Roku Developer Program

[stratcat96]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry if this has been asked before...

I decided that rather than be just a consumer of all the great work all the developers do I am going to try and add to the Roku community by working on bringing content channels for others to enjoy. I downloaded the sdk, and read the manuals a few times. I *think* I've got a handle on it (humbly) but I hada few questions that I was hoping some more experienced people might be able to answer..

1. Is it better to use a dedicated box for development rather than your personal one?

2. I would assume from the documentation that once a box is setup for development the example .zip files can then be loaded to the box where I then can experiment with the scripting. If that is correct, once I make a change do I need to then redeploy it onto my Roku?

3. And lastly and probably the silliest one... How does one know *where* ipad/iphone streams are located?

I know these are all very basic and borderline silly but I really want to try and make a contribution 🙂 Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[kbenson]

"stratcat96" wrote:
Hi everyone, I'm sorry if this has been asked before...

I decided that rather than be just a consumer of all the great work all the developers do I am going to try and add to the Roku community by working on bringing content channels for others to enjoy. I downloaded the sdk, and read the manuals a few times. I *think* I've got a handle on it (humbly) but I hada few questions that I was hoping some more experienced people might be able to answer..

1. Is it better to use a dedicated box for development rather than your personal one?

That depends on your circumstances. If anyone else expects to be able to use the Roku while you are developing, spring for another unit. Every time you load a side-load a channel, it auto starts and whatever the box was boing is stopped to run the loaded channel.

2. I would assume from the documentation that once a box is setup for development the example .zip files can then be loaded to the box where I then can experiment with the scripting. If that is correct, once I make a change do I need to then redeploy it onto my Roku?

Yes, the included example zips can be loaded, and you can even make your own zips out of the example source and load it and it should function the same. Altering the examples and making a new zip seems to be the common way to get started.

3. And lastly and probably the silliest one... How does one know *where* ipad/iphone streams are located?

Haven't done any myself, but I assume they pop open some sort of packet analyzer such as wireshark or tcpdump. Maybe it's more obvious in some cases. TheEndless would probably have some good tips. 😉

I know these are all very basic and borderline silly but I really want to try and make a contribution 🙂 Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Not at all! Certain aspects of starting development are less intuitive than others, depending on prior experience.

[manuelalvarez]

1. Is it better to use a dedicated box for development rather than your personal one?

1.) I use the same box, applications are sandboxed, meaning you can't break anything outside your app.

2. I would assume from the documentation that once a box is setup for development the example .zip files can then be loaded to the box where I then can experiment with the scripting. If that is correct, once I make a change do I need to then redeploy it onto my Roku?

2.) Correct, you will upload them via a web browser. After any changes to the code you will have to re-zip the file and re-upload.

3. And lastly and probably the silliest one... How does one know *where* ipad/iphone streams are located?

3.) For this one, you probably will have to search for them using your favorite search engine. I don't think this is a global directory for streams.

Cheers,

Manuel.-

[stratcat96]

wow, thank you guys for your help. I set my box in Dev. mode and loaded a few examples already. I can tell already that this is going to be fun to learn and create with! My question about the streams I guess could be elaborated on. For instance, if I wanted to create something to bring say the Smthsonian Channel streams to Roku, and I know "there's an app for that" lol, I'm just wondering where I would go to find them, or how I would know where to access them. Thank you for the help and putting up with silly questions

[TheEndless]

"stratcat96" wrote:
wow, thank you guys for your help. I set my box in Dev. mode and loaded a few examples already. I can tell already that this is going to be fun to learn and create with! My question about the streams I guess could be elaborated on. For instance, if I wanted to create something to bring say the Smthsonian Channel streams to Roku, and I know "there's an app for that" lol, I'm just wondering where I would go to find them, or how I would know where to access them. Thank you for the help and putting up with silly questions

Kbenson is pretty much dead on with that one. IPhone or IPad and a packet sniffer.

[pin2gtoes]

I have been using Firefox to discover compatible streams. I'm sure you can also use Chrome or any browser that lets you change UA :twisted: .

[stratcat96]

I downloaded a program called "bitanalyzer" that sniffs out all the traffic and displays it. I have been able to use it on webpage streams that I know Roku channels have been made with and see the location of the mp4 file that's being streamed. So far, there have been some things that are indeed on Roku that it can't or won't tell me the source, such as the livestation streams. I have just been experimenting with it to see if I can recognize locations.