Roku Developer Program

[coskel]

Hi all -

I have a first channel up and running, its been up almost a year.
I now want to start a second channel, and when I go into the Development Application installer, I see my current package installed.

How do I install a second package for a new channel without overwriting the first one?

[belltown]

"coskel" wrote:
Hi all -

I have a first channel up and running, its been up almost a year.
I now want to start a second channel, and when I go into the Development Application installer, I see my current package installed.

How do I install a second package for a new channel without overwriting the first one?

You can only have one side-loaded channel. If you want to be able to access your first channel, submit it as a Private Channel.

[coskel]

Could I do the reverse and access the second as a private channel?

Maybe I should explain further:
I have a current channel that is very basic, and uses the plain vanilla videoplayer SDK.

I want to upgrade the look of the channel using GridScreen, and of course I need to be able to see it and test it then flip it over.
----
So your answer begets another question: how are developers pushing up multiple channels if we can only load one?

Thanks In Advance...
CK

[belltown]

Yes, you can make any channel or any version of any channel into a Private Channel, then switch back and forth between your currently-loaded development channel and any of your Private Channels or switch between different Private Channels that are just different implementations of the same channel.

It takes a few more steps to create or update a Private Channel (side-load, run the Packager, save the newly-packaged file to your computer, go to the Roku developer web site and edit your Private Channel, specifying the new package file, publish it, do a system update on your Roku to get the latest channel version loaded bearing in mind that it might take a few minutes before that version is available to be loaded, etc.). Therefore, it might make more sense to have the channel you're actively working on as the current development version, and the previous version a Private Channel.

I would guess that most developers have set up their development environments such that they only need a single click or button press to side-load a new version of a channel, so someone wanting to compare the look of two versions of the same channel can easily flip-flop between two side-loaded versions. In my case, I press CTRL/D and whatever channel I'm editing gets zipped up and side-loaded and starts running on my Roku. I can then click another tab in my editor to bring up the code for the other version of the channel, press CTRL/D again, and then that version starts running on my Roku.

[Komag]

Probably way easier to just use two Rokus

[RokuMarkn]

I'm not sure I understand the OP's problem. Why do you want to keep the original channel installed on your Roku? You (surely) have the source on a development PC so you can reinstall it any time you want to. In most cases there should be no need to create a private channel just for development.

--Mark

[belltown]

"RokuMarkn" wrote:
I'm not sure I understand the OP's problem. Why do you want to keep the original channel installed on your Roku? You (surely) have the source on a development PC so you can reinstall it any time you want to. In most cases there should be no need to create a private channel just for development.

--Mark

I assumed it was to have two different implementations of the same channel (one using poster screens, the other using grid screens) on the home screen at the same time so as to be able to switch back and forth to do a side-by-side comparison of how one looks compared to the other, without having to keep reloading a new development version each time.