ContentBox HD
Cross-media content logger for movies, TV shows and music. Letterboxd meets Last.fm.
Overview
ContentBox HD is a Java desktop application for logging movies, TV shows and music in one place. Think Letterboxd meets Last.fm. Built as the final project for my OOP course at ICAI.
Features
- Movie and TV search: browse and search via The Movie Database API
- Personal watchlists: create local accounts with individual libraries
- Reviews and ratings: write and store reviews for each entry
- Music profiles: view artist discographies and music videos
- Streaming links: quick access to available streaming platforms
Technical Approach
Built with Java Swing, optimised for 16:9+ aspect ratios. The architecture prioritises clean OOP design: proper inheritance hierarchies for different media types, interface segregation and design patterns.
The media types (movies, series, albums) share a common base class but each has specialised metadata, display logic and API integration. The Movie Database API handles content discovery and metadata.
What I Learned
Getting the right abstraction for “content” was the real challenge. Something general enough to cover three different media types but specific enough to be useful for each. That balance taught me more about software design than any lecture on inheritance vs. composition.