boxcast-sdk-tvos

The BoxCast SDK for tvOS/TVML video playback allows you to develop your own tvOS TVML applications to watch content from your BoxCast account.

The SDK provides a set of Promise-based methods for querying data from your account and a method of attaching to a native tvOS Player in order to provide viewer analytics back to your BoxCast account.

Installation

npm install boxcast-sdk-tvos --save

Usage

Import the module and initialize constants.

const { BoxCastData, BoxCastPlayer } = require('boxcast-sdk-tvos');
 
const YOUR_CHANNEL_ID = ' TODO: fill in from dashboard ';
const YOUR_APP_NAME = ' TODO: unique identifier used for analytics ';

List broadcasts that are currently live...

var api = new BoxCastData();
api.getLiveBroadcasts(YOUR_CHANNEL_ID).then((broadcasts) => {
    ... 
    // for each broadcast in broadcasts, note the
    // broadcast.id, broadcast.name, broadcast.description, broadcast.preview
});

... or VOD.

api.getArchivedBroadcasts(YOUR_CHANNEL_ID).then((broadcasts) => {
    ...
    // for each broadcast in broadcasts, note the
    // broadcast.id, broadcast.name, broadcast.description, broadcast.preview
});

When ready to watch a broadcast, simply initialize a player for the broadcast and call the present method, which will request the playlist from the BoxCast API and present a native tvOS player if available.

var player = new BoxCastPlayer(broadcast, {HOSTNAME: YOUR_APP_NAME});
player.present()
    .then((tvOSPlayerInstance) => { ... })
    .catch((errorMessage) => { ... });

The SDK also exposes vendor libraries (Bluebird Promise polyfill, fetch polyfill) for your use as needed.

const { vendor } = require('boxcast-sdk-tvos');
const { Promise, fetch } = vendor;

Known Limitations

• This SDK is for viewing and querying of broadcasts on accounts that do not protect their content with pay-per-view ticketing, host restrictions, geoblocking, passwords, or other authentication means. The BoxCast API will reject requests for such content, so you should be prepared to handle errors using the .catch((err) => { ... }) method of the data promises.

Changelog

• v1.0.0: Initial version
• v1.1.0: Add shortcut for initializing Player for broadcast with metrics service already attached
• v1.1.3: Fix build so modules can be imported properly into TVML runtime