Roku Developer Program

[jkard]

Hey Roku folks,

Brand-brand-brand new to Roku development. I have a .NET background, and have done some work with VB.NET, so the language is "readable" to me at this point. I've been going through the extensive documentation, and looking at the demos in the SDK. I also just upgraded to 3.0, so I think I'm good on that front. I am trying to build a new application, and am a bit lost as there don't appear to be any walk-through tutorials, so forgive me if this is a simple question.

I need to be able to obtain details about the user who logged in, specifically their user name (or account email), and have been trying to find how to get this from the documentation. Are there any sample projects or can someone point me to the correct document to learn what information I can get about the user?

Basically, I need to build a Roku application that reads a users login, then call a webservice that returns a set of rules which dictate what a user sees in the application. Any advice is greatly appreciated, complete neophyte here!

Thanks
Jay

[RokuChris]

You can have the user enter an email and password directly using roKeyboardScreen, or you can do the code style linking like Netflix and other channels do. For the latter, take a look at the Device Registration and Linking Guide and "register" sample channel.

[jkard]

Thanks, will check out the latter. I like how easy it is for users to simply enter a auth code initially, and then they don't have to think about it later. We will have some high profile Hollywood users, so we have to keep the user interaction as "easy" as possible 😉

Does the "register" project show me what kind of metadata I can get from a Roku box?

Thanks
Jay

[TheEndless]

"jkard" wrote:
Thanks, will check out the latter. I like how easy it is for users to simply enter a auth code initially, and then they don't have to think about it later. We will have some high profile Hollywood users, so we have to keep the user interaction as "easy" as possible 😉

Does the "register" project show me what kind of metadata I can get from a Roku box?

Thanks
Jay

The Roku itself doesn't provide any details to BrightScript about the user. You can use the "registry" on the Roku to persist the linking/user information between sessions, but your channel and the backend database/website/API that you're using are responsible for capturing and storing data about the user.

[jkard]

Thanks Endless,

I guess all that I need is the users email address that's associated with the Roku (I would then call a API or Webservice to get further details). Is it possible to get this information?

If not, where in the documentation should I look to learn how to do what you suggest? Are there any demo projects that demo this?

Best
Jay

[TheEndless]

"jkard" wrote:
Thanks Endless,

I guess all that I need is the users email address that's associated with the Roku (I would then call a API or Webservice to get further details). Is it possible to get this information?

If not, where in the documentation should I look to learn how to do what you suggest? Are there any demo projects that demo this?

Best
Jay

No user specific information is made available via the Roku SDK. What you'd need to do is collect that information from the user, either via the linking/bonjour method (see the DeviceRegistrationAndLinking.pdf and register example in the SDK), or by presenting the user with the onscreen keyboard, and having them enter their username/password/email address/etc (see the roKeyboardScreen section in the ComponentReference.pdf in the SDK).

[jkard]

So would there be an initial "sign up" and then from then on it remembers? For example, with Netflix, I don't have to enter information each time, I only did it once. Is the "register" example how they accomplished this do you think?

I see you wrote the XM application, how do you handle the user login each time (I just added it to my Roku, but it takes 24 hours or so to show up), you must save information somewhere that is later accessed by your application?

I'm printing out the DeviceRegistrationAndLinking.pdf now, thanks for the pointer.

Best
Jay

[TheEndless]

"jkard" wrote:
So would there be an initial "sign up" and then from then on it remembers? For example, with Netflix, I don't have to enter information each time, I only did it once. Is the "register" example how they accomplished this do you think?

I see you wrote the XM application, how do you handle the user login each time (I just added it to my Roku, but it takes 24 hours or so to show up), you must save information somewhere that is later accessed by your application?

I'm printing out the DeviceRegistrationAndLinking.pdf now, thanks for the pointer.

Best
Jay

Yes, in the case of linking, you would store some unique identifier in the registry, and use that to communicate with your server. In the case of capturing username and password, you would store that in the registry.

BTW, there's no need to wait 24 hours after adding a channel. Just enter and exit the channel store, and that will force a download.

[jkard]

Great, that's what I'm looking for. I just started looking at the Registry project so will see how to store stuff using it as a demo.

Also refreshed the Roku and now see your XM channel. I'll look at Orb or TVersity shortly, not familiar with what those are.

Thanks
Jay

[TheEndless]

"jkard" wrote:
Great, that's what I'm looking for. I just started looking at the Registry project so will see how to store stuff using it as a demo.

Also refreshed the Roku and now see your XM channel. I'll look at Orb or TVersity shortly, not familiar with what those are.

Thanks
Jay

This may help: http://roku.permanence.com/siriusxm/default.htm#faq
But please be aware that with the recent Sirius|XM channel reorder, the Roku channel can be a bit flaky, especially for XM accounts.