Roku Developer Program

[genepensiero]

Having trouble getting deep linking to work in my Roku channel.

I've done a lot of reading on the Roku SDK (particularly their Deep Linking Doc) and a variety of forums. However, I'm just not making any headway.

Currently, my channel uses the Simple Grid with Details template, which serves video content via RSS files.


Here's the beginning of my main.brs file:

sub Main(args as Dynamic) as Void

showSGScreen(args)

 if (args.mediaType <> invalid) and (args.contentID <> invalid)
if (args.mediaType = "movie" or args.mediaType = "episode" or args.mediaType = "short-form" or args.mediaType = "series" or args.mediaType = "special")
    'play content directly
else
    'deep linking issue such as a contentID not matching any content in the partner's catalog
    'display an appropriate error message for the user
end if
else
'launch channel normally
end if

end sub

Sub RunUserInterface()
screen = CreateObject("roSGScreen")
scene = screen.CreateScene("HomeScene")
port = CreateObject("roMessagePort")
screen.SetMessagePort(port)
screen.Show()

oneRow = GetApiArray1()
twoRow = GetApiArray2()
threeRow = GetApiArray3()
fourRow = GetApiArray4()

list = [
{
    TITLE : "Watch Our Services Live"
    ContentList : oneRow
}
{
    TITLE : "Without Ceasing: A Series On Prayer"
    ContentList : twoRow
}
{
    TITLE : "The Least Of These: Hope, Help, Heal"
    ContentList : threeRow
}
{
    TITLE : "The Bible: Learning To Live It"
    ContentList : fourRow
}


]
scene.gridContent = ParseXMLContent(list)

while true
    msg = wait(0, port)
    print "------------------"
    print "msg = "; msg
end while

if screen <> invalid then
    screen.Close()
    screen = invalid
end if
End Sub


Function ParseXMLContent(list As Object)
RowItems = createObject("RoSGNode","ContentNode")

for each rowAA in list
'for index = 0 to 1
    row = createObject("RoSGNode","ContentNode")
    row.Title = rowAA.Title

    for each itemAA in rowAA.ContentList
        item = createObject("RoSGNode","ContentNode")
        ' We don't use item.setFields(itemAA) as doesn't cast 
streamFormat to proper value
        for each key in itemAA
            item[key] = itemAA[key]
        end for
        row.appendChild(item)
    end for
    RowItems.appendChild(row)
end for

return RowItems
End Function


Function GetApiArray1()
url = CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")
url.SetUrl("http://media.genepensiero.com/roku/rss/livestream.rss")
rsp = url.GetToString()

responseXML = ParseXML(rsp)
responseXML = responseXML.GetChildElements()
responseArray = responseXML.GetChildElements()

result = []

for each xmlItem in responseArray
    if xmlItem.getName() = "item"
        itemAA = xmlItem.GetChildElements()
        if itemAA <> invalid
            item = {}
            for each xmlItem in itemAA
                item[xmlItem.getName()] = xmlItem.getText()
                if xmlItem.getName() = "media:content"
                    item.stream = {url : xmlItem.url}
                    item.url = xmlItem.getAttributes().url
                    item.streamFormat = "hls"

                    mediaContent = xmlItem.GetChildElements()
                    for each mediaContentItem in mediaContent
                        if mediaContentItem.getName() = 
 "media:thumbnail"
                            item.HDPosterUrl = 
mediaContentItem.getattributes().url
                            item.hdBackgroundImageUrl = 
mediaContentItem.getattributes().url
                        end if
                    end for
                end if
            end for
            result.push(item)
        end if
    end if
end for

return result
End Function

Then an example of an entry in my RSS feed is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0">
<channel>
    <title>Bright Light Church</title>
    <link />
    <description>Live and Archived Bible Studies</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <pubDate>Wed, 26 Apr 2017 12:00:00 PT</pubDate>
    <category>TV &amp; Film</category>
    <image>
        <title>The Bible</title>
        <url>http://media.genepensiero.com/roku/withoutceasing.jpg</url>
        <width>-1</width>
        <height>-1</height>
    </image>
    <item>
    <title>Prayer Pressure</title>
    <link>http://media.calvaryhanford.com/psalms/prayerpressure.mp4</link>
    <description>David brings big requests to God and receives a big revelation.</description>
    <pubDate>Sun, 05 Mar 2017 10:15:00 PT</pubDate>
    <guid isPermaLink="false">ch001</guid>
    <media:content channels="2" type="special" isDefault="true" id="ch001"  url="http://media.calvaryhanford.com/psalms/prayerpressure.mp4">
    <media:description>David brings big requests to God and receives a big revelation.</media:description>
    <media:keywords>church, bible study, expository sermon</media:keywords>
    <media:thumbnail url="http://media.genepensiero.com/roku/withoutceasing.jpg" />
    <media:title>Prayer Pressure</media:title>
    </media:content>
    </item>

When I use the Deep Link Tester it just opens my channel to the home screen, it doesn't launch the specific video.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[joetesta]

where you have 'play content directly' you need to replace with code to launch the player, most likely the same way it would've been launched had the user navigated to that video, so that when they exit the video, they will land on a page where they could re-launch the same video.  I'm not familiar with "Simple Grid with Details template" but you may need to customize so that it can receive the video id as passed in on the deeplink and launch the appropriate video.
hope it may help

[genepensiero]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'm just not grasping this concept. I've been trying to follow the SDK and the various suggestions on this forum, Stack Overflow, etc, yet nothing is really yielding results. 

I don't get why Roku's sample channels don't have Deep Linking built in for us to see when they're going to require it of every public channel. 

[joetesta]

do you have a link to the sample channel you're using? 

[genepensiero]

The Simple Grid with Details is found here:

https://blog.roku.com/developer/scenegraph-tutorial

The zip file link:

https://sdkdocs.roku.com/download/attac ... _Video.zip

[coldrain]

I almost agree with the first answer of joetesta. When your channel start and get the list of video from your feed, you need to index all of your video. When you finish, you look for video's indexed id that matches the args.contentID (and args.mediaType). Once you find out that video, just start it as normally.
By indexing, you are able to support the read/write video bookmark which is also a requirement for every video longer than 15s when publishing the channel.