JavaScript/HTML development with Marmalade SDK

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1

Hello,

Could we develop HTML5/JavaScript application for Roku with use of the Marmalade SDK instead of using the BrightScript?

Thanks a lot
STeN

2

You probably won’t get much feedback on this as I haven’t run into a developer on these forums that is developing in marmalade (including me).

But I can make a few comments regardless of my not knowing marmalade. If marmalade allows you to create it (I.e. they have support for video playback and such within their apps) then there’s no reason you can’t develop a video channel with marmalade. There is however reasons you shouldn’t. The channels developed with marmalade can only be installed on a select number of Roku devices (not sure which ones off the top of my head) . meaning you just cut off a big chunk of your audience. Use a Roku 1 and look at the available games, it’s only about half of what is available on the Roku 3. Plus on top of that there’s the obvious fact that Marmalade has a membership fee, incurring unnecessary cost.

Just my thoughts on the subject. Again I’ve never used marmalade.

3

Hello,

Thanks for the answer, I really appreciate that.

We would like to target Roku 2 and Roku 3 and Marmalade supports Roku 3, Roku 2 (HD, XD and XS) and the Roku Streaming Stick, so from that perspective the Marmalade does not limit us.
The reason we would prefer the JavaScript is that we have the application already ready and it will be simpler for us to port it comparing with rewriting it in Brightscript.

I think some applications are using it: YouTube or crunchyroll looks like ports since those do not use Brightscript Roku SDK templates

Regards,
STeN

4

Ok. I’m not sure what marmalade is or isn’t capable of. But if it does what your saying, then it seems like the way to go.

Just FYI though, YouTube doesn’t use marmalade. Larger companies (Netflix, YouTube) are granted special access to the NDK.

See Joel’s comment at the end of this thread. viewtopic.php?p=477708

5

Crunchyroll also uses standard Brightscript APIs (roScreen based I believe).

–Mark

6

“stenlik” wrote:
We would like to target Roku 2 and Roku 3 and Marmalade supports Roku 3, Roku 2 (HD, XD and XS) and the Roku Streaming Stick, so from that perspective the Marmalade does not limit us.
Just to clarify, the Roku 2’s listed in that list are the previous generation Roku 2s, not the current generation.

7

“RokuMarkn” wrote:
Crunchyroll also uses standard Brightscript APIs (roScreen based I believe).

–Mark

Thanks - that seem to be a lot of work using roScreen for the whole app!

8

“Romans_I_XVI” wrote:
Ok. I’m not sure what marmalade is or isn’t capable of. But if it does what your saying, then it seems like the way to go.

Just FYI though, YouTube doesn’t use marmalade. Larger companies (Netflix, YouTube) are granted special access to the NDK.

See Joel’s comment at the end of this thread. viewtopic.php?p=477708

Thanks all of you for sharing your thoughts. I believe that the Netflix or YouTube are granted NDK and Marmalade was granted NDK as well and while Netflix/YouTube created app, Marmalade created the SDK. Unfortunately after a debate with Marmalade support it came out that for Roku they support only C++ development:
http://docs.madewithmarmalade.com/displ … tplatforms

9

“stenlik” wrote:
Unfortunately after a debate with Marmalade support it came out that for Roku they support only C++ development: http://docs.madewithmarmalade.com/displ … tplatforms
The “Marmalade Web” framework you (and i) were interested in is not available for Roku. Wait, let me broaden that - Marma-Web is available only for iOS, Android, and nothing else. “Marmalade Juice” is even narrower, it’s only for porting Objective C apps iOS → Android.

There is one more significant limitation of Marmalade i notice: it does not support online video/audio streaming. It can play content from disk or memory, just not play content “on the fly”, while downloading. So anyone imagining using Marmalade for a fancier/animated user interface for a media streaming service may as well un-imagine it. Marmalade seems very narrowly focused on gaming and not much else (just like Roku almost exclusively focuses on media streaming)