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Banta67's avatar
Banta67
Visitor
16 years ago

XML - Categories/Levels Question

Hello,

I am trying to develop a channel based on the VIDEOPLAYER Sample.

Currently, in the sample categories.xml, each category has <categoryLeaf> nodes, as such.....

<category title="Technology" description="TED Talks on Technology" sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Technology.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Technology.png">
<categoryLeaf title="The Mind" description="" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/themind.xml"/>
<categoryLeaf title="Global Issues" description="" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/globalissues.xml" />
</category>

My question is regarding categories that don't need leafs. How could I just select a category and go directly to the associated feed without the need to select a leaf?

Would this work?

<category title="Technology" description="TED Talks on Technology" sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Technology.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Technology.png" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/themind.xml"/>
<category title="Entertainment" description="TED Talks on Entertainment" sd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Entertainment.png" hd_img="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/images/TED_Entertainment.png">
<categoryLeaf title="Music" description="" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/music.xml" />
<categoryLeaf title="Inspiration" description="" feed="http://rokudev.roku.com/rokudev/examples/videoplayer/xml/inspiration.xml" />
</category>

In the case above, the FEED attribute is moved out of the <categoryLeaf> node and placed in the parent <category> node. If the user selects Technology, they are taken directly to the themind.xml feed. However if they selected Entertainment, they would have to choose a leaf to further drill down.
Make sense? Would this work? If not, can you explain what it would entail to make this work?

Thank you for your help.
Banta
Roku Developer Program

40 Replies

  • RokuKevin's avatar
    RokuKevin
    Visitor
    16 years ago
    For a feed of the size in the videoplayer sample app, it would probably make sense to have just one .xml file that contained all the nodes for every category. The sample is broken up into several different feeds because we feel it would be a good "best practice" to break up your feeds into more manageable chunks. Very large feeds are expensive to download, take up a lot of memory on the box and take a long time to parse. That's why we encourage breaking up your feeds.

    That said, you can always change the way the sample app is parsing the feeds if you want to combine them into one feed for you application. Just change the feed parsing code in categoryFeed.brs and showFeed.brs

    --Kevin
  • cgerrish's avatar
    cgerrish
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    Did you figure out how to skip the category leaf section for certain categories and go straight to the feed? If so any hints you would like to share would be awesome.
  • joetesta's avatar
    joetesta
    Roku Guru
    15 years ago
    I'm also trying to figure out how to eliminate the "leafs" (or at least the extra down click required to go from the leaf name to the list of shows)

    Just change the feed parsing code in categoryFeed.brs and showFeed.brs


    he makes it sound so easy 🙂 I'm looking at that code now, scratching my head... well I broke everything - starting over with fresh example source for round 2...

    maybe it will be easier to have just 1 category and use the leafs as my categories, then the user would only have to do the extra click in the beginning.
  • joetesta's avatar
    joetesta
    Roku Guru
    15 years ago

    Traversing: 17ms
    showHomeScreen | msg =  | index =  1
    showHomeScreen | msg =  | index =  1
    device already linked, skipping registration process
    list item selected | index =  1
    invalid parameter of type roInvalid for <ROT:roInvalid> is not roAssociativeArra
    y in function initShowFeedConnection
    Current Function:
    125: Function getShowsForCategoryItem(category As Object, item As Integer) As Ob
    ject
    126:
    127:     if validateParam(category, "roAssociativeArray", "getCategoryList") = f
    alse return invalid
    128:
    129:     conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category.kids[item])
    130:     'conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category)
    131:     showList = conn.LoadShowFeed(conn)
    132:     return showList
    133:
    134: End Function
    /tmp/plugin/HHAAAAgTifHi/pkg:/source/appPosterScreen.brs(131): runtime error f4:
     Member function not found in BrightScript Component or interface.

    131:     showList = conn.LoadShowFeed(conn)

    Backtrace:
    Function getshowsforcategoryitem(category As Object, item As Integer) As Object
    Function showposterscreen(screen As Object, category As Object) As Integer
    Function displaycategoryposterscreen(category As Object) As Untyped
    Function showhomescreen(screen As Untyped) As Integer
    Function main() As Void

    Local Variables:
    category &h16 bsc:roAssociativeArray, refcnt=5
    item     &h02 Integer val:0
    global   &h07 rotINTERFACE:ifGlobal
    m        &h06 bsc:roAssociativeArray, refcnt=6
    conn     &h16 bsc:roInvalid, refcnt=1
    showlist &h30 Untyped val:Uninitialized
    BrightScript Debugger> ------ Running ------
    Looking for conn: http://192.168.1.224/categories.xml
    created feed connection for http://192.168.1.224/categories.xml
    url: http://192.168.1.224/categories.xml
    Took: 28ms
    Parse Took: 3ms
    begin category node parsing
    number of categories: 4
    ParseCategoryNode: banner_ad
    ParseCategoryNode skip: banner_ad
    parse returned no child node
    ParseCategoryNode: category
    category: Newly Added | Movies that have been recently added
    added new child node
    ParseCategoryNode: category
    category: Big News | Movies that feature news 
    added new child node
    ParseCategoryNode: category
    category: College | Movies about what it's like to go to college
    added new child node
    Traversing: 23ms
    showHomeScreen | msg =  | index =  1
    showHomeScreen | msg =  | index =  1
    device already linked, skipping registration process
    list item selected | index =  1
    invalid parameter of type roInvalid for <ROT:roInvalid> is not roAssociativeArra
    y in function initShowFeedConnection
    BrightScript Micro Debugger.
    Enter any BrightScript statement, debug commands, or HELP.

    Current Function:
    125: Function getShowsForCategoryItem(category As Object, item As Integer) As Ob
    ject
    126:
    127:     if validateParam(category, "roAssociativeArray", "getCategoryList") = f
    alse return invalid
    128:
    129:     conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category.kids[item])
    130:     'conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category)
    131:     showList = conn.LoadShowFeed(conn)
    132:     return showList
    133:
    134: End Function
    /tmp/plugin/JHAAAAhHGxgy/pkg:/source/appPosterScreen.brs(131): runtime error f4:
     Member function not found in BrightScript Component or interface.

    131:     showList = conn.LoadShowFeed(conn)

    Backtrace:
    Function getshowsforcategoryitem(category As Object, item As Integer) As Object
    Function showposterscreen(screen As Object, category As Object) As Integer
    Function displaycategoryposterscreen(category As Object) As Untyped
    Function showhomescreen(screen As Untyped) As Integer
    Function main() As Void

    Local Variables:
    category &h16 bsc:roAssociativeArray, refcnt=5
    item     &h02 Integer val:0
    global   &h07 rotINTERFACE:ifGlobal
    m        &h06 bsc:roAssociativeArray, refcnt=6
    conn     &h16 bsc:roInvalid, refcnt=1
    showlist &h30 Untyped val:Uninitialized
    BrightScript Debugger>
  • dynamitemedia's avatar
    dynamitemedia
    Binge Watcher
    15 years ago
    I can tell you from experience, that my first ever time coding with brightscript or really anything other than PHP :roll: , that you picked the hardest example to tackle your first time around.

    is it that you just don't like the function of click down? or do you only have one category?

    you don't need to use the category leafs if you don't want anyways. show us what your xml looks like, maybe one of us can help you out
  • joetesta's avatar
    joetesta
    Roku Guru
    15 years ago
    thanks dynamitemedia!

    I got it to work! My last change was adding this line 'o.Feed = xml@feed' in CategoryFeed.brs to Function ParseCategoryNode just before this line 'elseif xml.GetName() = "categoryLeaf" then'

    is it that you just don't like the function of click down? or do you only have one category?
    you don't need to use the category leafs if you don't want anyways.


    We have multiple categories, but not subcategories (leafs). Those subcategories are overkill for what we have, and going with a single subcategory in each category seemed pointless, because then the user has to click an extra time to start scrolling through the options. Maybe I will reconsider that.

    Figuring out how to eliminate the subcategories took me about 4 hours of following the functions/ subroutines from file to file and adding debug code to see what was happening along the way. I don't feel any smarter but maybe my next task will go easier, after having survived this challenge.
  • dynamitemedia's avatar
    dynamitemedia
    Binge Watcher
    15 years ago
    i see what your saying, yes the video player is tough, its like the complete package but missing the essentials to make it work for a newbie, i know i went thru it.

    to make it worse is that its spread out so many pages and not sure what connects to what in the flow at first, but once you do its gets easier.
  • ChrisDotson's avatar
    ChrisDotson
    Visitor
    15 years ago
    "joetesta" wrote:
    I got it to work! My last change was adding this line 'o.Feed = xml@feed' in CategoryFeed.brs to Function ParseCategoryNode just before this line 'elseif xml.GetName() = "categoryLeaf" then'


    Any chance you would share all of the changes you made? I'm trying to do the exact same thing and having the worst time getting it to work.
  • joetesta's avatar
    joetesta
    Roku Guru
    14 years ago
    Wow apologies for the extremely late reply, I've been on another project for months and just came back to look at roku again this week.

    Well here goes, I hope you've figured it out by now but maybe this will help someone else!

    in appDetailSceen.brs Replace:
    Function preShowDetailScreen(breadA=invalid, breadB=invalid) As Object
        port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
        screen = CreateObject("roSpringboardScreen")
        screen.SetDescriptionStyle("video") 
        screen.SetMessagePort(port)
        if breadA<>invalid and breadB<>invalid then
            screen.SetBreadcrumbText(breadA, breadB)
        end if

    with
    Function preShowDetailScreen(breadA=invalid) As Object
        port=CreateObject("roMessagePort")
        screen = CreateObject("roSpringboardScreen")
        screen.SetDescriptionStyle("video") 
        screen.SetMessagePort(port)


    in appPosterScreen.brs change
        screen = preShowDetailScreen(category.Title, category.kids[m.curCategory].Title)
        showIndex = showDetailScreen(screen, shows, showIndex)

    to 
        'screen = preShowDetailScreen(category.Title, category.kids[m.curCategory].Title)
        screen = preShowDetailScreen(category.Title)
        showIndex = showDetailScreen(screen, shows, showIndex)


    and also in appPosterScreen.brs change this
        categoryList = CreateObject("roArray", 100, true)
        for each subCategory in topCategory.Kids
            categoryList.Push(subcategory.Title)
        next
        return categoryList

    to this
        categoryList = CreateObject("roArray", 100, true)
        categoryList = topCategory

        return categoryList


    and also in appPosterScreen.brs change this
        conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category.kids[item])

    to this
        conn = InitShowFeedConnection(category)


    and in CategoryFeed.brs
            o.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img

    to this
            o.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img
            o.Feed = xml@feed


    and also in CategoryFeed.brs change this
               kid.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img
                o.AddKid(kid)

    to
                kid.HDPosterURL = xml@hd_img
                kid.Feed = e@feed
                o.AddKid(kid)


    I *think* that's it, I apologize if anything is extraneous or incorrect, it's been a while!!
  • koshermetal's avatar
    koshermetal
    Visitor
    14 years ago
    I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, I'm sort of a noob but I'd like to think I have a brain 🙂

    I'm using the videoplayer example files and seem to have it all figured out...except for the xml aspect (from what I gather). I am able to install the channel, but nothing happens when selected. My custom image shows fine though, since I edited the manifest file to point to my custom images, etc.

    When debugging I get the following (amongst other stuff, I can post the entire thing if needed):
    Syntax Error. (runtime error &h02) in .../pkg:/source/categoryFeed.brs(38)

    along with
    created feed connection for pkg:/xml/categories.xml
    url: pkg:/xml/categories.xml
    Took: 856ms
    Can't parse feed


    In the categoryfeed.brs file I have:
    conn.UrlPrefix   = "pkg:/xml"
        conn.UrlCategoryFeed = conn.UrlPrefix + "/categories.xml"


    My categories.xml file looks like this, there is only one "categoryleaf" currently but I plan to add more and re-package the channel as I update: (I replaced my actual tltle with "TITLE" & description with "DESC" for this post and didn't put the entire URL of the images, etc. - just wanted to show the structure):
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
    <categories>
    <banner_ad
    sd_img="http://dl.dropbox.com...." hd_img="http://dl.dropbox.com......"/>
    <category title="Videos" description="DESC"
    sd_img="http://dl.dropbox.com..."
    hd_img="http://dl.dropbox.com....">
    <categoryLeaf title="TITLE" description="DESC" feed="pkg:/xml/5lcl.xml"/>
    </category>
    </categories>



    Is there something I'm missing? BTW...I'm using the SDK v29 that was provided on the dev site. Windows 7 w/ PuTTY as my telnet terminal. I have a Roku 2 XD Software v4.1

    Thanks in advance for your help guys!