Roku Developer Program

[gonzotek]

"whaleface" wrote:

"EnTerr" wrote:

"whaleface" wrote:
if roku implemented a call to start an application (or ensure you're already in one), and allowed app developers to implement a single call like "play song/album/video with unique ID x" then this would be trivial. as it is, I don't think it's possible. 😐

there is already a easy REST API for staring a channel - and parameters can be passed too. now whether MOG channel supports any arguments (like song ID or album) is something to bark at MOG's tree, Roku had done their part

I see that now, thanks. sorry for not reading first but somehow I missed this document the last time I looked at the sdk. I'm going to ask mog to add some support for ecp now. 🙂

It was introduced with the 2.7 sdk, in October. If you looked at an older sdk, the document wouldn't have been in there. There's a release notes document in the sdk that has pretty good details for each release.

And +1 to MOG ECP support!

[lucasgonze]

What does it mean for MOG to add support for arguments? As I understand it ECP is basically keystroke macros, except mapping to the Roku remote. Do we do arguments by creating a form that only a keystroke macro would want?

[gonzotek]

"lucasgonze" wrote:
What does it mean for MOG to add support for arguments? As I understand it ECP is basically keystroke macros, except mapping to the Roku remote. Do we do arguments by creating a form that only a keystroke macro would want?

It's possible to send specific parameters via a url command so that at launch time the channel can access those parameters and act accordingly, as explained by TheEndless in this post. See also the ECP document in the Roku sdk. Be aware that the ExternalControlGuide.pdf document in the 2.8 sdk says this is in the simplevideoplayer example code. This is wrong, but TheEndless has provided an example at the link above.

/edit: And in case it wasn't clear, those parameters could be any imaginable param and it's associated data, for instance:
songid=4567890
page=2
backgroundcolor=blue
and so on...your app just needs to check for the existence of the object at launch and then take action as appropriate.

[TheEndless]

"gonzotek" wrote:

"lucasgonze" wrote:
What does it mean for MOG to add support for arguments? As I understand it ECP is basically keystroke macros, except mapping to the Roku remote. Do we do arguments by creating a form that only a keystroke macro would want?

It's possible to send specific parameters via a url command so that at launch time the channel can access those parameters and act accordingly, as explained by TheEndless in this post. See also the ECP document in the Roku sdk. Be aware that the ExternalControlGuide.pdf document in the 2.8 sdk says this is in the simplevideoplayer example code. This is wrong, but TheEndless has provided an example at the link above.

As a real world example, I've implemented it in my SHOUTcast channel as a way for users to provide custom streams. Details here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=31913&p=232475#p232468

[lucasgonze]

Your SHOUTcast ECP controller is killer. I really like it.

Ok, I have now done the background reading. I'll review the source code to see how doable this is.

[lucasgonze]

Is there an ECP controller I can use for testing? Anybody have a generic web form or precompiled OS X binary?

Getting gcc running on this system means getting fink running means a ton of hassle.

[gonzotek]

You can have a look at the source of remoku. You'll have to manually hardcode your appid into it, there's no way(that I know of, currently) to auto-detect that from javascript. You can download the code from http://code.google.com/p/remoku/ (it's in the source tree, under the gonzotek branch), or just browse to apps4tv.com/remoku and have a look at the source from the browser. It'd be pretty easy to recreate.

If you do anything fun with it and want to share it back, I'm open :). And/or you can use it (with or without modifications) in your project, it's under a permissive new bsd license.

/edit: I'll see if I can put together a form on the apps4tv domain for other developers to play with as well, might be useful.

[gonzotek]

I've got something workable started, but I won't get a chance to finish it tonight. I think I should have time tomorrow evening to get something up that will be generally helpful for channel developers to test their ecp launch param-enabled channels, as well as for end users to, err, use the implemented features.

And by the way, thanks TheEndless for doing the Shoutcast channel, it's going to be the default example for the form :). Unless you have any objection, of course 🙂

[TheEndless]

"gonzotek" wrote:
I've got something workable started, but I won't get a chance to finish it tonight. I think I should have time tomorrow evening to get something up that will be generally helpful for channel developers to test their ecp launch param-enabled channels, as well as for end users to, err, use the implemented features.

And by the way, thanks TheEndless for doing the Shoutcast channel, it's going to be the default example for the form :). Unless you have any objection, of course 🙂

No objections here! I'm about to send you a PM about Remoku too, so check your PMs... 😉

[whaleface]

lurking with interest over here. btw lucasgonze, since I'm assuming you are one of MOG's channel developers, thanks for tracking this forum post down. I'm excited to see if you manage to get something working.