Roku Developer Program

Join our online forum to talk to Roku developers and fellow channel creators. Ask questions, share tips with the community, and find helpful resources.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
SacDev72
Channel Surfer

GridScreen and VideoPlayer building first channel and have a lot of questions

A few questions that seem left unanswered that are troubling me: I've looked at many of the posted examples and watched all of the videos I can find so far. 

1) Am I supposed to have a single manifest document at the top of the .zip I sideload into my device? I see different manifest files in each of the folders within the git example, but should I move all of that code into a single manifest file in the root?

2) I have categories assigned within my json feed, but they are not appearing in the test channel. I only see a single row of "series" or "movies", but no separate categories. With the DP program I simply added the categories for the content as I see fit, and the videos were sorted according to those settings.

3) I see some duplicated content in the folders for the different examples. If I want to use the GridScreen, and the Episode Screen, do I need to include all examples of the folders in the components? the GridScreen folder is in both the GridScreen and the Episode; do I include it twice? The GridScreen, DetailScreen, and VideoPlayer all have gridscreen files, rowlistitemcomponents, tasks, UILogic, manifest, and source files does this need to be duplicated like that? I have an out folder that automatically creates a staging and deploying zip file I use to sideload the project, It only includes the images, source and manifest. What should the zip file include that you sideload?

There seems to be a lot of confusion on these boards and some mixed messages form Roku, and holes in the documentation... is there a complete example that might be available from the community that we could review as a cleaner example?  Hello world is too simple and  scenegraph master sample is cumbersome with what looks like duplicate code and files? what do I need to include and what do I not need? @renojim, @makeaiguy, @AvsGunnar Some support would be great! Thank you!

0 Kudos
2 REPLIES 2
Baradanikto
Roku Guru

Re: GridScreen and VideoPlayer building first channel and have a lot of questions

If you want to alleviate the stress of building a channel, head over to my GitHub repository and download the DP2SceneGraph wizard tool.  Using input from you, it will generate a Grid screen channel that can be side-loaded onto your Roku device for testing.

FREE Windows desktop software for converting Direct Publisher channels to SceneGraph (SDK), for creating BIF (Trick Play) files, Roku (MRSS, JSON) feed files, and FireTV feed files @ GitHub/rrirower.
SacDev72
Channel Surfer

Re: GridScreen and VideoPlayer building first channel and have a lot of questions

Nope I like the stress of building a channel I just would like some more information if it's out there. Otherwise I'll keep trying to reverse engineer something and keep up the trial and error approach.

Need Assistance?
Welcome to the Roku Community! Feel free to search our Community for answers or post your question to get help.

Become a Roku Streaming Expert!

Share your expertise, help fellow streamers, and unlock exclusive rewards as part of the Roku Community. Learn more.