Roku Developer Program

[enconwjc]

To start, please note that I am a beginner when it comes to "programming" or in this case, I think it'd be called scripting. Regardless, I am entry level, so please bear with my elementary questions ...

I downloaded the SDK and printed the manuals. I have successfully installed the examples locally on my roku. Very exciting and looking forward to making some minor edits to see what I can do. {enter problems}

Remarkably, When I unzip one of the examples, and then re-zip it without editing it, name the NEW zip file the same as the Original zip file name (that I successfully uploaded) and it appears in the installer that it installed OK, but when I check my Roku, there is no new channel!! see video at http://vimeo.com/33256724

Moving on the Debugging (even though I dont have a new app installed) ... following the directions in the Roku Streaming Player developer Guide Section 8.1 (pg 16), I access my PCs command prompt and type in telnet 192.168.1.105 8085 and I simply get an unrecognized command error message. see video at http://vimeo.com/33256596

Well, thanks for your help and I apologize if this is overly simplistic. If it is a matter of setting up my Windows Vista Business SP2 as a "Developers Workstation", (ie. telnet, etc.) any direction would be appreciated. Looking forward to getting my first channel going!

-Bill

[RokuJoel]

The video example you posted to Vimeo is so low quality that I cannot read any of the file names or folder names on the screen, so I can't really tell what you might be doing that isn't working. I can tell you the following:

1. You have to install telnet separately in Windows Vista and later (7), go to control panel, programs and features, turn windows features on or off, click Telnet Client, click OK

2. instead of unzipping the /examples/zip, just zip something from /examples/source/examplename and upload that. Right click on the name of the folder, for example, videoplayer and select Send To Compressed Folder (unless of course, you have installed something that replaces the built in zip function in windows, in which case read the manual for that software). The point is, you want the folder from the project name on down, and nothing above it.

3. Telnet into your roku on port 8085 and you should see error message(s) that will tell you something about why a program isn't loading, for example, "Syntax Error at line 55 in videoplayer.brs".

[agmark]

Yeah, there's no need to unzip any of the example files. Just open the example/source folders and open any channel you want to play with. I have a big screen so I typically will open the channel I'm working on in one window, and also open a window of the corresponding zipped folder. So in affect, I have 2 identical windows open. One zipped and one unzipped. All modifications are made to the files in the unzipped folder. You can tell which is the zipped folder because it'll have a "compressed size" column. My .brs files are associated with jEdit, so I just double click the file I want and it opens in jEdit. I make changes and click save. Then just drag your saved file and drop it onto the zipped folder. Confirm that you want to overwrite the old file with the new. Then just click on your browser window and do the "browse and replace" routine on the pretty gray Developement Application Installer window. If you keep these 3 windows open along with your editing window, you should be all set. I'm on Windows 7 so your mileage may vary. Joel's right, you may need to install telnet if your computer doesn't have it enabled.

I'm a "challenged" coder too so feel free to ask beginner questions. After reading through the entire forum, I realize I'm only beginning to grasp the code. It starts to make more sense after awhile, so keep at it. The Roku box is a pretty cool device so hopefully the platform will develop as we go forward.

[belltown]

It looks like you're compressing the folder when you should be compressing the files within the folder.

For example, if you unzip sdk\examples\zips\simplevideplayer.zip to \sdk\examples\zips\newsimplevideplayer, then compress the new \sdk\examples\zips\newsimplevideoplayer file to \sdk\examples\zips\newsimplevideoplayer.zip and try to upload the new .zip file, you'll get the result you described: it will appear to load, but you'll have no new channel on your Roku. The reason is that \sdk\examples\zips\newsimplevideoplayer.zip contains a folder: simplevideoplayer, rather than the files themselves. This folder in turn contains the images, source, Manifest files, etc.

If you want to do it the way you described, you'd have to go in to your newly-unzipped directory, \sdk\examples\zips\newsimplevideplayer, select all fies (ctrl/A), right-click>Send to>Compressed (zipped) folder. You'll end up with a new .zip file in that directory, or wherever you put it. That's the file you should upload to the Roku. In other words, the .zip file you upload should contain the files themselves (images, source, Manifest, etc.), rather than containing a directory that contains those files.

If I were you, I'd go to \sdk\examples\source\simplevideoplayer then compress all files in this folder to a new .zip file and upload that file.

[enconwjc]

Joel, Mark & Belltown, Thank you so much.

The telnet worked fine after it was enabled, and you are correct about the zipping. I was zipping a folder which contained everything and that didnt work. You need to zip at the file level.

I am sure we will cross again, but thanks for the help.

-Bill