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SerenityNow's avatar
SerenityNow
Streaming Star
2 years ago
Solved

App Developer Needed for Web

Hello: i know that an Internet Search prompt can be made available. I’ve had access through TV before years ago using XBox, I believe & an external keyboard. Of course accessing the Internet is slow...
Roku Developer Program
  • philanderson777's avatar
    philanderson777
    2 years ago

    Hello SerenityNow the roku operating system is a closed source linux operating system so is not open to modifications by developers beyond what is allowed or permitted by Roku themselves.

     

    Currently browser activity is not allowed on Roku at all in any way so it's not possible to build web pages of any description let alone search engines.

     

    I hope that helps?

     

    Thanks

     

    https://community.roku.com/t5/Channels-viewing/Paid-Google-Search-Engine-Application/m-p/904581/highlight/true#M148881

     

    PS We are allowed to build search feeds which display search results from a given API containing video content, so that users can search for and find video content on our channels.  However these searches are going through our own or Roku APIs and not through a general search engine.  Then we obtain consistent results and are able to display the content of video searches easily for the end user to see and select items.  Doing this via a random search engine like Google would obtain results but not in the format that we can present video options to the user.  

     

    Hope that helps 🙂

  • philanderson777's avatar
    philanderson777
    2 years ago

    Hello SerenityNow and yes this I must admit is a very valid and fair assumption to make.  However if we look at most of the TV and TV software manufacturers eg XBOX,  Playstation, Netflix, Amazon etc nearly all of these do indeed as you suggest have a very valid web browser interface and can interact with HTTP natively.

     

    Roku is very different in this regard, and is much more closed off and does not expose any APIs in its operating system which permit browser based behaviour.  I guess with both Roku and Apple they are closed source operating systems so it's not possible to dive into the source code and see what's happening so easily and build 3rd party components off that ....  Microsoft have open sourced a lot of their code eg .NET / .NET core are open source languages now, which allows a lot better input from the developer community.  

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_system_software

     

    Hope that helps again 🙂 

philanderson777's avatar
philanderson777
Roku Guru
2 years ago

Hello SerenityNow the roku operating system is a closed source linux operating system so is not open to modifications by developers beyond what is allowed or permitted by Roku themselves.

 

Currently browser activity is not allowed on Roku at all in any way so it's not possible to build web pages of any description let alone search engines.

 

I hope that helps?

 

Thanks

 

https://community.roku.com/t5/Channels-viewing/Paid-Google-Search-Engine-Application/m-p/904581/highlight/true#M148881

 

PS We are allowed to build search feeds which display search results from a given API containing video content, so that users can search for and find video content on our channels.  However these searches are going through our own or Roku APIs and not through a general search engine.  Then we obtain consistent results and are able to display the content of video searches easily for the end user to see and select items.  Doing this via a random search engine like Google would obtain results but not in the format that we can present video options to the user.  

 

Hope that helps 🙂

westner's avatar
westner
Roku Guru
2 years ago

My news channel that I accessed on my Roku TV recently moved to an internet "only" accessible app. I can watch it on my 24" computer screen but not on my 60" Roku TV. I thought that I could access the internet on my old TV, but I guess there is no chance to do that on my Roku TV.