Communicating with Web Service issue

Question

So, I'm new in the whole Brightscript/Roku development environment and I'm having an issue with a request of a webservice. For ease, I made a function in the main.brs that I can call from other scripts that basically creates a roUrlTransfer object, gets the contents of the url in a variable and returns it. Here's the code:Function vGetUrlContent(p_url As String)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url = CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url.SetUrl(p_url)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; html = url.GetToString()&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Return htmlEnd FunctionThe same code (kinda) is already used successfully in the same main.brs file that has another purpose, but the same 3 lines are used.However, when I call this function I get this error here:BRIGHTSCRIPT: ERROR: roUrlTransfer: creating MAIN|TASK-only component failed on RENDER thread: pkg:/source/main.brs(306)BrightScript Micro Debugger.Enter any BrightScript statement, debug commands, or HELP.Suspending threads...Thread selected:&nbsp; 1*&nbsp;&nbsp; pkg:/source/main.brs(307)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url.SetUrl(p_url)Current Function:305:&nbsp; Function vGetUrlContent(p_url As String)306:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url = CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")307:*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url.SetUrl(p_url)308:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; html = url.GetToString()309:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Return html310:&nbsp; End Function'Dot' Operator attempted with invalid BrightScript Component or interface reference. (runtime error &amp;hec) in pkg:/source/main.brs(307)307:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url.SetUrl(p_url)Backtrace:#1&nbsp; Function vgeturlcontent(p_url As String) As Dynamic&nbsp;&nbsp; file/line: pkg:/source/main.brs(307)#0&nbsp; Function onitemselected() As Void&nbsp;&nbsp; file/line: pkg:/components/screens/DetailsScreen/DetailsScreen.brs(84)Local Variables:p_url&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; roString (2.1 was String) refcnt=1 val:"(HERE IS THE ACTUAL WEBSERVICE URL)"global&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Interface:ifGlobalm&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; roAssociativeArray refcnt=3 count:6url&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Invalidhtml&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;uninitialized&gt;Threads:ID&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Location&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Source Code&nbsp;0&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; pkg:/source/main.brs(80)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; msg = wait(0, port)&nbsp;1*&nbsp;&nbsp; pkg:/source/main.brs(307)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; url.SetUrl(p_url)&nbsp; *selectedBrightscript Debugger&gt; Any ideas?

joetesta · Answer

you can't do http requests from render thread.&nbsp;https://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/Task

ib_beat · Answer

How can I get around that if I have to call an http request from a render thread, if I can't call a main.brs function that does it for me?

tim_beynart · Answer

you create an instance of your task in the render thread logic, then run it.
for example, you could write a task called "http_request"
in the code for a screen (which is in the render thread), you do something like this:

  task = CreateObject("roSGNode", "http_request")
  task.observeField("response","someFunctionThatHandlesResponses")
  task.url = url
  task.control = "RUN"

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Communicating with Web Service issue

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