Add Date Released

You don't explicitly enable/disable the release date. It will be displayed based on the values of the contentType and releaseDate attributes of your content-meta-data object. releaseDate can be an arbitrary string. The most common values for contentType that will display the release date are "movie" or "episode". Other possible values are documented in section 3.3 of the Component Reference.

Going back to the basics, Starting with the Example VideoPlayer

We added; in CreateObject("roAssociativeArray")
o.ReleaseDate = ""

Then, in showList = xml.GetChildElements()
we added;
item.ReleaseDate = validstr(curShow.releasedate.GetText())

This displayed nothing.

Then we changed
item.Title = validstr(curShow.releasedate.GetText())

On the detailed page in the TITLE area, it displayed, 01/10/2011 (our date)
This proves, the XML file is passing the date, but it will not display on the detailed page???????

And what is the value of your contentType attribute?

It might also be worth double checking that you aren't overriding the contentType by calling SetDescriptionStyle() on your springboard.

You could also try printing the contents of releaseDate to the debug console at the time the springboard is populated to be sure the value is actually there.

item.ContentType = "episode"

Is this correct?

"bbakernc" wrote:
item.ContentType = "episode"

Is this correct?

That's right. So the next thing is to confirm those values are not being changed between the time you parse the XML and the time you actually populate the springboard.

Being new to this progaming language, where would be a good place to start looking.

I have search the Detailed/Springboard file and releasedate was not found.

I think you need to add a line for SetDescriptionStyle to either "movie" or "video" to get it to show the releasedate
By default is sets itself to "generic" if it's not specified.

“audio”: All tags on audio screen above are substituted with Content Meta-Data.
“movie”: All tags on the video screen above are substituted with Content Meta-Data
“video”: All tags except <Directors> and <Ratings> are on the video screen above are replaced with Content Meta-Data.
“generic”: Only the <Title> and <Description> tags on the video screen above are replaced with Content Meta-Data.

Function preShowDetailScreen() As Object
port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
screen = CreateObject("roSpringboardScreen")
screen.SetDescriptionStyle("movie")
screen.SetStaticRatingEnabled(FALSE)
screen.SetMessagePort(port)
return screen
End Function

"destruk" wrote:
I think you need to add a line for SetDescriptionStyle to either "movie" or "video" to get it to show the releasedate
By default is sets itself to "generic" if it's not specified.

“audio”: All tags on audio screen above are substituted with Content Meta-Data.
“movie”: All tags on the video screen above are substituted with Content Meta-Data
“video”: All tags except <Directors> and <Ratings> are on the video screen above are replaced with Content Meta-Data.
“generic”: Only the <Title> and <Description> tags on the video screen above are replaced with Content Meta-Data.

Function preShowDetailScreen() As Object
port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
screen = CreateObject("roSpringboardScreen")
screen.SetDescriptionStyle("movie")
screen.SetStaticRatingEnabled(FALSE)
screen.SetMessagePort(port)
return screen
End Function

You should only need to call SetDescriptionStyle if the ContentType of the item being displayed doesn't accurately set it intrinsically. With a ContentType of "Episode", the springboard should display release date without the need to call SetDescriptionStyle.

It's a bug then because in actual practice, even with the content type of episode it acts as generic, with only the title and description being populated like the componentguide says it does.
I just know because I had to set the content to episode, and the descriptionstyle to movie to get it to display the runtime of a video file. Generic and 'unspecified' descriptionstyle prevent the runtime from displaying too.

"destruk" wrote:
It's a bug then because in actual practice, even with the content type of episode it acts as generic, with only the title and description being populated like the componentguide says it does.
I just know because I had to set the content to episode, and the descriptionstyle to movie to get it to display the runtime of a video file. Generic and 'unspecified' descriptionstyle prevent the runtime from displaying too.

My iTunes Podcasts channel uses a content type of "episode" and works as expected, without any calls to SetDescriptionStyle. Can you post some of your code that isn't working?