I am wanting to see if there may be other channel designers who want or need the user entry option working in Roku, so we have enough need and interest to bug the Plex-dev Roku guys to work on it.
I am trying to create a channel that would allow the user to enter the urls of their favorite web series or webisodes and the app would use those url addresses to create a list of shows and populate the videos for each of those shows. The channel allows entry of shows from RSS feeds (as long as there is a Plex URL service), Vimeo, BlipTV, YouTube playlist or user uploads, as well as Yahoo and Hulu originals. I was trying to add the user entry option, when I realized the channel will not work with Roku, because the UserInputObject only produces a search page in Roku, so Roku users cannot enter a url. Since I am a Roku user, this is critical to my design.
I was asking about the user entry screen not working in Roku and only bringing up the search screen in another post and Mikedm139 made the comment below:
In regards to the Roku data entry, it is my understanding that the "Search" screen is the only data entry option available to channels on the Roku client. If you know of any other Roku apps that offer a different data entry option, we may be able to pester the Plex-dev in charge of the Roku client to add another Data entry option. Otherwise, we kind of have to make do with what we have.
And here was my argument for adding Roku user entry:
There is the option of user entry in Roku already and it works with Plex. The user entry screen works on Roku with channels for the PrefsObject. (I know in the past you had to have PMC just to enter preferences like username and password in Roku because those screens brought up the search page instead. But now they work properly.) So if they have already figured out how to get the Roku to bring up the user entry screen in Plex for PrefsObject, which can have a variety of options for input, it would seem they have already figured out the biggest glitch for user entry in the Roku. So in theory, they should be able to use whatever method they used to alter the PrefsObject and make it work as user entry to make the UserInputObject work for user entry.
As for user entry in channels, of course there aren't any channels using user entry right now. Why would anyone want to add user entry to their channel, if it doesn't work on half of the clients? There are probably at least a few that would like to have user entry if they knew it would work with PMC and Roku.
So if anyone else would like to see user entry work in Roku, so they could use it in their apps, please respond so we have enough people to bug the Plex-dev in charge of the Roku client to add a data entry option that would allow for user entry on Roku.
The object gets serialized to XML to be processed by clients by setting search="1". When the Roku sees a search element, it shows the user the search screen. I think that's reasonable. In other areas, like preferences, channels are able to ask for text input, and in that case the Roku shows the full keyboard screen. So, I'm not of the opinion that the Roku is doing anything wrong.
That said, I don't know if the problem here is that the framework isn't allowing channels to ask for input in a way that's needed. And if that's the case, I don't know if the answer is to get something added to the framework, or if there's some reasonable way for the Roku to decide when to use a search screen and when to use a keyboard screen. I'm not opposed to making a change in the Roku client if there's a reasonable way to do it.
Please do not misinterpret my post. I am in no way saying that Roku is doing anything wrong. I get that they are having to adapt Roku to work with Plex and as a Roku user I am grateful that it works as well as it does with Plex. I have often said that even though people may complain about the interface, Roku works great with PMS and is the best alternative to PMC and much cheaper. That is why I use it.
I was just saying that when I first started using Roku, we could not even input user information with PrefsObjects. The search screen was the only input option available to Roku users. And I was hoping that the fact that user entry through PrefsObject is now possible with Roku, it is an indication that it may be more of a possibility that the interface will now allow the addition of a new user entry object that will work with Roku and Plex.
And I do not in any way claim to understand how the Plex Dev guys make Roku work with Plex, so if they could find an easier way to make user input work in Roku than adding a new type of user entry to the Framework, that would be even better. Based on your response and explanation, if sounds as if the addition of some type of search value could be an option. That would be wonderful if they could find a solution like that.
I just know that we would need to show that enough people would use it and implement it to even make it worth their effort of looking into the possibility of offering user entry in Roku. That is all I was hoping for here is others who would like to see user entry available so they could use it in their channel design.
And since many Plex users such as myself access PMS through Roku, I feel that not having user input in Roku, has limited channel development. You do not want to create a channel that requires user entry, if half of your possible users do not have access to that option.
And I would love to see some of the channels that might be created if all or at least the largest majority of users (PMC and Roku users) had the ability to input data.
Schuyler, I wanted to ask you this based on your answer. I preface this by saying I understand very little of what is done to make Roku work with Plex. And I understand that it is not easy to make the two programs compatible. And I know that the code cannot be changed in a way that would mess up the programming of existing channels.
But I started thinking about what you said above about the search setting of search="1" and was wondering.
Could the Plex Dev guys just add an additional argument to the InputDirectoryObject that would allow channel developers to add search="0" argument if you wanted to have it access the user input screen in Roku vs the search screen? And have it so that the default would be set to search="1", so if you didn't enter the extra argument it would continued as usual and keep the setting as search="1"?
Is that even a possibility? And if so, would it be a big project or small tweak? I know most likely it would at least be something in between since there is no small tweaks if you run into issues.
