Roku Direct Publisher

Roku Direct Publisher - the easiest way to create a great TV experience. Learn more about how to create a Roku channel and share your experiences with others.
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scottthk
Visitor

Help W/MRSS feed Error

I am wondering if someone can direct me at a working MRSS example or critque mine.  We get "The feed format is invalid. We are unable to parse it." on our MRSS feed, despite following the instructions correctly (I believe) and several alterations to our feed.

I have modeled closely to the example in the documentation
https://github.com/rokudev/feed-specifi ... ication.md

An example of one our our items is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <item>
      <guid>https://vimeo.com/187227785/13dff92ac2</guid>
      <pubdate>10/28/2016 12:00:00 AM</pubdate>
      <media:title>Typical Day of a Modeler at RMS</media:title>
      <media:description>What is a typical day like for a Modeler at RMS?</media:description>
      <media:category>Engineering</media:category>
      <media:keywords>catastrophe modeling, earthquakes, modeler, RMS</media:keywords>
      <media:thumbnail url="http://dev.bajobs.com//videos/thumbnails/bajobs-featured.jpg" />
      <media:content url="https://vimeo.com/187227785/13dff92ac2" duration="45.0" />
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Some examples that are pointed at as working vary heavily from the instructions so I'm sure we're close.  It must be something simple.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks
Scott
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14 REPLIES 14
playthatbeat
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

Same question, same problem. I make an .XMLwhich passes validation fine, and also is accepted by <itunes> etc., in the prep using direct publisher it shows as ok, FEED URL gets a tick, but gives a failure for FEED STATUS.

The XML opens in a browser 100% and looks and behaves perfectly - resolving and showing an MP4 clip fine.

If i damage the XML, invalidating it, then direct publisher will fail FEED URL with a good reason displayed.

This is quite frustrating!!

Can i second the call for some working examples of acceptable .XML files for Direct publisher? Same for a .JSON feed file - not links to guidelines, ACTUAL files we can just adopt quickly. An example for an application dealing with MP4 video clips (VBLOG) and one for MP3 clips (podcast) would cover the vast majority of the basic projected users for direct publisher right away i think.
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playthatbeat
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

@scottthk

I am also working with VIMEO content - but i am attempting to link to the .MP4 available to me as a PRO user, this is the .xml i am testing with, and it's really no different in structure from one we have used with the Roku SDK to make a podcast feed previously, only this one points to MP4 files, rather then MP3. http://mrspring.net/springsession.xml

Just in Your own case - are You a Vimeo PRO or Business account holder? because you will not be able to use 'static' MP4 links unless you are such an account holder - the DOWNLOAD file link given to basic and plus accounts expires after 5 minutes, the only permanent file links are available to PRO and better users - sorry if You are already aware of this, just thought i'd mention it here as it might be of use to someone with the same issues 🙂
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playthatbeat
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

Bumping this - hope someone on staff with Roku can let us know they are aware of this, or maybe tell us what we are doing wrong.. I don't mind maintaining a custom .xml for Roku, but I refuse to endlessly try to find the variant that will work! Life is too short..
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playthatbeat
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

I did some More looking at how other people use MRSS and RSS .xml for feeding content to devices and apps, and all of them skate around the official guidelines for MRSS, with very little deviation in the basic <item> sections - so, it's really frustrating with Roku dangling this ground-breaking method in front of us, and not defining their requirements anywhere!

What is the problem? Like what is the ACTUAL problem with using the standard used by 1000's of other providers? Anyone?
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gpopple
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

I've written the code for my feed which is very similar to yours, following Roku examples.  I get the feed error "Unable to download from feedUrl."  Has anyone else seen this?  You're right, this is incredibly frustrating.
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playthatbeat
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

Still nothing emerging about this - looks like Roku are using a non-compliant version of the .xml and they are not sharing how or why right now.

Seems a little odd to me that this information is not public, but i suppose it is early days for the DP, and it will all be public soon enough, er, maybe..
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laxallstars
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

I am experiencing exact same thing as you guys. It appears Roku has a faulty XML authentication mechanism or something.
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islanddreamer
Channel Surfer

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

I thought I was going insane. I posted this issue over in the other developer forum not realizing there's now a dedicated Direct Publisher forum.

In any event, no matter what I try either my feed is invalid or the Vimeo video I'm trying to link to is unreachable.
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dashielpm
Visitor

Re: Help W/MRSS feed Error

Has anyone figured this out? I am having the same issue with my feed. It is a JSON feed. Valid JSON, no matter what i try, the status is always cant download feed. 
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