Roku Developer Program

[TheEndless]

"greubel" wrote:
You would think Roku could provide a flag or a value in the runtime call param.

Actually...

On my Roku 2 XD and my Roku HD, I get an ECP parameter named "source" that gets passed into RunUserInterface with a value of "auto-run-dev". I don't know what the value is for the published version of the channel, but it might be worth investigating, as the "dev" part certainly seems promising.

Sub RunUserInterface(ecp As Dynamic)
    print ecp
End Sub

Output:

splashTime: 153
source: auto-run-dev

EDIT: To expand, I get "auto-run-dev" when the channel launches automatically after the side-load. If I launch the side-loaded channel from the home screen, I get "homescreen". So, if you only need logging when you side-load a new version, that may be a worthwhile option.

[RokuMarkn]

"greubel" wrote:

You would think Roku could provide a flag or a value in the runtime call param.

In general it's not a good idea for a channel to behave differently depending on whether it's sideloaded. If you do this, it means that you're essentially testing different code than you will be releasing. If you have a good understanding of the differences and are sure that it won't matter, then you can of course do what you want. But a good principle of software engineering is to test what you ship.

--Mark

[greubel]

The purpose of the flag or me detecting that it is side loaded, is so I can load it as a private channel and also side load it for debugging. When it's released or loaded as a private channel, I can get a real feel for the speed of the channel. Then with my logging feature, the user can enable it and get all the debugs, even though it may impact performance. One of the big problems with my channel is that it depends on the amount and format of the user's data. I have no control over his content. That is why it would be nice to be able to get contingency data if and when it blows up. That information would greatly help in resolving problems.

[RokuMarkn]

Hm, perhaps I'm not understanding. If you have a method for an end user to enable logging, why do you need to detect sideloading? Can't you just enable the logging the way an end user would?

--Mark

[greubel]

Need to be able to turn the telnet interface on and off. That would get rid of all debug formatting.