InputDirectoryObject and Roku

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
1

Just as an FYI, to any one using the InputDirectoryObject, they updated the code, so with the Roku Plex Text channel (v2.6.5 or later) Roku users can access the data input screen instead of it always defaulting to the search screen when the InputDirectoryObject is used.

 

The changes make the Roku decide whether to show the user the data input or search screen based on the wording of the InputDirectoryObject. Through some discussion with Schuyler and trial and error, I figured out how you have to set up an InputDirectoryObject for it to show up properly on Roku.

 

You have to put the word "Search" at the beginning of the string you use for the "prompt =", or the InputDirectoryObject will show a Roku user the data input screen.

 

So if you want the InputDirectoryObject to show Roku users a Search screen, make sure Search is the first word in your prompt string, like this:

oc.add(InputDirectoryObject(key=Callback(FunctionName, var='variable'), title=title, 
  summary="Click here to search for stuff", prompt="Search for stuff"))

 

And if you want the InputDirectoryObject to show Roku users a data input screen, use anything else at the beginning of the prompt like this:

oc.add(InputDirectoryObject(key=Callback(FunctionName, var='variable'), title=title, 
  summary="Click here to enter stuff", prompt="Enter stuff"))
2

I have done some playing around with searches lately and so I thought I would share what I found on that here as well. I did some testing and used YouTube and Yahoo's searches since Google and Yahoo are going to give you the most results.

I have found that with the Roku and Plex, the Search Suggestions that are returned by the Roku when you enter letters into the search screen are suggestions that contain that string you enter as a complete word, not suggestion that just start with or contain the string you have entered.

For example, you will not get any search suggestions if you just enter one letter like "L" and if you entered the letters "le" when looking for movies, the top search suggestions returned by the Roku would be French movies that contain or start with the word Le like "Le Divorce" or "Pierrot le Fou." If you wanted to get search suggestions for movies that started with or contained the word Let like "Let It Be" or "Live and Let Die," you would have to enter the entire word "let" to see those results.

And of course, it is best to use the (String.Quote(query, usePlus = True) code (http://dev.plexapp.c...te#String.Quote)  to to convert characters to %XX escape sequences, based on how the site includes the query in the URL for the search.