Development

Developing a Raydiant app should feel familiar to developing a typical website.

You can use your preferred web frameworks to build an app from scratch or even use an existing website.

Here we’ll review the recommended development flow for building a Raydiant app but first you’ll need to make sure you create a developer account.

#1. Develop Locally

Raydiant does not have an opinion on how you build your app so you can use your favourite web frameworks for local development.

Our devices run a version of Chromium so for the best experience we recommend developing your app in the Google Chrome browser.

Since Raydiant apps are just URLs, you can get pretty far in the development process without actually touching the Raydiant platform. To test any inputs your app requires, update the URL of the browser.

http://127.0.0.1:4000?headingText=My First App!

#2. Deploy your App

You can also use your favorite web host to deploy your app. We prefer hosts that support deploy previews like Vercel and Netlify but you are welcome to host your Raydiant app however you’d like.

Once you’ve deployed you can create your Raydiant app from the Developer Portal to add inputs and marketplace assets.

After you create your app in the Developer Portal you will be able to test any inputs you’ve added in the Raydiant Dashboard. You will find your app in the Library when you click the “Create” button.

#3. Run a Playlist

Testing how your app behaves in a playlist is an important part of the development workflow.

We’ll explain how to create and publish a test playlist below but here’s the general idea:

1. Register a new device.
2. Create a playlist.
3. Add your app to the playlist.
4. Publish playlist.

#Register a Device

If you already have access to a device you can skip to the “Create a Playlist” step below.

As a developer, you can use Raydiant’s web player to register a “virtual” device you can use for testing your app:

1. Open the web player in a browser (Chrome is preferred).
2. Copy the association code displayed on the screen.
3. Go to the Screens section in the Raydiant Dashboard.
4. Paste the association code from step 2, or click “Add Screen” to register a new device.
5. Name the device and click “Activate”.

#Create a Playlist

Once you’ve registered a device, you can build your first playlist.

1. Go to the Screens section in the Raydiant Dashboard.
2. Click the “playlists” button on your device.
3. Click the add new playlist button .
4. Name the playlist and click “Save”.

#Add Content

Now let’s add some presentations to the playlist to test how your app behaves.

1. Click the “Add” button to add presentations to the playlist.
2. Click the “Create” button to create a new presentation.
3. Select your app from the list of Raydiant apps
4. Configure your apps’ inputs
5. Click “Save” and then “Done” to go back to the presentation selector.
6. To test multiple presentations in a playlist, repeat steps 2-5.
7. Click “Save” and then “Done”.

#Publish

After creating a playlist for your app you can publish it to either a virtual device (using our web player) or an actual device.

1. Go to the Screens section in the Raydiant Dashboard.
2. Click the “playlists” button on your device.
3. Click your playlist from the playlist selector.
4. Click “Assign” to assign it to the selected device.
5. Click the “Publish” button for the device.
6. If you are using the web player, open the browser session you created in the “Register a Device” section above.

#4. Test Offline

To test how your app works with the on-device cache you will need an actual device. If you do not have one, please reach out to product@raydiant.com.

We recommend connecting your device via ethernet instead of WiFi so you can easily disconnect and reconnect the device.

Once you have a device connected to ethernet you can test how your app behaves during a temporary outage.

1. Turn on your device with the ethernet connected.
2. Publish a playlist with 2 presentations for your app.
3. Wait until both presentations have played successfully.
4. Unplug the ethernet cable.
5. Your playlist should continue playing both presentations.

#Next steps

• Check out our collection of sample apps
• How to add inputs to your app
• Learn more about the on-device cache
• Watch the Dashboard product demo video