Forum Discussion

silentlamb's avatar
silentlamb
Visitor
15 years ago

Programmatically control apps over network

Hi,

From my quick skimming of the SDK docs, there does not seem to be a way
to programmatically control apps over the network; this would be akin
to exporting the screen under XWindows. Does anyone know of a work-around?
I would also suggest adding this feature to the future SDK as it could turn out
quite useful.

I'll share my current need for it. I have a lousy FM reception in my apt. but prefer to listen
to a classical station. I have a nice stereo system hooked up to TV-out.
I would very much prefer telneting into my roku and running inet radio app rather than
having to turn out the TV set and use the remote, etc.

Thanks,

stan
Roku Developer Program

8 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    Right now we just have a very simple IP-based control protocol that replicates the function of the Remote Control. Additional user and developer control options are something we'd like to provide at some point, but I don't have any ETA for you at this point.
  • silentlamb's avatar
    silentlamb
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    Hi Patrick,

    Is this simple protocol document somewhere? I would settle for this work-around
    for the time being.

    Many thanks,

    stan
  • kbenson's avatar
    kbenson
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    If you have a system on your LAN you can throw a simple webserver on (or get more complicated if you want), you could have the roku check a URL every few seconds to see if a command is present (and post an acknowledgement if it finds one), and act accordingly. It's not exactly as easy as just using telnet, but if you made the syntax similar to wait(), and if it returned an object that acted somewhat like an event, it would be good for prototyping. many different cases.
  • FML2010's avatar
    FML2010
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    This Remote is awesome!!

    My question is, is it possible to set this up to connect to a box that is not located on my LAN?

    Via dyndns or no IP or even a dedicated IP.

    I was looking through the source and its pretty tough to follow, I was hoping i could do it via PHP.

    I have found classes to use PHP but its gets tricky and not sure what commands and how to send them, gonna keep checking this out.

    But in the meantime, is it possible to do this outside the LAN?
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    "FML2010" wrote:
    This Remote is awesome!!

    My question is, is it possible to set this up to connect to a box that is not located on my LAN?

    Via dyndns or no IP or even a dedicated IP.

    I was looking through the source and its pretty tough to follow, I was hoping i could do it via PHP.

    I have found classes to use PHP but its gets tricky and not sure what commands and how to send them, gonna keep checking this out.

    But in the meantime, is it possible to do this outside the LAN?


    If you want to get clever with port forwarding and firewall configurations (or a VPN), lots of things are possible, but not necessarily recommended.
  • FML2010's avatar
    FML2010
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    for now i am thinking we could just use LogMeIn on a laptop and this remote!

    this is awesome!!
  • silentlamb's avatar
    silentlamb
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    Many thanks to all, great discussion! For my own purposes, telnet remote commands
    will do the job.

    stan