Roku Developer Program

[MSGreg]

I have created a Roku mapping channel and am seeking some feedback.

https://owner.roku.com/add/Map

The Map Channel allows you to scroll and zoom maps from around the solar system and down to street level and weather on Earth.

Some improvements that I already know it needs:
Tile Handling, smoother scrolls
finer zoom/pan control
Multilayer Maps
Rate Maps, find well-rated maps
Better server error handling and user feedback
Consistent handling of short and long selection lists, able to view all text
Preview images
Legend
Projections

If deemed worthy, I may convert some features into a premium map channel.

Do you have any Feedback?

Thanks!

[belltown]

I tried all the options. No matter what I try it says "Finding Layers ..." then exits the channel.

[MSGreg]

Thank you for checking The Map Channel!

I've made a small update. I changed the Build Number within the manifest, but nothing else. I hope that updates your channel, but I'll do a little reading to figure out how to ensure updates.

I've just added some debugging statements after the finding layers message. The messages you see, in order, should be:
Before Request...
Requesting...
After Request...
Can't Parse Response... (if there's an error)
Found X layers...

Letting me know which is the last message you see will be helpful in finding out where it's failing. Still works fine for me, but I'll do what I can to fix the problem you're seeing.

[TheEndless]

I gave it a try.. I have to admit, it's not terribly intuitive. I eventually figured out that the arrow keys moved the center point, ff/rew zoomed in and out, and OK gave resolution options, but I still have no idea what all of the different maps and "layers" are. If the assumption is that users will be looking for something specific, then maybe that's sufficient, but it was pretty much blind selections for me, often resulting in a completely white screen

It's also very slow to navigate. Perhaps for zooming and panning, you could move or zoom on the current image, and only download the new version if the user is idle at that particular level for X period of time. That way, one could zoom in to the level they want pretty quickly instead of having to wait 5 seconds between zooms. It'd also be nice if it remember the resolution setting between zooms and pans. Right now, if you change the resolution, it drops back to low if you zoom or pan.

Nifty idea, though...

[MSGreg]

If you're interested in maps, science, atlases, census, and other world information, you'll want to check out the new Map Channel.

https://owner.roku.com/add/Map

New Version uploaded, Build 4.

Many many improvements including:
Completely overhauled map screen: now pan and zoom are super fast.
Feedback on individual layers/maps can be given (thumbs up and down). This will be fed into favorites, with enough thumbs up.
Improved error handling: now on screen server messages when errors occur.
Fixed a few bugs that resulted in invisible maps.

Many new Earth maps and data:
"Earth" menu now has easy to navigate categories.
Hundreds of maps from over 30 servers.
Specific maps for Roku Distribution areas: US, UK, Ireland
Categories include: Wordwide, US, Europewide, UK, Ireland, Canada, Experimental

Check it out. And please provide feedback!

[RokuJoel]

My feedback:

* Since only the items that have a * are actually working maps, perhaps only show those.

* No thumbnails are showing on your posterscreens

Consider spicing up the look and functionality a bit and submitting this as a paid public channel (say, $ 0.99 cents) in the channel store, or as a free channel with some kind of useful upgrade.

- Joel

[RokuJoel]

Also, needs to be a way to exit map view back to Select a Map screen for users who have the older remote that has no "Back" button.

- Joel

[MSGreg]

Thanks, RokuJoel (and all the other testers)

Build 5 is now out fixing the main screen issues in SD and lack of a Back button.

If you have an older box, please let me know if it works (particularly: after "Retrieving map..." on the screen disappears, do you get any error message like "Did not get map"?)

Menu navigation now mostly remembers where you are in the stack. That said, I'm not totally happy with the menu navigation (sometimes goes to "Finding Layers" when backing out of the map forcing user to wait for loading layers, and the "Earth" map would be better if it remembered its previous location)

I've gotten good feedback, but maps don't show up on older boxes that is somehow related to using roScreen instead of roImageCanvas. I've fixed the crash related to sending feedback for older boxes.

I appreciate all the testers, thank you!