Android Seat Map SDK for Reserved Seating in Kotlin

Install the official SeatLayer Android SDK from Maven Central, render live seating charts in Kotlin, create holds, and hand booking to a trusted server.

The official SeatLayer Android seat map SDK adds an interactive seating chart and seat picker to reserved-seating apps in Kotlin. The io.seatlayer:seatlayer-android package provides a typed view, listener, suspending commands, structured errors, and events for live availability, seat selection, temporary holds, and best-available seating on Android 7.0 (API 24) and later.

Inspect the Android source and sample app, learn about the SeatLayer reserved-seating platform, or preview the wider buyer experience in the browser seat-map demo. The browser demo is product proof, not an Android application.

Install from Maven Central

build.gradle.ktskotlin

dependencies {
    implementation("io.seatlayer:seatlayer-android:0.2.0")
}

The library supports minSdk 24 with a Kotlin-first API. Releases before 0.2.0 were distributed through JitPack; use Maven Central for current versions.

Render a seating chart

Add SeatLayerView to your layout — it is a FrameLayout subclass, so XML inflation and Jetpack Compose’s AndroidView both work — then load your event:

val map = findViewById<SeatLayerView>(R.id.seatMap)

val config = SeatLayerConfiguration(event = "ev_your_event_key", currency = "USD")

lifecycleScope.launch {
    val info = map.load(config)
    if (info.mode == EventMode.Test) showTestBadge() // books no real inventory

    val hold = map.hold()
}

Give the view a definite height or make it full-screen. Do not place it inside a scrolling container — the buyer canvas owns pan and pinch gestures.

Understand the hosted runtime boundary

SeatLayerView hosts the buyer experience in an Android WebView. Production views load the immutable, version-pinned mobile runtime from https://cdn.seatlayer.io; application code stays in Kotlin and communicates through typed commands, listener events, payloads, and structured errors.

The bridge is origin-restricted and main-frame-only, the WebView is hardened (file and content access off, mixed content blocked, multiple windows off), and access tokens stay in memory — never in page URLs or application events. Protocol negotiation fails closed with a typed error when an app update is required, and every bridged enum tolerates unknown future values.

For private channel inventory, provide a short-lived token from your backend through the buyer-access provider in SeatLayerConfiguration.

Select, hold, and hand off checkout

Keep the security boundary explicit:

The Android app selects seats and creates a temporary hold.
Your backend inspects the hold and derives the amount to charge.
Your payment and order workflow stays outside the WebView.
Your backend books with a stable bookingRef so retries are safe.
Expiry and inventory conflicts return buyers to a recoverable selection state.

Continue with holds and checkout before connecting a production order flow.

Commands and events

Common commands include hold, resumeHold, extendHold, release, bestAvailable, holdGeneralAdmission, getSelection, selectObjects, clearSelection, getCurrentHold, setFloor, setViewMode, zoomIn, zoomOut, zoomToFit, and destroy — all suspending calls with typed failures.

Events cover readiness, selection changes, selection validity, buyer-access expiry, hold changes, hold restoration, hold expiry, general-admission taps, seat hover, errors, and a dedicated callback for unknown future events.

Android seat-map checklist

Give the seat map a definite height or a full-screen destination.
Keep one view per screen lifecycle and destroy it with the screen.
Preserve the hold id across checkout navigation or process death if your product promises restoration.
Test rotation, split-screen, back navigation, process death, and resume.
Verify selection, hold, expiry, release, conflict, and booking with a test event.
Smoke-test supported physical Android devices before rollout.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a native Kotlin seat map or a WebView?

Rendering runs in a hardened Android WebView on SeatLayer’s immutable, version-pinned buyer runtime, and application code never touches the web layer: commands, payloads, errors, and events are all typed Kotlin.

Does it work with Jetpack Compose?

Yes — SeatLayerView is a FrameLayout, so host it with AndroidView and give it a definite size. A dedicated Compose wrapper is not currently shipped.

How do temporary seat holds work?

Selecting seats creates a temporary hold that reserves inventory against concurrent buyers for a limited window. The hold expires automatically if checkout does not complete — the hold-expired event tells the app to return the buyer to the map — and extendHold and resumeHold cover longer checkouts and app restarts.

Can I use my own payment provider?

Yes. SeatLayer never processes payment inside the seat map. The app hands the hold id to your backend, and your backend charges through any payment provider you already use before booking the hold.

Does the Android SDK include a 3D seating chart?

SeatLayer offers an optional browser 3D seat-map experience. This page does not claim a released native Android 3D contract; validate the documented view modes and device support for your integration.