Hi,
Thank you very much for welcoming me here. My apologies but this is a newbie question and really need expert’s help.
I created a channel and added all necessary info and images. Categories were selected on the Roku Developer option.
Everything is checked on the Feed Status and no errors when checking the Feed. We also used all possible validators online and json is valid.
My issue is on Roku device, it shows the splash page, then it seems to load (progress circle), then that disappears, and nothing else, it stays blank.
Feed URL:
https://account.drtestimonial.com/channel/15.json
Thumbnails/Videos do not load, it stays blank. Although Roku Developer accepted the feed without error and it published it.
Kindly asking for expert’s advice if there is something missing on our feed, or an error, or anything.
Also, is it okay to use AWS S3 for video hosting and use the Youtube image like I did on the feed?
Any opinion, suggestion, correction, anything… is highly highly appreciated!!!
Thanks,
Paul
I validated your feed file using my software and it does appear to be valid. However, I did notice that you do not define any categories in the feed file. Hopefully, you’ve defined then through the developer portal using the tags you specified in the feed file. Your videos and thumbnails are both accessible so, there’s no problem with Amazon S3. However, you should consider using Amazon’s CloudFront caching service for streaming your content.
Some things to try:
-
I know that you cannot stream directly from YouTube. Have you tried using a thumbnail image that’s stored on AWS?
-
Check that your categories on the Developer Portal reference the tags you specified in the feed file.
Hi Baradanikto,
Thank you very much for the reply, it is highly appreciated.
- I can try to upload the images on AWS and see if that will help, although I used to do that same Youtube image url and it seems to work before, but I will try your suggestion.
- I did specify the category/ies on the Roku Developer section together with the Tags specified on the feed, I might try to specify Category/ies via feed and see if this will fix it.
Not really sure why it is not showing anything on my device. I had to scan the feed and compare with the other ones that are working and they seem be in accordance (except inclusion of Category which I define via Roku Developer Admin).
I will try both suggestion and will update post if anything happens.
Other suggestions/opinion/comments are welcome.
Thank you very much.
Paul
My guess is Youtube doesn’t work for the images. Reason being it also doesn’t work for video hosting, due to a URL shortening format. I read that the videos URL (example: www.youtube.com/video/1b4hts879x024 is generally a shortened or redirect to the true URL path, which is more along the lines of youtube.com/path/videos/user198376/video=19273464828992 or something like that. Essentially, much, much longer.
Wouldn’t surprise me if the same thing happens as a result with images. I think there’s server side scripting redirecting it to its native URL path, but the redirect doesn’t work via Roku. Something like that. I would try another image host or hosting them at AWS
Hi Guys,
Thanks 37mediagroup, I did what you suggested.
I did both suggestions:
- I added category on feed and updated Roku Developer Admin
- I uploaded the images to AWS
Nothing happened, still blank, I had a test link to see if the updates above worked, but to no avail.
Please see my json if the file is valid or I still need to do some more adjustments.
Feed URL:
https://account.drtestimonial.com/channel/15.json
thank you so much.
Did you manually add the “tags” into each category in the Roku Dashboard?
For instance: Category “Health” Tags: “Sleep Apnea” “Whitening” “Invisible Braces”
Hi 37mediagroup,
I tried both:
- Fetch Category from json/feed, then Action below
- Manually add “Health” then added the tags, then Action below
Action:
Used the temp url Roku Developer provides, still blank
Deleted the channel on my Roku device, then added again, still blank, no errors, just stays blank after the rotating status circle…
I will try on another hosting (dedicated server with true url/path)… not sure if AWS is causing this issue… will update you guys if this action will at least do something
Thank you very much for helping me out… I am at my wit’s end… totally baffled…
Hi,
Just a small experiment I have done.
First
I uploaded all files video and images to a dedicated server,
https://account.drtestimonial.com/channel/15.json
Created a new test channel, added the test add code, does not work
Second
I created a new channel and copied everything from a working channel… again, error says like “something went wrong and try again later”
I am starting to believe there is some issue with my developer account?
Thanks again
I’ll take a look at your updated feed file. In the meantime, check the permissions you have set on your server. Make sure you’ve provided public access.
I took a quick peek at your feed file. You’ve defined one category, however, your query is incorrect. The query needs to be one or more tags from your video items.
Hi,
I corrected the category tags and added the Tag same name as the category, I saw this one on other feeds, however, still nothing.
I really do not know what is happening. What really baffles me is that it works before and suddenly, any channel I create get stuck on blank page.
Would anybody reading this forum has a sample similar to what I have? I only need a simple sample of json that looks/similar like mine so I can compare or copy.
Thank you Baradanikto and to all who is helping.
Have you tried the channel on another Roku device?
Have you made sure the server permissions are correct?
STOP TRYING. This is a bug at Roku, and it’s been going on for two weeks. You will waste tons of time trying to figure out what you are doing wrong, meanwhile Roku will not tell you about it until you go through partner success.
I have emailed them a couple of times about a resolution, but no answer has been received. I can’t even imagine how many man-hours have been wasted with developers trying to correct this. At least, they could post it up on the direct publisher preview page, letting developers know about their problem. As far as I can tell, you can go ahead and publish the channel, and it will hit the channel store. Then you can make necessary edits. I’m not telling anyone to do this, but I think it works, if you are fairly sure what your end product will look like.
Good luck.
Mike
Here is the reply:
[table][tr][td]Amanda (Roku Partner Success)
May 8, 9:48 AM PDT
Hi Michael,
Thank you for reaching out to Partner Success. After looking into this issue, it appears that it may be due to a bug on our end that is affecting all Unpublished versions of Direct Publisher channels. I have created a bug ticket, escalated the issue, and hope to have the issue fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for reporting the issue and look out for the fix soon. I will let you know if our engineering team has any questions for you or steps for you to take.
Thank you,
Amanda[/size][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
Not sure that’s accurate. I have an unpublished channel that I use to test my published channel and it works fine. There must be more factors involved than it being simply an unpublished channel. Maybe it has something to do with the date a channel was submitted.
“Baradanikto” wrote:
Have you tried the channel on another Roku device?
Have you made sure the server permissions are correct?
Hi,
Yes I tried both, we used a separate Roku device and permissions on the server are correct.
I also tend to believe I have the same issue as Bigmike333
I just received an email from Amanda (Roku Support) that the channel videos shows up on their end but not on my devices.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for making these updates. My device is now showing three pieces of content in the channel. Please check your device again to see if you see the same or if you are still only seeing a blank channel. It may be that your device had not yet updated since you made these changes. Let me know if you continue to see a blank channel and we will continue to troubleshoot.
Thank you,
Amanda
If you read my post (#8) that I mentioned I used a working json feed and simply created a new unpublished channel, the same error, blank or message saying something went wrong. This is totally from a working published Channel and still gives me error.
As Baradanikto also mentioned, there must be something else, I just do not know where/what.
Thank you so much guys, everything you are sharing are very much appreciated, at least points me to a direction… not brick walled 
I have also had a working, unpublished channel for more than a year. When I got this load error on a new channel I was working on, I decided to try the json file in my known, good, unpublished channel. Well, it broke the existing channel, and even if I reload the original json file before the test, I now get the loading error crash. Now, two unpublished Roku channels even using previously verified and working json files, are crippled. Maybe they will get it fixed this week.
Mike
Hi Mike,
I just received this email from Roku support (copied and pasted as it is)… it is technically supporting your statement… it is a bug:
Hi Paul,
The new issue you are reporting is due to a bug that is affecting all Unpublished versions of channels. There is a team working to fix this issue. Look for the fix to come out soon and for the error to go away! Pleast note that may take a few more days for this issue to be fixed as they are still assessing the cause.
So it seems we have been trying to fix something that was not even broken in the first place… but it was a nice education for me… everyone did lend a hand and added to my technical know-how.
Thanks to all that contributed. Sincerely appreciated.
Paul
“Baradanikto” wrote:
Not sure that’s accurate. I have an unpublished channel that I use to test my published channel and it works fine. There must be more factors involved than it being simply an unpublished channel. Maybe it has something to do with the date a channel was submitted.
I received this same email 6 days ago, the unpublished channels that I have are working normally, but I can’t test any new unpublished channels
Hi Luiz,
Thank you for reaching out to Partner Success. After looking into this issue, it appears that it may be due to a bug on our end that is affecting all Unpublished versions of Direct Publisher channels. I have created a bug ticket and hope to have the issue fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for reporting the issue and look out for the fix soon. I will let you know if our engineering team has any questions for you or steps for you to take.
Thank you,
Amanda
I’ll add to the choir:
I have the same issue. Everything on the Roku “Manage Channel” is good, and feed checks out. Preview function shows the thumbnail and accompanying metadata.
I even swapped out the parameters from a published channel and the same error occurred.
It appears the issue is not something that can be fixed at the user “developer” level, so I’m hopeful Roku will squash the bug.
Well, looks like another two weeks has come and gone with no ability to test unpublished channels. Also, Roku is tinkering with adding things to your published channels you may not appreciate. Such as a huge search icon that allows your viewers to search within your channel, even if you have only one icon the viewer can click on, as most of my channels are set up this way to connect to live streams. Now there’s two icons, one of which is useless, and it throws off the balance and look of my background images. By the way, you can’t make it go away. Please let them know if this bothers you, as it is best to nip this in the bud before they populate this to all Direct Publisher channels. How about we fix this preview problem first, instead of adding excess junk to developer’s channels?
