Roku Developer Program

[ackeba]

I'm finally beginning to understand this language. It's certainly been tough without knowing almost anything before diving into it. Like many others I would have hired someone else if I had the budget, but I also thought this will be a fantastic skill to learn. Anyway...

I'm working with the simpleGridScreen from SDK.

I think I'm reasonably well on my way, but I've run into a bit of a snag, and seem to have a tough time finding anywhere where someone is talking about this issue:

I have all my content metadata in the script right now, but as I'm building a big channel that I plan to be updating regularly I'll need all this in xml files so that I can manipulate. I'm pretty in the dark when it comes to parsing XML files for movie metadata and posters and the likes, and need some help structuring my code right so I'm parsing correctly and the information is going where it should be in the little pop out window for each title.
Could I get away with plugging in my data into one of the xmls from the videoplayer.brs or would I need to change that?
Here's what it looks like.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<feed>
	<!-- resultLength indicates the total number of results for this feed -->
	<resultLength>5</resultLength>
	<!-- endIndix  indicates the number of results for this *paged* section of the feed -->
	<endIndex>5</endIndex>
	<item sdImg="http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/movie%20trailers/BadReception.jpg" hdImg="http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/movie%20trailers/BadReception.jpg">
		<title>Bad Reception</title>
		<contentId>00001</contentId>
		<contentType>Movie</contentType>
		<contentQuality>HD</contentQuality>
		<streamFormat>mp4</streamFormat>
		<media>
			<streamQuality>HD</streamQuality>
			<streamBitrate>1500</streamBitrate>
			<streamUrl>http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/movie%20trailers/BAD%20RECEPTION%20Trailer%201080.mp4</streamUrl>
		</media>
		<synopsis>A Television has a terrible reception. How will the owner fix it before the Cowboys play at 4???</synopsis>
		<genres>Horror</genres>
		<runtime>82</runtime>
	</item>	

also I want to know exactly what this operation is doing. I'm really trying to learn this so I know the language and can expand on this for channels and projects to come.

    
    while true
        print "Waiting for message"
        msg = wait(0, m.port)
        'msg = wait(0, screen.GetMessagePort())     ' getmessageport does not work on gridscreen
        print "Got Message:";type(msg)
        if type(msg) = "roGridScreenEvent" then
            print "msg= "; msg.GetMessage() " , index= "; msg.GetIndex(); " data= "; msg.getData()
            if msg.isListItemFocused() then
                print"list item focused | current show = "; msg.GetIndex()
            else if msg.isListItemSelected() then
                row = msg.GetIndex()
                selection = msg.getData()
                print "list item selected row= "; row; " selection= "; selection

                ' Did we get a selection from the gridstyle selection row?
                if (row = 0)
                    ' yes, return so we can come back with new style
                    return StyleButtons[selection].Title
                endif

                'm.curShow = displayShowDetailScreen(showList[msg.GetIndex()])
            else if msg.isScreenClosed() then
                return ""
            end if
        end If
    end while

if anyone can give me a hand with this that'd be much appreciated. I'll give you proper appreciation somewhere in the channel.

[ackeba]

okay. I'm making progress. my XML successfully parses when I run it through the debugger. everything appears to work, however nothing is coming up on my gridscreen even though it doesn't say there's anything wrong. I know I'm missing something simple to plug the the metadata into the actual gridscreen, but I'm just lost as to what it is.

here is my gridscreen layout code where row 2 is calling to Category Horror (my parsed xml metadata)

Function showGridScreen(screen As Object, gridstyle as string) As string

    print "enter showGridScreen"

    categoryList = getCategoryList()
    screen.setupLists(categoryList.count())
    screen.SetListNames(categoryList)
    StyleButtons = getGridControlButtons()
    screen.SetContentList(0, StyleButtons)
    CategoryAction = getShowsForCategoryAction()
    screen.SetContentList(1, CategoryAction)
    CategoryHorror = getShowsForCategoryHorror()
    screen.SetContentList(2, CategoryHorror)
    screen.Show()

and then here is the code for getShowsForCategoryHorror()

Function getShowsForCategoryHorror() As Object

    xfer=CreateObject("roUrlTransfer")
    port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
    xfer.SetMessagePort(port)
    xfer.SetUrl("http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/xml/Action.xml")
    movie = xfer.GetToString()
    xml=CreateObject("roXMLElement")
    xml.Parse(movie)
        ?"XML PARSED. . ."
                data = []
                showList = []
            For i= 0 to xml.item.count()-1
                data={
                    Title: xml.item[i].title.GetText()
                    ReleaseDate: xml.item[i].contentId.GetText()
                    Description: xml.item[i].synopsis.GetText()
                    HDPosterUrl: xml.item[i]@sdimg
                    SDPosterUrl: xml.item[i]@hdImg
                }
                ?"SHOW TITLE. . ."data.title
                ?"SHOW DATE. . ."data.ReleaseDate
                ?"SHOW DESCRIPTION. . ."data.Description
                ?"SHOW HDPosterUrl. . ."data.HDPosterUrl
                ?"SHOW SDPosterUrl. . ."data.SDPosterUrl
                showList.Push(data)
            End For
                ?"SHOWLIST CREATED. . ."
                       ?"SHOWLIST COUNT. . ."showList.count()

End Function
Function ChannelLoop() as object

index=0
while true
msg = wait(0, m.port)
        if msg <> invalid
                if (msg.isRemoteKeyPressed())
                id = msg.GetIndex()
if id=2
data=HoldIndex(index)
'?"DATA. . ."data.count()
endif
endif
endif
end while
End Function



FUNCTION HoldIndex(index)
   ?"HOLDINDEX SHOWLIST COUNT. . ." showList.count()
return m.showList
end function

I just need some help implementing that metadata into my actual gridscreen.

[ackeba]

I partially feel bad for blowing up my own feed here, and talking to myself, but I'm making this channel for work, and don't really have an option to stop or get someone else to help as I work for a small company. When I run my script through the debugger it feeds back all the metadata that I parsed from the mxl and appears as if i am doing everything right (i am a novice, and without it explicitly telling my i messed up I likely won't know) however for the life of my I can not get anything to show up on the actual roku device. The contentlist remains blank and continues to frustrate the hell out of me, but I don't know what's wrong.

can anyone help me with this?

I also thought it might be the structure of my code so I went back to a second simplegrid.brs and implemented this code in the getShowsForCategoryItem function

Function getShowsForCategoryItem(category As Object) As Object

    xfer = CreateObject("roURLTransfer")
    xfer.SetURL("http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/xml/Action.xml")
    webService = xfer.GetToString()
    showList = []
    xml = CreateObject("roXMLElement")
    if xml.Parse(webService) ' where xmlString is a chunk of valid XML you've fetched from some cloud service
      for each item in xml.feed
        showList.Push({
            Title: xml.item[0].title.GetText()
            ReleaseDate: xml.item[0].contentId.GetText()
            Description: xml.item[0].synopsis.GetText()
            HDPosterUrl: xml.item[0].hdimg.GetText()
            SDPosterUrl: xml.item[0].sdimg.GetText()
        })
      next
    end for
End Function
    

however still no luck, and with the debugger I can't even tell if the xml is parsing. it doesn't give me any error.

[belltown]

    Function getShowsForCategoryItem(category As Object) As Object

        xfer = CreateObject("roURLTransfer")
        xfer.SetURL("http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/xml/Action.xml")
        webService = xfer.GetToString()
        showList = []
        stop
        xml = CreateObject("roXMLElement")
        if xml.Parse(webService) ' where xmlString is a chunk of valid XML you've fetched from some cloud service
          for each item in xml.item
            showList.Push({
                Title: item.title.GetText()
                ReleaseDate: item.contentId.GetText()
                Description: item.synopsis.GetText()
                HDPosterUrl: item@hdimg
                SDPosterUrl: item@sdimg
            })
        end for
     end if
    End Function
        

Put the 'stop' statement in for debugging purposes. You can then use the debugger 'step' command to see line-by-line which code gets executed. If you get to the 'for' statement after the 'xml.Parse' then the xml parsed successfully. As you step past each line of code, examine the variables that your code is setting to see if the expected value actually gets set, e.g. ?Title

The xml code is rather confusing, but basically 'xml' should contain your parsed xml tree. Your 'for each' statement sets the 'item' variable to each Xml <item> in turn (no need to reference <feed> because that's your root element, which is what 'xml' is referrring to). Once you have the 'item' iterator in your 'for each' loop, select its child elements using the "." operator, and its attributes using the @ operator.

And it looks like you had an 'end for' instead of an 'end if'

[ackeba]

Thank you so much. I just left the office so I shall try this tomorrow. Should this fix the problem of nothing showing up on my ROKU device in that content list? Everything your saying makes sense.

[belltown]

"ackeba" wrote:
Thank you so much. I just left the office so I shall try this tomorrow. Should this fix the problem of nothing showing up on my ROKU device in that content list? Everything your saying makes sense.

It should fix the problem of your content meta-data not being set up correctly, which is a prerequisite for getting any content to display on your screen.

I'm currently putting together an enhanced version of the Roku SDK videoplayer example, which should allow you to get a working channel using your own feed file. It will have some support for grid screens. I should have it out within the next day or two. It may be worth looking into for your project.

[ackeba]

It might be a bit forward to say this early on in our relationship, but I think I like you.

That's exciting news about the kit. Please do let me know when that's out. That might be helpful.

In regards to what I posted earlier... The first script I had posted accesses the same xml and with it run through the debugger it fed back all the metadata correctly so hopefully by fixing what you said this will function properly. Thanks

[ackeba]

Alright so after making the changes you suggested... I'm getting this feedback in the debugger. I don't know what it means honestly.

Current Function:
198:  Function getShowsForCategoryItem(category As Object) As Object
199:  
200:      xfer = CreateObject("roURLTransfer")
201:      xfer.SetURL("http://cs2308.mojohost.com/watchindie.info/public_html/xml/Action.xml")
202:      webService = xfer.GetToString()
203:      showList = []
204:*     stop
205:      xml = CreateObject("roXMLElement")
206:      if xml.Parse(webService) ' where xmlString is a chunk of valid XML you've fetched from some cloud service
207:        for each item in xml.item
208:          showList.Push({
STOP (runtime error &hf7) in pkg:/source/SimpleGrid.brs(204)
204:     stop
Backtrace:
#2  Function getshowsforcategoryitem(category As Object) As Object
   file/line: pkg:/source/SimpleGrid.brs(205)
#1  Function showgridscreen(screen As Object, gridstyle As String) As String
   file/line: pkg:/source/SimpleGrid.brs(129)
#0  Function main() As Void
   file/line: pkg:/source/SimpleGrid.brs(21)
Local Variables:
category         roString refcnt=1 val:"Reality"
global           rotINTERFACE:ifGlobal
m                roAssociativeArray refcnt=4 count:1
xfer             bsc:roUrlTransfer refcnt=1
webservice       roString (2.1 was String) refcnt=1 val:"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<feed>
    <!-- resultLength indicates th"...
showlist         roArray refcnt=1 count:0
xml              <uninitialized>
item             <uninitialized>

[belltown]

"ackeba" wrote:
I don't know what it means honestly.

Start by reading the debugger documentation: http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/Debugging+Your+Application (you can also type 'help' at the debugger prompt).

The 'stop' BrightScript statement causes your program to enter the debugger, at which point it displays the function it was executing at the time, information about where you are and how you got there (backtrace), and the contents of your program's variables. From there you can type debugger commands:

The 'next' and 'last' commands show the next and previous statements executed without actually executing anything.
The 'step' or 's' command will step through your code one statement at a time.
The 'cont' or 'c' command will continue executing your program from the current statement.
The 'bt' (backtrace) command prints the list of functions that was called to get to where you are now.
To examine the contents of any variable at this point use the 'print' or '?' statement followed by the variable name.

If your variable is an array, the debugger will show a list of data types for the variables in the array, not the actual values themselves. To show an array value, use print arrayvariable where x is the numerical value of the array index.

You can also interactively type arbitrary BrightScript commands at the debugger prompt to see the effect of a given statement without having to write it in your code.

By stepping through your code one statement at a time you can see if the flow of execution is what you were expecting (e.g. if your xml Parse statement worked). After stepping past a variable assigment, print the contents of the variable using 'print' to see if your variable now contains the value you were expecting.

[coskel]

Well, I'm female, so I will happily say I like belltown for helping this far. I would love to see your example, so I can stop fighting with this gridscreen.