Astro TV Guide

An Android app for Astro Malaysia direct-TV subscribers. Browse the channel lineup, mark favourites, and explore a paginated TV guide of currently airing and upcoming programmes across all channels.

Features

Channels (Home screen — MainActivity)

• Displays the full Astro channel list with channel ID and channel title.
• Sort all channels by name (ascending/descending) or channel number (ascending/descending).
• Favourites: tap the heart icon to mark or unmark a channel. Favourites appear in a dedicated section above the full list.
• Google Sign-In (Firebase Authentication) is required to manage favourites. If a guest taps the heart icon, the sign-in flow is launched first.
• Persisted preferences: when signed in, favourites and sort order are stored in Firebase Realtime Database and restored on the next login.
• Navigate to the TV Guide from the overflow menu.

TV Guide (TvGuideActivity)

• Shows programmes currently on air (and upcoming) across all channels loaded from the home screen.
• Grid layout (2 columns) with programme banner image, title, channel name, and channel ID.
• Sort by channel name or channel number (ascending/descending).
• Pagination / lazy load: scroll to the bottom to fetch the next time window. Each page covers a 30-minute slot; scrolling continues until roughly 7 days of schedule data have been loaded.
• Programme images are loaded with Glide.

Authentication & cloud sync

Data	Firebase path	When synced
Favourite channels	/favourites/{channelId}	On toggle (signed-in users only)
Sort order	/sort_order	When user changes sort from the menu

Architecture

The app follows MVVM with a Repository pattern and Hilt dependency injection.

flowchart TB
    subgraph UI
        MA[MainActivity]
        TV[TvGuideActivity]
        MAC[MainActivityCompose - WIP]
    end

    subgraph ViewModel
        CV[ChannelsListViewModel]
        GV[TvGuideViewModel]
    end

    subgraph Repository
        CR[ChannelsRepository]
        TR[TvGuideRepository]
    end

    subgraph Data
        API[Astro AMS API]
        FB[(Firebase Realtime DB)]
        AUTH[Firebase Auth]
    end

    MA --> CV
    TV --> GV
    MAC --> CV
    CV --> CR
    GV --> TR
    CR --> API
    CR --> FB
    TR --> API
    MA --> AUTH

Loading

Layer responsibilities

Layer	Package	Role
View	view/, ui/	Activities, XML data-binding layouts, RecyclerView adapters. A Jetpack Compose variant (MainActivityCompose) exists but is not registered as the launcher.
ViewModel	viewmodel/	Exposes LiveData to the UI; survives configuration changes. Annotated with @HiltViewModel.
Repository	repository/	Single source of truth: fetches from Retrofit or Firebase, returns LiveData. @Singleton via Hilt.
Network	webhelper/, di/	Retrofit AstroAPi interface and NetworkModule (OkHttp + Gson).
Model	model/	Gson-deserializable POJOs. ChannelsListModel.Channel extends BaseObservable for data binding.
DI	di/	Hilt NetworkModule provides OkHttpClient, Retrofit, and AstroAPi.
App	AstroApplication	@HiltAndroidApp entry point.

Data flow example — loading channels

1. MainActivity obtains ChannelsListViewModel via ViewModelProvider.
2. ViewModel delegates to ChannelsRepository.getChannelList().
3. Repository calls GET http://ams-api.astro.com.my/ams/v3/getChannelList through Retrofit.
4. Response is posted to MutableLiveData<ChannelsListModel>; the Activity observes and binds to RecyclerView adapters.
5. Favourites and sort order are observed separately from Firebase Realtime Database listeners.

Data flow example — TV guide pagination

1. MainActivity passes all channel IDs to TvGuideActivity via intent extra (BundleKeys.CHANNELS_LIST).
2. TvGuideViewModel asks TvGuideRepository for periodStart / periodEnd time windows.
3. First page: periodStart = now, periodEnd = now + 30 minutes.
4. Subsequent pages: periodStart = previous periodEnd + 1 second, periodEnd = +30 minutes.
5. API call: GET ams/v3/getEvents/?periodStart=…&periodEnd=…&channelId=1,2,3,…
6. RecyclerView.OnScrollListener triggers loadMoreItems() when the user reaches the bottom.

External services

Astro AMS API

Setting	Value
Base URL	http://ams-api.astro.com.my/ (configured in gradle.properties → BuildConfig.URL)
Required header	city_id: 10 (added by NetworkModule OkHttp interceptor)
Channel list	GET /ams/v3/getChannelList
TV guide events	GET /ams/v3/getEvents/?periodStart&periodEnd&channelId

The app uses HTTP (cleartext); android:usesCleartextTraffic="true" is set in the manifest.

Firebase

• Authentication — Google Sign-In via Firebase UI Auth (AuthUI.IdpConfig.GoogleBuilder).
• Realtime Database — stores favourites and sort order per authenticated user.

Tech stack

Category	Libraries
Language	Java (primary UI), Kotlin (Compose UI — in progress)
Min / Target SDK	21 / 34
Architecture	MVVM, LiveData, Repository
DI	Dagger Hilt
Networking	Retrofit 2.9, OkHttp 4.12, Gson
UI	XML + Data Binding, RecyclerView, Material Components
UI (WIP)	Jetpack Compose, Material 3
Images	Glide 4.16
Backend	Firebase Auth, Firebase Realtime Database, Firebase UI Auth
Build	Gradle 8.2, AGP 8.1.4, Version Catalog (gradle/libs.versions.toml)

Project structure

app/src/main/java/com/mukeshteckwani/astro/astroapp/
├── AstroApplication.java          # Hilt application class
├── adapter/                       # RecyclerView adapters + data-binding adapters
├── di/NetworkModule.java          # Retrofit / OkHttp wiring
├── model/                         # ChannelsListModel, TvGuideModel
├── repository/                    # ChannelsRepository, TvGuideRepository
├── view/                          # MainActivity, TvGuideActivity, MainActivityCompose
├── viewmodel/                     # ChannelsListViewModel, TvGuideViewModel
├── webhelper/                     # AstroAPi Retrofit interface
├── ui/                            # Compose screens, components, theme (WIP)
└── utils/                         # Constants, date helpers, item decorations

Getting started

Prerequisites

• JDK 17
• Android SDK (API 34, build-tools 34.0.0)
• local.properties with sdk.dir pointing to your Android SDK

Build & run

./gradlew assembleDebug          # Build debug APK
./gradlew installDebug           # Install on connected device/emulator
./gradlew build                  # Full CI build (compile + tests + lint)

Firebase / Google Sign-In setup

To enable Google Sign-In on your own Firebase project:

1. Create a project in the Firebase Console.
2. Enable Firebase Authentication (Google provider).
3. Enable Firebase Realtime Database.
4. Register your debug SHA-1 fingerprint in the Firebase project settings.
5. Download a new google-services.json and replace app/google-services.json.

CI

GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/android.yml) runs ./gradlew build on push/PR to master with JDK 17 and Android SDK 34.