Roku Direct Publisher

[johnary]

I'm in the process of developing a direct publisher channel, but have been having troubles with my JSON feed. I have two test channels using the same JSON feed, but the content shows up differently for both channels. The feed is verified when I check my feed status. Different videos are missing on each channel. Currently there are over 130 videos on the feed, but only about half of them show up.

I've contacted support several times since development began in May, but have received no help.

Here is my JSON feed: https://robotmonstercreative.com/fff/wp-json/tv/roku/

Here is a link to test channel 1: https://my.roku.com/account/add?channel=K5TRQL

Here is a link to test channel 2: https://my.roku.com/account/add?channel=TCXGLZ

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Baradanikto]

I reviewed your feed file and noticed the following:

• According to the Direct Publisher spec, your 'releaseDate' format does not conform to the expected format.  The expected format is 'YYYY-MM-DD'.  I'm not sure if that's enough to cause your problems, but, Roku is pretty strict about what conforms to their spec.
• When video content does not show in a channel, it is typically related to the tags and queries that are defined.  You've got two categories that may contain invalid characters: 'VCR Party Live!' and 'Alf-A-Thon'.  I'm not sure if the characters '!' and '-' are valid for category strings.

Keep in mind, that even though a JSON feed may pass a JSON linter that checks for syntax errors, it may still be invalid due to 'logic' errors.

[johnary]

Thank you so much! That is much more information and insight than I have received over the last couple of months from Roku.

One follow up question though... Why do you think the same feed appears differently on two different channels?

Thanks again.

[Baradanikto]

My guess is (and it is a guess), that it may be a timing issue.  When you submit a new feed file, Roku does not ingest it immediately.  It may take upwards of 6 hours to update your channel.  Beyond that, there may be some subtle differences in the way you defined the two channels in the Developer Portal.

[johnary]

I'll do some more experimentation with it. Thanks for your help.

[johnary · Accepted solution]

I went through and fixed all of the dates and now the channel works perfectly. I'm using a Wordpress plugin called WP Smart TV. The problem comes when the plugin generates the JSON file using the time along with the date metadata. Instead of displaying the date properly, it adds on the time data (i.e. "2022-07-28T15:16:33-05:00"), which can confuse Direct Publisher. After deleting all of the time info from the dates (i.e. "2022-07-28"), everything works fine now. 

Thanks so much for your help.