How To remove category leafs from example videoplayer

This seems to be a common request for people starting out - the videoplayer example app includes multiple levels of categories and a lot of people want to start with only one level of categories. I just ran through it and this will get you started, how to modify the example videoplayer to remove the category leafs:

in the xml folder, change categories.xml to be like this, each "category" will now include a "feed":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<categories>

	  <!-- banner_ad: optional element which displays an at the top level category screen -->
	  <banner_ad sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/missing.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/missing.png"/>
	  
	<category title="Technology" description="TED Talks on Technology" sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Technology.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Technology.png" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/themind.xml"/>

	<category title="Entertainment" description="TED Talks on Entertainment" sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Entertainment.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Entertainment.png" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/music.xml" />

	<category title="Design" description="TED Talks on Design" sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Design.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Design.png" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/creativity.xml"/>

 </categories>

now put the categories.xml file on a web server your roku can access. (In my case I tested with a local web server on the LAN ip address 192.168.0.155)

update categoryFeed.brs as follows, use your own server address in place of 192.168.0.155

    'conn.UrlPrefix   = "http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml"
    conn.UrlPrefix   = "http://192.168.0.155"

next make the following change / addition to categoryFeed.brs, change

        o.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img

to this

        o.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img
        o.Feed = xml@feed

and also in CategoryFeed.brs change this

           kid.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img
            o.AddKid(kid)

to

            kid.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img
            kid.Feed = e@feed
            o.AddKid(kid)

in appDetailSceen.brs Replace:

Function preShowDetailScreen(breadA=invalid, breadB=invalid) As Object
    port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
    screen = CreateObject("roSpringboardScreen")
    screen.SetDescriptionStyle("video") 
    screen.SetMessagePort(port)
    if breadA<>invalid and breadB<>invalid then
        screen.SetBreadcrumbText(breadA, breadB)
    end if

with

Function preShowDetailScreen(breadA=invalid) As Object
    port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
    screen = CreateObject("roSpringboardScreen")
    screen.SetDescriptionStyle("video") 
    screen.SetMessagePort(port)

in appPosterScreen.brs change

    screen = preShowDetailScreen(category.Title, category.kids[m.curCategory].Title)
    showIndex = showDetailScreen(screen, shows, showIndex)

to

    'screen = preShowDetailScreen(category.Title, category.kids[m.curCategory].Title)
    screen = preShowDetailScreen(category.Title)
    showIndex = showDetailScreen(screen, shows, showIndex)

and also in appPosterScreen.brs change this

    categoryList = CreateObject("roArray", 100, true)
    for each subCategory in topCategory.Kids
        categoryList.Push(subcategory.Title)
    next
    return categoryList

to this

    categoryList = CreateObject("roArray", 100, true)
    categoryList.Push(topCategory)
    return categoryList

and also in appPosterScreen.brs change this

    conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category.kids[item])

to this

    conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category)

that should do it - zip up images, source, manifest and Makefile and you should now have a videoplayer with only one level of categories.