Json File "Series" sample feed

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1

after manyt weeks of working with roku tech support we got the series feed to injest here is a snipet:

{
    "providerName": "TVByDemand Productions",
    "lastUpdated": "2017-06-12T10:38:28+00:00",
    "language": "en",
    "series": [{
        "id": "1",
        "title": "Bonanza",
        "seasons": [{
            "seasonNumber": 1,
            "episodes": [{
                "id": "2085",
                "title": "S1E12 The Hanging Posse",
                "content": {
                    "dateAdded": "2016-03-03T12:35:13+00:00",
                    "videos": [{
                        "url": "http://www.tvbydemand.com..................shed.ism/manifest",
                        "quality": "SD",
                        "videoType": "SMOOTH"
                    }],
                    "duration": 3623
                },
                "thumbnail": "http://www.tvbydemand.com/images/bonanza.JPG",
                "episodeNumber": 12,
                "releaseDate": "1959-11-09",
                "shortDescription": "S1E12 The Hanging Posse"
            }]
        }],
        "genres": ["comedy"],
        "thumbnail": "http://www.tvbydemand.com/images/bonanza.jpg",
        "releaseDate": "1952-01-01",
        "shortDescription": "Bonanza"
    }]
}

Hope this helps people out..

I was told to add in adbreaks to insert the ad break line after the duration line in each episode.
Also for some reason it is not displaying in the channel properly, they assured me they are working on it.

2

This helped answer a question I’ve had- thanks for sharing!

I do have one question in relation-

When it comes to the json scripting for multiple episodes in a series, how did you input them in so that multiple episodes would be listed under a specific series and season?

So far whenever i try to place more than one episode of a series into the scripting, it will only display the last episode placed in, and ignores the ones that came before it. Was curious if you could share how/if you were able to make it work on your end so that you could list multiple episodes from a series?

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

3

Awesome thanks for posting… Roku’s documentation is pretty good, but nothing beats an actual example.
All of my work so far has been with the short form videos, but I want to start building series into my platform.

Question, related to series: is it REQUIRED that a series contain closed captioned object? Looking at your example I don’t see one. In calling something a “TV Series”, are there any ADA guidelines we need to follow i.e. closed captioning?

4

Closed captioning is not required even though the documentation says it is.

5

Thank you for the json.

I can’t figure how to setup a playlist for a series to be added to a category.

I have playlists working for my other content. I see the series id in the json example is 1. For the id’s for a playlist is it the series id of 1 that gets added?

In all of my other playlists for content, I have the id’s listed for each of my videos. Is a playlist coded differently for a series?

Thank you.

EDITED: Got the series json added and working. The problem was a bad video url. I am now trying to “season 2”. This one has me stumped because at the end of the code my brackets are not coming out right and al of my changes aren’t working. ugh…back to the drawing board.

Does anyone have a json sample for adding multiple seasons?

Thank youl

6

“newchannel” wrote:
Thank you for the json.

I can’t figure how to setup a playlist for a series to be added to a category.

I have playlists working for my other content. I see the series id in the json example is 1. For the id’s for a playlist is it the series id of 1 that gets added?

In all of my other playlists for content, I have the id’s listed for each of my videos. Is a playlist coded differently for a series?

Thank you.

EDITED: Got the series json added and working. The problem was a bad video url. I am now trying to “season 2”. This one has me stumped because at the end of the code my brackets are not coming out right and al of my changes aren’t working. ugh…back to the drawing board.

Does anyone have a json sample for adding multiple seasons?

Thank youl
I tried and tried, I eventually just gave up on the series, it’s way too complicated of a setup to maintain. I instead setup multiple channels using the straight media designation..
I even had a tech support guy from Roku work with me, we got the syntax 100% for the entire Bonanza series, but then we could not get anything to display on the channel..

But if you ever get it working please send up a template..

7

I will share it with you if I ever get it working. I’ve been looking at coming up with other ways to get the content added. Taking way too much time away from getting all of my channels converted over to the DP.. I’ve got a few other problems because the credit object and short description for movies is not working. Another mountain to tackle.

New to json so trying to learn all I can.

Thanks again for sharing your json. it was a huge help.

8

yeah, my json file imported, but then it wouldn’t display any videos in the channel. And tech support just stopped.. It was taking so much time, like you said, I just gave up and made several DP channels using the basic media element to hold all my content.. I have 4 working channels now. Still all in all Roku has the easiest platform to develop for. Eventually I’m going to learn thier language and write a custom channel.. But first I’m working on visual studio 2016 pro.. I need to make an android and kodi application for the website first..

Now I’m also working on installing wordpress on one of my windows servers to try that guys plugin, plus play with some of the other wordpress features that may compliment some of the things I want to do to modernize my website, figure I’d play with that json file plugin as well when I get some free time, if anything comes of it I’ll post the results here..

9

I’m glad you found a work around to get your channels going. I have 10 channels to change over with DP and some are subscription based. I was reading about a wordpress plug-in the other day that looked promising. My website isn’t monetized right now. Maybe I’ll get around to doing that once I get all of my channels converted. I hope you get everything working like you want. DP looks great as long as I can get my json to work. It’s working except for the short description and I was going to add the credits object but I might just skip it to save time right now. The release date is taking my time too..it stopped working and have no idea why. When it said 2015 it worked but changing it to a very old date like 1930..well the release date disappears ..lol back to the drawing board :slightly_smiling_face:

10

Please take a moment to look at the software I have written to create and manage JSON feeds. I wrote it to make creating and managing my channel a lot easier. And, I’ve used it to create several series with episodes with no problems. Several users on this forum have purchased it. There’s really no reason to struggle with the JSON syntax when there are solutions that make it easier to manage.

The software is called JSON Feed Manager. There’s a demo available and a tutorial video.

11

I gotta agree. I use several tools to create my JSON feeds, and the JSON Feed Manager is VERY simple and makes creation VERY simple. The price tag was paid for in my time spent VERY quickly. I highly recommend it.

12

Sounds like a great product to save time.

I’m trying to learn as much as I can about using json. I was able to get series : season : episodes working but only for one season. Adding season 2 was unsuccessful to say the least. Short descriptions aren’t working. And, the release date disappears in my json lol I’d like to learn more but if it gets to timely at least the software program is an option :slightly_smiling_face:

13

Series [{
            ID
            title
            seasons[{
                          season number
                          episodes[{
                                        id
                                        episode number
                                        title
                                        thumbnail
                                        releasedate
                                        shortdescription
                                        content{
                                                     dateadded
                                                     videos[{
                                                                 url
                                                                 quality
                                                                 videotype
                                                                 duration
                                                                  }]  -----close videos
                                                          } ------------colse content
                                                } ---------close 1 episode
                                                { ----------------episode 2 here
                                        id
                                        episode number
                                        title
                                        thumbnail
                                        releasedate
                                        shortdescription
                                        content{
                                                     dateadded
                                                     videos[{
                                                                 url
                                                                 quality
                                                                 videotype
                                                                 duration
                                                                  }]  -----close videos
                                                          } ------------colse content
                                                    }] ----close episodes
                                        } -------close season 1
                                        {season 2 ---------repeat episodes etc etc

I think alot of the problem is the order of the data in the json files.. this order appears to make more logical sense to me. does anyone see where this shouldn ot work?

14

“Baradanikto” wrote:
Please take a moment to look at the software I have written to create and manage JSON feeds. I wrote it to make creating and managing my channel a lot easier. And, I’ve used it to create several series with episodes with no problems. Several users on this forum have purchased it. There’s really no reason to struggle with the JSON syntax when there are solutions that make it easier to manage.

The software is called JSON Feed Manager. There’s a demo available and a tutorial video.
What would be really helpful to the community is if you post a working json example. Not all of us are on pcs and can not use your app even if we wanted to.

15

I’v got some customer support to finish, but, I’ll see what I can craft up.

16

Per request, I used the software I wrote to generate a Series with two seasons.  Each season has one episode.  I’ve removed most of the identifying strings.  This json snippet validated correctly in the Direct Publisher portal and displays on my test channel.

{
      "id": "",
      "title": "",
      "seasons": [
        {
          "seasonNumber": 1,
          "episodes": [
            {
              "id": "",
              "title": "",
              "content": {
                "dateAdded": "2017-08-19T11:43:30+00:00",
                "videos": [
                  {
                    "url": "",
                    "quality": "HD",
                    "videoType": "MP4",
                    "bitrate": 1
                  }
                ],
                "duration": 3570,
                "adBreaks": [
                  "00:00:00",
                  "00:15:00",
                  "00:30:00",
                  "00:45:00"
                ]
              },
              "thumbnail": "",
              "episodeNumber": 1,
              "releaseDate": "2018-04-26",
              "shortDescription": "",
              "longDescription": ""
            }
          ],
          "thumbnail": ""
        },
        {
          "seasonNumber": 2,
          "episodes": [
            {
              "id": "",
              "title": "",
              "content": {
                "dateAdded": "2018-04-28T12:19:48+00:00",
                "videos": [
                  {
                    "url": "",
                    "quality": "HD",
                    "videoType": "MP4",
                    "bitrate": 6214
                  }
                ],
                "duration": 3697,
                "adBreaks": [
                  "00:00:00",
                  "00:15:00",
                  "00:30:00",
                  "00:45:00"
                ]
              },
              "thumbnail": "",
              "episodeNumber": 1,
              "releaseDate": "2018-01-23",
              "shortDescription": "",
              "longDescription": ""
            }
          ],
          "thumbnail": ""
        }
      ],
      "genres": [
        "sports"
      ],
      "thumbnail": "",
      "releaseDate": "2018-04-26",
      "shortDescription": "",
      "longDescription": "",
      "tags": [
        ""
      ]
    }

Hope this helps…

17

Thanks, @Baradanikto . Thanks for your code sample. It was very helpful. Did they ever get back to you regarding when they are working on it? I followed your feed and it was ingested properly, but as you mentioned, it is still not working. My thumbnails just keep spinning and the series freezes.
Bruce

18

Sorry, I accidentally posted the same message twice. Please ignore this.

19

I also have tried to implement the Series and followed the code sample above as well as Roku’s documentation, but no luck.

I added a series with one season and 3 episodes and everything passed on my feed status screen, but nothing is working when I play them on my Roku device.

Some details:
https://hotwebideas.net/roku/vh2/feed07232018a.json[/url:3qkkmyz0][/color]
2. The series is under the Reality TV tag and it displays fine in the VH2 app under Reality TV.
3. It shows the first thumbnail, Play S1 E1 link, and the Episodes link.
4. When I select the Episodes link, it just shows a spinning thumbnail with the word Season 1, but nothing happens.
5. When I click on the Play S1 | E1 link, it just shows Retrieving with nothing happening.

I see that I am not the only one having a problem with Series.

20

I see that someone mentioned a WordPress plugin, but when I tried to add it, it was untested with the latest version of WordPress, so I developed one myself. I have deployed it on TVChannelPress.com

Bruce