AppleTV RSS Plugin Beta 1

[centic]

I've created another AppleTV plugin, this time its an RSS reader.. check it out here:

http://blog.twenty08.com/2007/04/07/applet...ta-1-available/ (http://blog.twenty08.com/2007/04/07/appletv-rss-plugin-beta-1-available/)

[LiquidIce]

This is great work! Care to share how your pulling the web data into the BRAppliance framework?

I would really like to see support for video podcast rss feeds in a future version of this. Something that can just stream video urls right off the rss feed.

The plugin community needs a good solid frappliance example that can pull in external data, then lots of fun content plugins like this can be created. For someone who does not know xcode, it's a bit hard to get started with frappliance development at the moment.

Thanks again, I'll be testing this out today.

-LiquidIce
http://appletvhacks.blogspot.com

[Raven]

Excellent work on the RSS plugin!

Currently it only shows up when the source is set to appleTV.
Would it be possible for the RSS plugin to show up no matter what source is selected?
The ATVFiles does this.

Thanks again for a great plugin!

[LiquidIce]

I'm reading up more on RSS and video podcasting...

It sounds like the best way to get video feeds into ATV is to use the existing itunes RSS format. Video Podcast Feeds come with an extra tag in each item called 'enclosure url'. Can you add the ability check for an enclosure url and attempt to play the attached video clip?

More info on itunes feeds:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/syndication-dev/2005/Nov/msg00002.html#_Toc526939999

[centic]

Raven: I'm not really sure I follow, I don't actually own an AppleTV so I think that might be the issue.

As for how I'm pulling data from the web.. Originally I wanted to use CURLHandler which I've used in other cocoa apps, however, it seems everytime I add a framework to the project other than the 4 frameworks that BackRow is expecting to be there, it completely ignores my plugin. So using some native Cocoa methods, I created this method which you're all free to use:

- (NSString*) urlGetContents: (NSString*) httpPath {
NSURL* url;
NSURLHandle* urlHandle;
NSData* data;

url = [NSURL URLWithString:httpPath];
urlHandle = [url URLHandleUsingCache: NO];
data = [urlHandle resourceData];

if ([urlHandle status] == NSURLHandleLoadFailed) {
return nil;
}

if (data == nil) {
return nil;
}

return [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}

To call it just do something like this:

NSString* results =[self urlGetContents:@"http://www.google.com"];

If it can get the page, it'll return it as an NSString.. if theres an error it returns as nil

[centic]

As for adding video rss stuff, I'm pretty confident I can add this without too much of an issue.. I'll look into it a bit and see

[iMags]

That would have been great with video rss!
You are the man!

[Raven]

Raven: I'm not really sure I follow, I don't actually own an AppleTV so I think that might be the issue.

The Apple TV can connect to different sources. When first booted up it defaults to the source appletv which shows data that has been synced from iTunes and is stored locally on the machine. You can also select a different computer as source which will make the appleTV stream from that computer. When the source appletv is selected the RSS option is visible in the main menu. When another source is selected however, the RSS option is not visible and therefor not accessible. The Photos appliance from Apple behaves the same way, since photos can not currently be streamed, only synced. The ATVFiles plugin however is somehow set to always appear in the main menu no matter what source is selected. I think it might have something to do with the whitelist of allowed plugins, but I'm not sure.

I have a ton of movies in my iTunes library that would not fit on the appleTV harddrive. I therefor stream everything and rarely use the appletv source except for photos. I really like your RSS plugin, but having to switch source to bring it up is a shame.

If you want me to do some testing for you just let me know.
Keep up the good work!

[centic]

The Apple TV can connect to different sources. When first booted up it defaults to the source appletv which shows data that has been synced from iTunes and is stored locally on the machine. You can also select a different computer as source which will make the appleTV stream from that computer. When the source appletv is selected the RSS option is visible in the main menu. When another source is selected however, the RSS option is not visible and therefor not accessible. The Photos appliance from Apple behaves the same way, since photos can not currently be streamed, only synced. The ATVFiles plugin however is somehow set to always appear in the main menu no matter what source is selected. I think it might have something to do with the whitelist of allowed plugins, but I'm not sure.

I have a ton of movies in my iTunes library that would not fit on the appleTV harddrive. I therefor stream everything and rarely use the appletv source except for photos. I really like your RSS plugin, but having to switch source to bring it up is a shame.

If you want me to do some testing for you just let me know.
Keep up the good work!

Heh, I apologize about that. Being that I have AppleTV on my MacBook I just use ATVFiles with symlinks to my music/media directories so I never even thought to check the sources menu.

I've updated to build to have it show up on other sources as well, but I'm not forcing the update as I don't think its that big of a deal to everyone and I plan on releasing a new version within the next two or three days where I will be forcing the upgrade.

With all of that said, you can download the new build here:
http://tangerine.quickshareit.com/share/rssappletvpluginbytwenty08f32b1.zip (http://blog.twenty08.com/mint/pepper/orderedlist/downloads/download.php?file=http%3A//tangerine.quickshareit.com/share/rssappletvpluginbytwenty08f32b1.zip)

[Raven]

Heh, I apologize about that. Being that I have AppleTV on my MacBook I just use ATVFiles with symlinks to my music/media directories so I never even thought to check the sources menu.

I've updated to build to have it show up on other sources as well, but I'm not forcing the update as I don't think its that big of a deal to everyone and I plan on releasing a new version within the next two or three days where I will be forcing the upgrade.

With all of that said, you can download the new build here:
http://tangerine.quickshareit.com/share/rssappletvpluginbytwenty08f32b1.zip (http://blog.twenty08.com/mint/pepper/orderedlist/downloads/download.php?file=http%3A//tangerine.quickshareit.com/share/rssappletvpluginbytwenty08f32b1.zip)

Thanks alot! This is so great! Works like a charm!
Now I just wish Apple would have chosen to display the photos plugin in all sources. :)

[Raven]

Now I just wish Apple would have chosen to display the photos plugin in all sources. :)

Turns out this can be set in the Info.plist file in the Photos appliance contents folder.
The apple TV is such a great product!

[LiquidIce]

Nice tip Raven!

centic, any luck with video rss?

[LiquidIce]

Perhaps this will help:
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/A_Downloader_Controller

Alan Quatermain has posted an example and instructions on how to use the Backrow API. There is a link at the bottom to an example which uses BRQTKitVideoPlayer to play the downloaded file.

So the idea is the RSS reader pulls the feed, and if there is an enclosure tag, it gives the option to download the referenced file (with progress meter showing download progress). Once downloaded, it plays the file with BRQTKitVideoPlayer.