu as well for the user to interact later.

Remote Pairing

UI initiates Bluetooth scan for HID profile to connect and pair with at this point with a configured time-out. How to put the RCU in Bluetooth pairing mode is dependent on the RCU design which is not within UI scope.

Bluetooth Pairing is done through RCU on UI

Note: this feature of automatic RCU pairing requires RCU model support integrated with BLERCUDaemon at platform firmware build time. If your RCU does not support this feature yet, you can still pair your RCU through the “Settings” menu detailed in later section – “Pair Remote Control”.

Language Selection

The UI currently supports two languages,  English and Spanish. New language support can be integrated with proper resource files added along with the defaults as detailed in upcoming sections. UI will reload to refresh the entire settings and during that time user may see display going blank and a spinner appearing for the reload time.

Note: this spinner is being spawned as a separate app instance.

Network Selection

Network selection screen allows the user to configure connectivity method for internet access to the device.

Preferred interface shall be ETHERNET and if selected, user shall be taken directly to home screen and set default interface to ETHERNET.

Upon selecting Wi-Fi interface, user shall be presented with a list of available wireless networks or an option to connect to the hidden network. Upon selection of a Wi-Fi network user shall be presented a page where he can enter the network credentials.

Added skip section to test the offline mode where UI shall not initiate any network configuration. If the ethernet cable is connected or Wi-Fi is factory configured while selecting the skip button the device’s backend may automatically try to connect to the network via respective interface which is not initiated by UI.

Below snapshots details related screens.

Note: (Limitation) Only DHCP mode is supported at the moment.

Keyboard seen in above snapshot is implemented using Lightning UI Components and has been customized to fit with present Keyboard layout.

Home Screen

This new app has redesigned ‘Home UI’ screen with new background, shadow and animation effects. It contains sections for Featured content, Lightning Apps, Featured Video on Demand, and Voice and Settings icons displayed on top section.

Prime Video, YouTube, Xumo and the metrological apps can be launched from app listings if the device has respective support integrated.

Sample Video contents can be played from the Featured Video section.

• New Feature: UIv3.8 Added support for few more Lightning apps.
• New Feature: UIv3.8 Added support for Netflix launch requirements.

User can access the device settings by interacting with the Settings icon which will redirect him on to dedicated settings screen. Time display is also available in the home UI.

Home Screen for Set-Top-Box Profile

Note: Voice Search Functionality implementation for the mic is not yet available, up-coming feature with BLERCUDaemon integration.

Note: The web apps will now auto-exit in case if the url gives 403 error.

Peacock App

The UI can display popular movies in Home screen with the help of Gracenote metadata if platform support is enabled. UI upon detecting required runtime configuration shall display “Popular Movies” row at the top as detailed below.

On selecting an asset; its details screen shall be presented and User shall be able to launch the selected content on platform supported Apps (Note: Currently YouTube only is added with deeplink feature).

Precondition: Platform shall have support for PersistentStore plugin and Gracenote API key should be added to Persistent Store of the DUT prior to UI startup. Use below commands to save and confirm the same.

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:9998/jsonrpc -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":"3","method":"org.rdk.PersistentStore.1.setValue","params":{"namespace":"gracenote","key":"apiKey","value":"SecretAPIKey"}}'
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:9998/jsonrpc -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":"3","method":"org.rdk.PersistentStore.1.getValue","params":{"namespace":"gracenote","key":"apiKey"}}'

Home Screen for TV Profile

• Upcoming Feature: Extend support for Composite Input and HDMI CEC Sink.

Here it is! This new feature allows users to select HDMI inputs connected your TV. It allows seamless switching between the UI and HDMI inputs.

Guide Screen

•  EPG guide is continuous updating menu that shows scheduling information for current and upcoming programs.
•  EPG/Guide can be invoked by clicking on the second icon of the side panel.
•  EPG Guide will show list of channels and shows which are currently airing. It will also show user the upcoming programs.
•  One can scroll through channels by using up and down arrow keys and through shows by using left and right arrow keys.

• One can watch a show by clicking on it(Provided it’s currently playing).
• To bring up the controls as shown in the figure, can be achieved by pressing up key. where as down key is used to hide them. 

• if one clicks on a show which supposedly airs in the future then its airing time comes up on the screen instead of the video player.

• When playing the content user has the ability to view all the channels as an overlay.
• This feature allows user to change channels while playing the content.

• Version 3.8 comes with a new feature to open premium apps (Amazon , Netflix and YouTube) from the guide screen.
• These three clickables will take place of the first three channels.
• In presence of DTV plugin other channels will follow these three apps.
• In absence of a DTV plugin , the guide screen will still openable with these three items populated.

Apps Screen

On selecting the Apps Icon from left banner; User shall be presented a new page with 3 tabs highlighted with “MyApps” which shall list the list of all available Apps on that particular platform. User shall be able to launch selected App from this page as well.

• Note: The other tabs “App Catalog & Manage Apps” are kept reserved for upcoming feature – to support DAC Apps. In this UI version these pages shall display Empty listing.

Featured Video Player

The redesigned video player utilizes UVE implementation and has kept the minimal controls such as a progress bar with pause, play, next and previous buttons. Various player controls are detailed below.

• Navigation
  • The overlay screen has timeout of 5 sec. You can bring up the overlay by pressing Arrow UP key.
  • Enter to pause, Left and Right to navigate between options
  • Back and Home key will take you back to home screen from Featured video player instance.

Settings Screen

Settings screen has several new options which allows user to interact with device capabilities.

Native Frame State:

Network Configuration

This page contains three subsections detailed below:

• Network Info – This page presents the current network interface status details to user such as Connection type and status, IP address, MAC address, signal strength etc.

• Network Interface – This page allows the user to change current network configuration – option to choose between Wi-Fi and Ethernet. If Wi-Fi is selected, next page will allow user to join with a wireless network. Join Another Option from Wi-Fi page gives user an option to connect to hidden networks around them – User has to provide Network name, select the proper security and password.
• Note: Previously connected SSID will not ask for password again and it will get connected if we click on previous connected SSID, and only connect with SSID that is saved [3.8 NEW FEATURE]. Only last saved one SSID is remembered.

• Check Internet Access – This allows the user to confirm that the device has internet connectivity

Pair Remote Control

Allows user to connect to Human Interface devices like Remote, Bluetooth keyboard etc.

1. To add a device navigate to add a device option and press enter.
2. User will be directed to pairing screen where you will list of devices scanned by the UI. Press enter to setup connection.
3. Notification message will be shown to confirm the connection.

Below Images shows the flow.

Video Settings

Video settings provide users to change resolution of the screen. HDR and HDCP options are read only fields which confirms certain requirements for premium apps.

Note: Transparent(advanced settings) contents are currently work in progress

• Resolution

This screen presents the common resolutions supported by both source(device) and sink(display).

Audio

Provides option to change Output mode of the device.

Note: Transparent contents are currently work in progress

• Output Mode

Other Settings

• Sleep Timer

Sleep Timer turns off the screen upon selecting a particular time frame from the options provided. Device will be in Light Sleep mode by default. User can change the default sleep(standby) mode from Energy Saver section.

• Energy Saver

Energy Saver page allows user to configure the default sleep mode from the supported standby modes.

1. Deep Sleep – Which releases the resources in the device and suspend the UI. Lowest power consumption mode except power off.
2. Light Sleep – Turns off the display but the background processes remain active.

• Language

Allows user to change the menu language of the UI. If changed, the UI will reload to refresh the entire settings and in that process user may see display going blank and a spinner appearing for the reload time.

Note: this spinner is being spawned as a separate app instance.

youtube languages changes with respect to device support

• Privacy

1. Local Device Discovery – This feature allows user to control (enables/disable) the DIAL casting support of the device – YouTube app. If enabled; user shall be able to see the device in his mobile App(under casting option in YouTube mobile app) which is in the same local network. Upon selecting it will directly link your mobile to device and open the YouTube app in the UI.
2. USB Media Device – User shall be able to enable or disable USB external media support. If enabled and media device is connected with the device then the USB icon will appear in Featured Content section as detailed in “USB Feature” section.
3. Audio Input/Clear Cookies and App Data – under development
4. Privacy Policy and License – This provides a template for future integration. Gives Information about Privacy and License policy which user shall be abiding to.

• Advanced Settings 

1. CEC Control – This plugin allows user to configure HDMI Consumer Electronic Control on a device. This will enable user to control TV and set-top box using one remote provided same is enabled and supported by the display device also.
2. Device Details – The basic device specific details page which presents details of the platform, manages firmware details and helps user to trigger a system reboot.

• Device Details – Info – Lists down information about device like chipset, location, supported DRM systems, Firmware version etc.

• Device Details – Time Zone – This page allows the User to change the device TimeZone settings
  Dependent on System plugin feature support. Note: this does not change the device’s time. Only the UI displayed time is affected. This configuration will be persisted.

• Device Details – Check for Updates – This page shows the current firmware version and also allows user to trigger a check for new firmware availability (download and install happens without UI involvement).

• Device Details – Reboot – Rebooting of the device within the UI.
• Factory Reset Confirmation Screen

Live TV

Dependent on DTV Plugin. This feature enables user to interact with the Tuner configuration and related features such a as Live TV – scan, channel tuning, Guide population, its playback etc.

The Scan section exposes various DVB tuner sub-systems; DVB-S, DVB-T and DVB-C based on respective stack integration support.

• New Feature: UIv3.7+ – DVB-S/S2 Support
• New Feature: UIv3.X – DVB T/T2: Upcoming
• New Feature: UIv3.X – DVB-C: Upcoming

DVB-S/S2

This subpage exposes various DVB-S Tuner parameters such as Satellite selection, Frequency, Polarity, Symbol rate etc. Each section allows user to select respective predefined option or enter a custom value(for selected parameters).

Based on the scan response, Guide screen shall get populated with actual live channel listing. User shall b e able to interact with the current available channels to initiate playback. From playback screen, user shall be able to change the channel also by bringing up the channel listing overlay.

Sample snapshots from DVB-S2 supported Device

Settings page tuner scan configurations and status:

Guide population:

Player:

USB Media Support Feature

In this version you will get full access to USB Media device related features if the device has required support integrated. To name a few – viewing images, playing audio and video file, accessing internal folders of the USB Media device.

Note: only the multimedia files are exposed through UI which are supported by UVE Player.

When the USB is plugged in UI will show USB icon on Featured Content row as shown in below content. New design allows the user to disable and enable USB Media support feature from Privacy Setting.

User can view the contents by pressing enter and he will see contents sorted based on Video, Audio, Photo, Folder.

You can traverse using Left/Right/Up/Down and to access the content – press Enter. File format supported is limited only by UVE support and USBAccess plugin filter.

• Video Content shall be accessible using the same UVE player. Seek bar gives timeline of video, Next and Previous icons will allow user to switch to respective content.

• Audio Content – UI shows a static image to indicate audio file is playing.

• Image Content – When viewing images Left/Right key presses will change images.

• Folder Content – The contents of USB will replace when the user traverse a particular directory.

Related RFC: 

Overlay Screen

Generic Settings Overlay

• New Feature: UIv3.8

In this new release settings is added as a overlay through widgets where user shall be able to launch settings though hot keypress on remote. Settings Hot-Key code is F10 equivalent (121).

Overlay Screen for Set Top Box Profile

New widget for overlay – to display notifications such as volume change etc.

Below snapshot shares how the overlay appears on various sections; At Home page, At Apps page and on a Playback screen.

Overlay Screen for TV Profile

TV profile supported stack has overlay for Volume change. Adding to that; it adds additional overlay screens for changing TV related settings as detailed below.

Input Selection Overlay

This overlay allows the user to switch between available Input options while enjoying an Input option.

Supported Hotkey is F3 (keycode 114).

Picture Settings Overlay

Numeric value settings like brightness backlight, contrast etc can only be changed when picture mode is set to custom and color temperature is set to user defined.

Supported Hotkey is F4 (keycode 115).

PartnerApp Support

This feature allows the app developers to quickly test any app without modifying the Accelerator UI source code by adding details of the custom app in app manager registry file present in device(if not present; can be created one with valid json content inside it). After updating this restart the device or residentapp service to reload the Home page which shall display a new row at home page with the Icon image. A sample app manager registry configuration and resulting UI screen will be as given below.

root@HP44HRDK:~# cat /opt/appmanagerregistry.conf
{
  "applications":[
    {
      "displayName":"SampleApp",
      "uri":"https://keycode.info/",
      "applicationType":"WebApp",
      "url":"http://127.0.0.1:50050/lxresui/static/images/info.png"
    }
  ]
}

List of supported launch type for apps(applicationType)

Key Mapping

The version 3 UI supports a configurable keymap. Below lists the general functionality and keycode of keys. Detailed information of the default keycode mappings can found here.

Customization (Theme and Logo)

One among the new feature in this version of UI is it allows to change the focus color, background color and logo if an operator wishes to by making necessary changes in config.js. Default config.js for reference is as below.

const themeOptions = {
    partnerOne: {
      hex: 0xfff58233,
      logo: 'RDKLogo.png',
      background: '0xff000000'
    },
    partnerTwo: {
      hex: 0xff91c848,
      logo: 'RDKLogo.png',
      background: '0xff000000'
    },
}

User can define an object inside theme options which need three parameters:

hex – Color accents on the UI. Default one is shade of orange.
logo – Logo at the splash and top left side on the home screen.
background – background color of the components.

User has to export a specific theme for it to apply through the UI.

export var CONFIG = {
    theme: themeOptions['partnerOne'],
    language: localStorage.getItem('Language')!=null ? language[localStorage.getItem('Language')] : language['english']
}

Clone and Build Instructions

This section details about how to customize the current UI source code and develop further.

Follow the commands to run the application on you laptop.

• Firstly install Lightning CLI

• Type lng to confirm the installation. You will see the below output.

  $ npm install -g @lightningjs/cli
  $ lng
  Usage: index lightning-cli <command> [options]
  
  Options:
    -V, --version   output the version number
    -h, --help      display help for command
  
  Commands:
    create - Create a new Lightning App
    build - Build a local development version of the Lightning App
    serve - Start a local webserver and run a built Lightning App in a web browser
    watch - Watch for file changes and automatically rebuild the App
    dev - Build a local Lightning App, start a local webserver, run a built Lightning App in a web browser and watch for changes
    docs - Open the Lightning-SDK documentation
    dist [options] - Create a standalone distributable version of the Lightning App
    upload - Upload the Lightning App to the Metrological Back Office to be published in an App Store
    update - Update the Lightning-CLI to the latest version
    help [command] - display help for command

• Clone repo

  $ git clone "https://code.rdkcentral.com/r/components/opensource/RDK_apps"
  $ cd RDK_apps
  $ git checkout rdk-next
  $ cd accelerator-home-ui
  Note: if you are not able to launch offline UI, add .env file inside accelerator-home-ui/ and add 'LNG_BUNDLER=esbuild' to force the bundler. Make sure you have esbuild dependency (npm install esbuild)
  $ npm install

• Build

  $ lng build

• Install as offline-app

  $ cd RDK_apps/accelerator-home-ui/dist/<es6>/Replace the dummy icons with original and then tar the entire contents to deploy on the offline UI location on device.

• Host the app locally to test
  

  $ lng serve

  It will print the local url as : http://127.0.0.1:8080

Reference

The UI uses localstorage feature of WebkitBrowser’s ResidentApp configuration for storing the user preferences. PLUGIN_RESIDENT_APP_LOCALSTORAGE and PLUGIN_RESIDENT_APP_PERSISTENTPATHPOSTFIX variables need to be configured build-time itself.

Note: the localstorage directory shall be pointed to a persistent ReadWrite section on device.

Steps to make Accelerator Home UI v3 as Device UI

Packages that are needed for Accelerator UI v3 are from meta-rdk-video layer. They will get installed into the final rootfs with necessary startup and configuration scripts if the machine configuration is enabled with below mentioned DISTRO_FEATURES.

$ DISTRO_FEATURES_append = " offline_apps build_rne "

Performance Matrix

This section details the average loading time, CPU and memory utilization for this version of the UI alone. It has been measured by loading the offline version of the UI on a pre-activated webkitbrowser instance.

TBD

Web Version

To experience UIv3.X on a firebolt compliant RDK stack, below url can be used.

Current Stable Version(3.7): https://apps.rdkcentral.com/rdk-apps/accelerator-home-ui/index.html#splash

Previous Stable Version(3.6): https://apps.rdkcentral.com/rdk-apps/device-ui/index.html#splash 

API Documentation

This section details the necessary platform integration support required to ensure the smooth functionality of UI version 3. Below are the details of RDKServices provided methods and notifications used in each UI feature or page implementation which shall aid debugging any functionality and integration or modification of the same. The Featured Video Player – UVE is used for Video-On-Demand sample streams.

• Home Screen

• Network Configuration

• Bluetooth

• Video

• Audio

• Sleep Timer

• Energy Saver

• Privacy Settings – USB

• Privacy Settings – Local Device Discovery

• CEC Activation

• Device Screen

• Global APIs

• Xcast Feature

• USB Screen

• Live TV

• HDMI Input

• Picture Settings

• TimeZone

• Volume