Roku Developer Program

[Baradanikto]

I've got some very basic initial questions. I have plenty of experience developing software on various platforms and had an idea about developing a channel. Can someone help with:

1. I don't own the content, or, the server where the content is located. However, the content is public. Does this preclude me from developing a channel? If not, are there any other requirements
(ie. servers, etc.) I'll need to invest in?

2. If I can go forward with developing my idea, I'm assuming that there is a way to specify multiple videos as part of the content. Will I need to constantly update the list of available content?

Thanks in advance if you can help out.

[gonzotek]

"Baradanikto" wrote:
I've got some very basic initial questions. I have plenty of experience developing software on various platforms and had an idea about developing a channel. Can someone help with:

1. I don't own the content, or, the server where the content is located. However, the content is public. Does this preclude me from developing a channel? If not, are there any other requirements
(ie. servers, etc.) I'll need to invest in?

The rights holder(s) would have to give permission - this could be as simple as them already having labeled the content with a permissive Creative Commons license(for instance), or it might require you to obtain specific permission to redistribute.

2. If I can go forward with developing my idea, I'm assuming that there is a way to specify multiple videos as part of the content. Will I need to constantly update the list of available content?

Thanks in advance if you can help out.

It depends on the content source. There is example code available to develop a Roku channel that can auto-update itself from an mRSS or atom feed. If the content source doesn't provide some form of formatted and regularly updated feed, you'd need to take that role on yourself. While it would be possible to update the channel code itself and release updates when the content list changes, a more practical approach would be to host a feed or other variety of xml file yourself(the Roku can parse arbitrary xml - but you'll need to code what you need if there are specific requirements not already available in the example code) on some domain you have control over, and instruct the channel to look for updates there.

/edit: If you have to do any of the hosting yourself, the Roku doesn't require any special software platform beyond a standard web server. If you end up needing to host the content (and not just the content listings), you may require some form of distributed co-location to handle the necessary load, such as something from AWS.

You can peruse the SDK documentation here: http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/ ... umentation
and see example channel code here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/rokusdk ... rce=navbar
and the mrss template: https://roku.box.com/s/gzvarbhqvnr30qgsu33i