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tifroz's avatar
tifroz
Streaming Star
4 years ago

Can't submit channel updates since Apr 15

When performing the 'Channel Behavior Analysis' we systematically end up with the error  'Unable to get valid XML layout' for the tests 'Channel Deep Linking Basic' and 'Channel Content Play Performance'.

We investigated and found that these 2 tests likely involve deep-linking a video from the Roku Remote Tool since the results of the test helpfully provide the Roku Remote Tool script that was used for each test.

In our own tests, our deep-linking implementation appears to be working as designed when testing via curl (ECP, see https://developer.roku.com/docs/developer-program/debugging/external-control-api.md), or when using the Roku Deep Linking Tester (aka http://devtools.web.roku.com/DeepLinkingTester/). However, testing our deep-linking implementation always fails when using the Roku Remote Tool, because the Roku Remote Tool generates a bad URL (details at the bottom).

If this analysis is correct, that means the 'Channel Behavior Analysis' is failing for everyone at least since Apr 15 (the day we first tried to submit).

 

Has anyone been able to submit channel updates since Apr 15?

 

Roku Remote Tool bug details:

The tool should be generating a url like http://[rokuIP]:[rokuPort]/launch/[channelId]/contentId=[my-content-id]. Instead, according to the logs it generates a url that's missing the forward slash that precedes the contentId so the path looks like /launch/[channelId]contentId=[my-content-id]

 

For us, testing in the development environment against a side loaded app, that means the url generated is 

http://192.168.1.40:8060/launch/devcontentId=123

 

instead of the correct deep-linking url:

http://192.168.1.40:8060/launch/dev/contentId=123

 

Roku Developer Program

2 Replies

  • cocotower's avatar
    cocotower
    Roku Guru
    4 years ago

    Unless your channel has submitted searchable feeds and graphics to the search program, your channel should not require Deep Linking, but they make us do it anyway.  I don't even know why Roky implemented Deep Linking but it's scary as **bleep** to me.  Deep Linking is Precisely what it suggests, that anybody with the know-how can bypass all gates and play your content.  This is wrong on about 100 levels and it infuriates me.  However, it's up to the creative coder to do his homework and put down the sticky tape for greasy rats wherever necessary.

    To pass the Roku Deep Link testing:

    1) No scenes, dialogs, long pauses, or requests to become a subscriber should appear during a Deep Link session.
    2) Only supply Roku with contentIDs that lead to nonsubscription/free media items.
    3) The media item has to start playing fairly soon.

    The reason for the Play Performance error is because the video didn't start playing, maybe because of mistakes 1 and 2.

     

    • tifroz's avatar
      tifroz
      Streaming Star
      4 years ago

      Thanks! Our linked video is accessible without a subscription, however your message prompted us to take a different approach, and we figured out that we in fact had an issue with our deep-linking implementation (which wasn't handling well url-encoded parameters)

       

      There are still some issues with the tools. These issues didn't cause the Channel Behavior Analysis test to fail, but they sure threw us off tracks.

      In particular, the Remote Control Tool used by the Channel Behavior Analysis does not behave the same way as the standalone Remote Control Tool (After passing the Channel Behavior Analysis test, I imported the generated test script into the standalone Remote Control Tool which completely failed to launch the app)