Jan, 2015

Aertv for Android started life as a internal experiment that grew some legs. The app has a cross-platform core written in HTML, CSS and Javascript which is wrapped up in a native web view with access to native APIs thanks to Apache Cordova (the open source project at the core of PhoneGap).

I was originally brought on board to work on the UI but ended up rewriting it from scratch in Angular and using the Ionic Framework which significantly aided development.

The app is closely modelled on Aertv for iOS but has a number of new features such as a full programme listing and filtering as well as Chromecast support.

The app was developed alongside a brand new RESTful(-ish) API which was also developed internally. This was actually quite beneficial as I was able to provide design input on the API from a client app developers perspective.

This app comprised of a lot of firsts for me. It was my first time using Cordova and Ionic, developing for Android (which I have to admit was at times infuriating), using a Javascript MVC framework, specifically Angular and using the Cast API. Overall it was a very valuable experience and I learned a lot along the way.