Bugs in Roku SDK Documentation

Archived
1

PS. decided just to rename this topic from “Mislabeled PDFs in SDK” to “bugs in documentation”, so we can throw there discrepancies noticed instead of opening new threads silly.

Noticed today some of the RokuSDK/documents/*.PDF have wrong titles as Adobe Reader is concerned.

When using “Search” to get all files containing term, I noticed same document names showed more than once in the result pane. Which is weird because hits are grouped together by PDF file. I saw that before but chalked it to be Adobe bug; today i investigated. To reproduce, select Search “All PDF documents in … folder” and ask it to seach “Roku”. Observe there are repeating document names, for example 3 “Roku Digital Video Player Getting Started”

It’s a case of confused identity where the PDF has wrong Title/Subject inside (try File / Properties in Adobe to see that). No doubt happened because one document was copied and edited to make another doc but the metadata was not changed. Here is list of the offenders:

  • DeveloperGuide.pdf - thinks it is “Roku Digital Video Player Getting Started”

  • DesignGuidelines.pdf - “Roku Digital Video Player Getting Started”

  • EncodingGuide.pdf - “Roku Digital Video Player Getting Started”

  • ExternalControlGuide.pdf - “The BIF Archive Format Specification”

  • Roku Channel Developer Agreement and Program Requirements.pdf - “Roku® Digital Video Player”

  • ChannelPackagingAndPublishing.pdf - “Roku Digital Player Component Reference”

Roku*, please fix.

PS. Moot, since around 2013-05 there are no documentation PDFs, only confluence wiki

2

BS Reference manual, 10.11 claims that ifFunction.GetSub() returns String.

I spotted discrepancy between the types in GetSub and SetSub and tried to see. It does not - it returns “Function” (bsTypedValue).

3

BSRef 6.6 says Eval() returns integer, “the same error codes are returned by GetLastRunTuntimeError()”.

Except if there is problem parsing the snippet, then it seems to return GetLastRunCompileError() as roList of roAssociativeArrays. So the return type is “dynamic” at best

4

BSCompRef 3.0 mentions among core components one class “roBrSub” which is not explained anywhere nor is creatable by createobject().
wassat?!

5

“EnTerr” wrote:
BSCompRef 3.0 mentions among core components one class “roBrSub” which is not explained anywhere nor is creatable by createobject().
wassat?!Confirmed, no mention in anywhere else in the pdfs or examples.

6

“gonzotek” wrote:

“EnTerr” wrote:
CompRef 3.0 mentions among core components one class “roBrSub” which is not explained anywhere nor is creatable by createobject().
wassat?!Confirmed, no mention in anywhere else in the pdfs or examples.
maybe someone meant roFunction? roFunction is mentioned three times in BSRef and we know that “sub xxx” is shortcut for “function xxx as void”

BrightScript Debugger> ? box(function(): end function)
<Component: roFunction>
7

CompRef under “2.4 Event Loops”, “Since Firmware version 2.6” mentions

Boolean isStorageDeviceInserted(Void)

but there is no such animal. CompRef 5.7, “roFileSystemEvent” describes instead

isStorageDeviceAdded()
  • which exists.
8

BSRef> 7.8 WriteAsciiFile(filepath As String, buffer As String) As Boolean

This function reads the specified file and returns it as a string.i’d venture guessing this writes instead but does it return something?

9

Component Reference 4.1, section 4.2

SpringboardDirectorLabel — Does not work
SpringboardDirectorText — This seems to be the correct attribute name

10

“ghartwig” wrote:
Component Reference 4.1, section 4.2

SpringboardDirectorLabel — Does not work
SpringboardDirectorText — This seems to be the correct attribute name

You’re absolutely correct! How ridiculous is it that the documentation hasn’t been updated after you reported back in 2012!!!

Really sad how much of an after thought the programming side is for Roku. I don’t expect iOS like documentation and features, but really.. can’t afford someone to stay on-top of documentation and bug fixes?

Sad.

11

Are the PDF’s mentioned in Enterr’s original post> RokuSDK/documents/*.PDFstill available somewhere for download so we have something to access when with the proxy server errors start acting up?

12

Thanks for the feedback. Bug reports are always appreciated. :slightly_smiling_face:

The roAppManager documentation has been updated to list “SpringboardDirectorText” as the key for overriding the “director” label on roSpringboardScreen, as opposed to the obsolete/non-functional key “SpringboardDirectorLabel”.

I think the other documentation issues listed on this page have also been at least nominally addressed, most in the past, but please continue to point out issues.

13

“RokuKC” wrote:
Thanks for the feedback. Bug reports are always appreciated. :slightly_smiling_face:
…
I think the other documentation issues listed on this page have also been at least nominally addressed, most in the past, but please continue to point out issues.

[upload|Dy9Gn85wQIbUFAelKG8ehg==]
I checked and all items in current thread have been fixed! I marked fix in the [subject]. Took on average 2 years to address after report, which is not great timing but strangely i feel some satisfaction that some progress is being made.

Re other documentation issues, see this thread viewtopic.php?f=34&t=69731

14

“sjb64” wrote:
Are the PDF’s mentioned in Enterr’s original post still available somewhere for download so we have something to access when with the proxy server errors start acting up?
No, such PDFs have not been published since 2013, when RokuCo switched to a “living document” model, which i think is for the better because documentation can be updated almost in real time (if there is a person to do it) instead of waiting for new SDK release.

It is a good question though, considering the documentation server sometimes kicks the bucket.
Luckily the Confluence wiki they use allows to export a snapshot of the documentation to a PDF!

15

Never noticed that option, will defiantly take a look it at, just a nice backup doc to have.

Thanks