rokudev/samples

This sample demonstrates a simple Style3 implementation using BrightScript and Roku Scenegraph (RSG) to create a Roku channel. It serves as a foundational example for developers learning to build channels using the Home Screen SDK 2.0.

Key concepts covered in this sample include:

• Channel manifest: Configuration for the Roku channel.
• Scenegraph nodes: UI elements defined via XML.
• APIs and XML: The interface between BrightScript logic and Scenegraph markup.
• Scenes: The primary container for the user interface.
• Renderable nodes: The fundamental building blocks of the UI.

Scene Graph Developer Extensions (SGDEX) is a collection of reusable Roku Scene Graph (RSG) components designed for rapid channel development. It provides high-level abstractions to maintain a consistent UX paradigm without building from low-level components.

Key abstractions include:

• Views: Full-screen components that replace the need to build screens from scratch using low-level RSG components.
• Content Manager: A robust system for connecting views to content sources (like feeds or APIs). It manages RSG Task Nodes automatically to ensure high performance across Roku devices.
• Component Controller: A management layer for handling the screen stack and navigating between different views.
• Monetization Components: Specialized components for integrating the Roku Ad Framework (RAF) and Roku Billing for subscriptions and entitlements.

This repository contains four samples demonstrating different methods for generating and incorporating thumbnails for trick play on Roku devices. The implementations vary based on three primary factors:

1. Thumbnail Format:

   • BIF (Recommended): Used with the firmware's built-in video player. Requires creating BIF files via biftool, hosting them on a server, and providing URLs via sdbifurl and hdbifurl in a ContentNode passed to a Video node.
   • JPEG: Used with custom video players that implement custom trick play logic, progress bars, and buffering status.

2. Video Player Type:

   • Native: Used for BIF implementations.
   • Custom: Used for JPEG implementations.

3. Ad Integration:

   • Samples may or may not include server-side ads (SSAIs) within the trick play thumbnails.

This sample demonstrates how to generate thumbnails and the corresponding thumbnails playlist for HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) to support trickplay functionality.

Note: Do not use this sample as a test stream. To test HLS trickplay thumbnails, use the following hosted stream: https://image.roku.com/ZHZscHItc2Ft/roku/trickplay/master.m3u8

This sample implements a 'Style 3' channel based on the Khan Academy API. It demonstrates a fully functional channel architecture centered around a grid screen with a dedicated description section for the currently focused item.

The channel is composed of independent screen nodes that can be used separately or in any order, providing the following core functionalities:

1. Grid Screen: Handles content loading, rendering, and item selection. To use this, you must populate the gridContent property of the scene prior to loading the grid panel. Content loading is performed via the GetApiArray function.
2. Video Player: A component capable of handling fullscreen animations.
3. Fading Poster Node: Provides smooth background image transitions that change according to the currently focused item.

The SceneGraphTutorial is a sample application designed to demonstrate typical Roku SceneGraph application structures, node classes, and design principles. It serves as a reference for developers to quickly identify and select appropriate node classes and design patterns for their own Roku applications.

Application Structure

The application uses a sliding panel set architecture with three primary 'screens':

1. Category Selection: A set of two medium-sized panels consisting of a categorieslistpanel (a ListPanel) and a categoryinfopanel (a Panel).
2. Example Grid: A full-size examplesgridpanel (a GridPanel) that slides into view when the user presses OK or Right from the category selection screen.
3. Example Screen: A dedicated screen that replaces the grid panel when a specific example is selected via the OK key.