Entitlement Manager Overview

The Entitlement Manager is the feature manager that supports the Primetime authentication implementation.

Feature Overview

The Primetime authentication integration with the Android Primetime SDK Reference Implementation adds a new feature manager to the application. However, unlike many of the other feature managers, the EntitlementManager is used in several places throughout the application. The following provides an overview of the changes and additions made to the Reference Implementation to support Primetime authentication:

EntitlementManager class

The EntitlementManager class handles all the communication with the Primetime authentication SDK, plus encapsulates the application logic required for the entitlement workflows. The EntitlementManager’s public API is used by the application to initiate entitlement workflows, while the EntitlementMangerListener interface provides a callback mechanism for the application to handle EntitlementManger events.

EntitlementManger callbacks

The Reference Implementation’s main activity, the CatalogActivity, creates an instance of EntitlementManagerListener and registers it with the EntitlementManager. In this way, the EntitlementManager may signal needed UI updates to the rest of the application. The callbacks include displaying/hiding a loading dialog, displaying status dialogs, updating authorization and authentication icons, and starting video playback upon successful authorization.

Entitlement Dialogs

The EntitlementDialogFragment class generates dialog messages based on the entitlement status passed to the class constructor. This class is used for authentication success messages as well as all error messages. The CatalogActivity displays the entitlement dialogs when it receives specific events from the EntitlementManager. In addition, the CatalogActivity implements the EntitlementDialogListener interface, which includes callback methods to signal when a dialog is closed or when the user logs out from the Primetime authentication service.

During authentication with Primetime authentication, two new activities, MvpdPickerActivity and MvpdLoginActivity, allow the user to select their content provider and login. Both of these activities are started from the CatalogActivity via the EntitlementManager. Additionally, both the MvpdPickerActivity and MvpdLoginActivity return results to the CatalogActivity and therefor the CatalogActivity must override the Activity.onActivityResult method.

The Reference Implementation’s main activity, the CatalogActivity, includes a new “Sign In” button in its action bar. The Sign In button allows the user to initiate authentication with Primetime authentication. Additionally, the user may initiate authentication by selecting a protected video for playback. The Sign In button’s icon and text changes depending on the user’s authentication status, and the CatalogActivity contains code to update the button’s icon and text when the page refreshes. To do this, when the CatalogActivity starts, it calls EntitlementManager.checkAuthentication() to update the user’s authentication status.

Content entitlement

Within the CatalogView, new icons are displayed on top of the content’s icon to signal the user’s authorization status for that content. For example, if the user is pre-authorized to view a video, then a green circle icon is displayed over the content. However, if the user is not pre-authorized to view the video, a key icon is displayed. The display of these icons is handled in ContentTileAdapter, however the update of their state is initiated from the CatalogActivity when a callback in the EntitlementManagerListener is called.

Content Playback

Video playback now requires an authorization check by the EntitlementManager. The call to EntitlementManager.getAuthorization() occurs within CatalogView. If the video requires authorization and the user is authorized, the PlayerActivity is started from the CatalogActivity.