Roku Developer Program

[greubel]

Is there anyway to retrieve what the user named his box from the account page ?
Need a way to refer to multiple Roku boxes. It would be nice to use the name that the account holder set it to. That would be more meaningful to him than using the Roku serial number.

[EnTerr]

"greubel" wrote:
Is there anyway to retrieve what the user named his box from the account page ?
Need a way to refer to multiple Roku boxes. It would be nice to use the name that the account holder set it to. That would be more meaningful to him than using the Roku serial number.

My understanding is that RokuCo's smartphone apps use web service to fetch list of players and properties (IP, name) but i don't think they will open it to developers since it uses login authentication. I don't think each box even "knows" its own name. It would of course be nice if that name gets returned as part of the UPNP description, namely <friendlyName/> but someone has to implement it.

Hack: I used last 4 digits of the serial number in my iOS app for auto-naming the players, after some deliberation in the next version it will be only the last 2 digits. I pondered using only 1 digit but the probability of collision increases fast with increase number of players (10% for 2, 28% for 3, 50% for 4). I also mused auto-naming players Mr.White, Mr.Brown, Mr.Pink... but at the end balked.

[greubel]

Redoing my viewed history method to provide separate lists based on the boxes and the ability to view the list remotely. Some users have vast video libraries with multiple boxes and viewers. They would like to know if different users/boxes have completed watching a movie, so they can shuffle out a movie to a different folder. Just looked at my serial numbers and I have all the platforms and three of them, the last 2 digits are 1 apart. So the chances are, you could have duplicates.

[TheEndless]

"EnTerr" wrote:
I don't think each box even "knows" its own name.

It does. It's listed under the "Settings->About" icon.

[greubel]

Yes, but how can a dev get at it ?

[TheEndless]

"greubel" wrote:
Yes, but how can a dev get at it ?

You can't. I was just pointing out that the box does know it, so it seems like it would be pretty trivial to add it to the UPnP discovery XML.

[EnTerr]

"TheEndless" wrote:

"EnTerr" wrote:
I don't think each box even "knows" its own name.

It does. It's listed under the "Settings->About" icon.

Wat? It doesn't on mine. Here is list of what i get there:

Roku account
Model number
Serial number
Software version
Roku support
Network name
IP address
Ethernet MAC address
Wireless MAC address
MicroSD Card

For some reason last one is special, it gets to capitalize second word... dedication to Orson Scott Card? Shouldn't it be "Micro O.S.Card" though. But i digress.

Fingers crossed: if the player knows the name, it will be such an easy "REP" favor to ask for, to get it as <friendlyName/>.

[TheEndless]

"EnTerr" wrote:

"TheEndless" wrote:

"EnTerr" wrote:
I don't think each box even "knows" its own name.

It does. It's listed under the "Settings->About" icon.

Wat? It doesn't on mine. Here is list of what i get there:

Roku account
Model number
Serial number
Software version
Roku support
Network name
IP address
Ethernet MAC address
Wireless MAC address
MicroSD Card (for some reason this one is special, it gets to capitalize second word.. dedication to [urlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card]Orson Scott Card[/url]? but then shouldn't it be MicroOS Card)

No, under the Icon itself, not on the About page (i.e., before you actually select "About").

[EnTerr]

"TheEndless" wrote:
No, under the Icon itself, not on the About page (i.e., before you actually select "About").

Oh wow, it sure is there. You know why i missed it? my players are (mostly) named after the specific model-name, this one had a given name of "Roku 2 XS". Gah.

Well that's fabulous, let's pop the champagne and start asking for this easy fix to UPnP descriptor!
Also can we get thread topic changed to something less ambiguous, say "Fetching Roku player friendly name"; when i saw the subject "User Named Roku", i thought there was forum user named "Roku" that's screwing up something (admittedly, curiosity made me peak inside)

[EnTerr]

"EnTerr" wrote:
Fingers crossed: if the player knows the name, it will be such an easy "REP" favor to ask for, to get it as <friendlyName/>.

"EnTerr" wrote:
Well that's fabulous, let's pop the champagne and start asking for this easy fix to UPnP descriptor!

*@RokuCo, soo... will you fix the UPnP descriptor to show the user-assigned name under <root><device><friendlyName/>?
I feel silly writing detailed proposal on something that is described in one line.

I got reminded of this thing today, when trying "AllCast" on Android and it showed me 3 entries, all named "Roku Streaming Player" - with no way to check which is what (there is no info or IP to hint). And to make it extra hard, it refreshes the list on each return to that screen, so tough i you remembered it was the player from the 2nd line that you want, it's a new game each time. I bet it uses that descriptor, probably under auspices of world's first antibacterial soap