Intro to Firebolt®

    Intro to Firebolt®


    Article summary

    What is Firebolt®

    Firebolt® is an application platform to build apps for connected home devices. Firebolt® provides application management and X1 App Platform integration functions such as Application life cycle management, device management, and content discovery integration for Firebolt® Applications. Moreover, it's a set of guidelines and a family of APIs that lets App developers write once and deploy to any Firebolt® device.

    Firebolt® is open-source and maintained by one of the largest telecommunication companies in the world. In addition, Firebolt® is lightweight and built to swiftly make Apps run on home devices globally, such as connected TVs, set-top boxes, or any other Firebolt® device.

    Features of Firebolt®

    Firebolt® is RPC based and has an autogenerated JavaScript client. Being RPC based gives users the flexibility to generate clients for any programming language. The open-source language is built and maintained by experts but can be taken, adapted, changed, or used in a way that matches your needs as a developer. Firebolt® is constantly growing and adapting, so stay tuned for new features being added!

    Feature

    Description

    Lifecycle

    Easy App lifecycle integration allows Apps to be pre-loaded on device start-up and suspended after use, to allow subsequent fast access to the App, which is known as ‘Quick Start’. Firebolt® supports inactive, suspended, closed, background, and foreground states, each of which can be loaded in the background and kept running after exit, improving the overall performance and experience for the end-user.

    Personalization

    Robust personalization includes watch history, playlists, and the ability to negotiate access to features and APIs with each App. Personalization provides unique discovery and settings experiences for your users.

    Localization

    Localization provides your App with information about where the device is located so it can display the correct content for the region and use the correct language.

    Device Capabilities

    Your App can be provided with information about the device it’s running on, to enable it to deliver content in a format that is supported by the device.

    Accessibility

    Your App can be provided with information about the device's current user accessibility settings, such as closed captioning and voice guidance.

    Authentication

    Streamlined sign-in and sign-up processes using information from your organization or the X1 Operator's back office.

    Discovery

    The discovery module provides your App with the means to tell the X1 App Platform what the current signed-in state is. The current signed-in user’s entitlements are within your App and provides the capability to store and capture the user's watch history. This allows the X1 App Platform to know if the user is currently able to view specific content within the App and display the content of the App appropriately.

    Metrics

    Your App can be provided with the means to send usage information to the X1 App Platform. This data could be used for the following:
    • Usage based content recommendations
    • Continue watching / resume points
    • Service stability monitoring
    • General App analytics reporting
    • App performance reporting
    • Comparative App performance reporting

    Testing & Monitoring

    Firebolt® enhances testing and monitoring for developers. Flag Apps for errors on all associated devices using Firebolt® support tools like Mock Firebolt. Get real-time feedback on how your App will run on any device.

    Metadata

    • Enhanced discovery through metadata integration.
    • Enable your customers to have powerful search and discovery capabilities in any content catalog.
    • Powerful feature integration such as recommend content from watch history or automated recommendations based on taste profiles.
    • Local content metadata supports content lockers for paid content, live content within the App, quick and easy discoverability, and much more.


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