Roku Developer Program

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Hi All,

I am new to Roku development.
I am going to develop a Video channel which contains In-Channel Products (Videos).
I want Videos in different Categories.

Roku SDK "iap" example is not working in my Private channel. Means it is not getting my In-Channel products.
Can anyone tell me how to test In-Channel products before Submitting for Review?

- My product is Video, where should I add video details like Description, Poster Images, Video URL etc? Where and How to assign Categories to Videos?
- Can it be possible by using any web service having Database on my server to store Videos other detail which fulfill my purpose?
- If I should use Database on my server then how should I connect it to my products available in my developer account (Means in In-Channel Products).
OR
- Is there any other way of using In-Channel product? Like using xml in which we can set Video Details.

Your help would be great..!!
Thanks in Advance.

Varsh.

[RokuRobB]

This may help get you started: http://blog.roku.com/developer/2013/06/ ... -channels/

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Hi,

Thanks RokuRobB for link, but I referred this link, but I didn't find the way for my question.

- My product is Video, where should I add video details like Description, Poster Images, Video URL etc? Where and How to assign Categories to Videos?
- Can it be possible by using any web service having Database on my server to store Videos other detail which fulfill my purpose?
- If I should use Database on my server then how should I connect it to my products available in my developer account (Means in In-Channel Products).

When I go to add products at In-Channel Add Product, there is a not on the top of form,

In-channel products must be approved by Roku prior to sale. After providing your product information you may test your product using a test user account.

How can I test using my Test Users? I have 2 test users in my account, I have created 2 developer accounts.
By using SDK example for In-Channel product "iap", I could not found products at my Private Channel.

Thanks.

[RokuJoel]

Just as you don't store your video on our servers, you don't store the images on our servers either.

You store them on your server(s) and reference them in the metadata your channel downloads to the device. If you need to link images to a product, include the product Identifier you used when you created the product in the metadata and then look up (using mySQL or whatever database you use on your server) the product matching that code and retrieve the urls of the images that are associated with that product from the metadata and display them in your channel next to the product.

- Joel

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Thanks Joel,

You store them on your server(s) and reference them in the metadata your channel downloads to the device.

Please tell me how can I reference them with my server data?
I really don't understand how can I relate my Developer Products with my Server Database. What my channel will call to get extra details? I will store all details like Image URLs, Description, Categories, etc but how Roku (My Channel) will fetch them? What connection is required?

This link http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/Web+Service+API for Web Service can help me after connection is successful, without connection, this doc is meaningless.
Please anyone can help me in this. Giving me solution will also help others with same requirement like me.

Thanks in advanced for Exact or Near to Exact solution / source code. 😞
Varsh.

[RokuJoel]

Please see our docs on roURLTransfer and its methods which are listed under ifUrlTransfer.

This is how your XML or JSON data is retrieved from your server to the device.

Typically one stores the urls of both the video content and the images along with descriptive meta-data in a database on a web server. Scripts are written in the language of your choice (php/mysql, ASP/msSql, etc) to retrieve that data and return it as XML or JSON. One creates an roURLTransfer object, sets the URL and triggers the transfer, parses the results into an object the Roku can understand (an Associative Array), pushes that object into a linear array and calls the SetContentList method of whatever screen that you wish to display those items on.

Since the purchased product has a unique identifier associated with it, you can look up to your database on your server using the identifier and retrieve anything that is available to a user who has purchased that item, including image urls and videos and other metadata

- Joel

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Thanks Joel,

Information your provided is very useful to me. I will go through that doc.

One more question for a kind of information.

Can you tell me how SDK example of In-Channel product "iap" is returning products in Roku Developer Mode?
In that example there is no use of roURLTransfer object or there is not even any URL related script written.
What is there in-built system in Roku device that is calling automatically product details?
I searched everywhere, there is nothing mentioned in Forums, Docs, Examples and on other websites.

Please Joel do answer my question. It is not only my question, everyone wants to know how exactly "iap" is working?
You advised me to use roURLTransfer, I will try my best to get some solution, but without use of roURLTransfer or any HTTP request how "iap" is working in Developer mode?

Thanks,
Varsh.

[RokuJoel]

I believe we have some sample products on our server to help you test your purchasing logic.

the roChannelStore component talks to our servers using an interface built into our firmware to get those sample products.


- Joel

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Thank you very much Joel.

As you said

I believe we have some sample products on our server to help you test your purchasing logic.

So, will my account be charged any amount if I purchase test products in Roku Developer mode?
I want to test the Purchase flow of products.
It seems to take a risk on purchase. I want to be sure for Local Testing products.

Thanks,
Varsh.