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chatfipa asked

Launch HTML5 app via DIAL?

I'm currently evaluating the Amazon Fire TV stick for our display signage product. I've seen the documentation on launching an Android app via DIAL (we already support DIAL in our product): https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/dial-integration 1. is DIAL support for HTML5 apps? i.e. can we launch a HTML5 app (hosted or packaged) using DIAL? 2. if supported, how do we access DIAL parameters in a HTML5 app? i.e. what's the Javascript equivalent of the DIAL payload intent (com.amazon.extra.DIAL_PARAM) 3. if not supported, presumably we can create an Android app using the Amazon WebView to achieve the same thing? Thanks.
fire tv
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chatfipa avatar image
chatfipa answered
No answer since September - are these forums monitored by the Amazon Dev teams ? Consequently I went with an Android app and a WebView
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Levon@Amazon answered
Hi chatfipa, Apologies for a delayed response. You are correct: DIAL is not supported with HTML5 apps, so you made a right choice going with an Android app and a WebView. When you submit a web app to the dev portal, either as a single URL or a package of web files -- an Android .apk file is generated on your behalf. As you can see from the docs: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/dial-integration an app with DIAL support requires you to modify the Android manifest file. With web apps it would be impossible, as they are generated automatically with no way to edit the manifest. The solution to accomplish your goal is to use a native app with a WebView. This will allow you to take advantage of the DIAL intents. Fortunately it's really easy to create a lightweight empty shell app with a single WebView and load a URL into it: http://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/webview.html
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