Okay, so the plugin did not in fact handle redirects correctly, it just happened to be the case that my Mint download counter redirection URL didn’t cause problems during testing, but everything else actually did, including the one just added to the XML feed used by ATV Loader.
sigh…
So, here we have version 1.0.5.
Pray, people. Pray.
And so, scant hours later, after fiddling with a bug in the ‘update-self’ routines, we have version 1.0.4. This version fixes that bug (earlier releases will not set the privileges on the built-in SetupHelper tool properly, meaning it’ll fail to install what it downloads).
I’ve also added a custom User-Agent to the HTTP headers used by the appliance when downloading items. If you want to track the number of hits you get from it, the new value is:
"Mozilla/5.0 (AppleTV; U; Intel Mac OS X; ATVLoader)"
Just filtering on ATVLoader would probably do the trick, though.
The download link and installation method, as ever, remain the same.
The download link and installation method remain the same.
Another pro Mac developer has joined the fold at AwkwardTV. His name is Xdog and in a wonderfully fractal way he has some sample footage of the (all but complete) plugin on YouTube.
Since there appeared to be an issue with the download — some people reported it working, some reported it didn’t. Then it seemed that the installer package included wasn’t actually the 1.0.1 version. So, since I’d recently received a Dutch localization from macTijn of AwkwardTV, I decided I’d just put together a new installer. This one also has the About information updated with release notes and the date of release.
The download linke and installation method remains the same.
I’ve been doing a little more work on the development kit for BackRow appliance plugins, and so I’ve put together a little video showing what’s new.
At present it can run the main AppleTV interface, although this requires that you copy the PlugIns, Screen Savers, and Patches folders into the DevKit application bundle. It can also optionally work with just a single plugin, using that as the root controller.
There is now an options window allowing you to specify the run mode, along with realtime toggling of some built-in BackRow statistics tools: a framerate counter, a ’safe region’ highlight, and some copious printing to stdout of all layers being rendered.
Along with this comes the useful addition of BackRow running within a proper window, moveable and resizable, and which has a normal window level so you can open your debugger on top of it if you want to.
The video is in QuickTime format, using MPEG-4 video, 890×618, 13.2Mb in size.
Apparently my manual edits to the volume levels aren’t actually saved, even though they claim to have been. So there’s a bit near the beginning where what I say is drowned out by the intro movie. What I say at this point is, basically:
You can resize this window. It’s not very stable when there’s a list on the screen, but with video it seems quite happy. Frames per second appears down here, safe areas appears like that. And there we have it.
Also, it doesn’t appear to want to play anything until it’s downloaded the whole lot, so please be patient. I think I’ll be trying something other than Snapz Pro X for the next one…
I’ve just posted a minor update to the ATV Loader appliance plugin, which implements the AppleTV Main Menu fix from the previous post.
The download link and installation method remains the same.
Well, in working on my debugger test harness, I decided this would be a good opportunity to try a little hack I’d been thinking of for getting around the Main Menu issue. Normally, it sets the bottom of the list in a static position, so that as you add more plugins, the list grows off the top of the screen. I figured that this wasn’t ideal, and decided that the superclass’ implementation would be better.
Here’s some code I run in the test harness before the menu gets loaded for the first time, in the +initialize method for my BRAppManager subclass:
Method main, norm;
main = class_getInstanceMethod( [BRMainMenuController class],
@selector(listFrameForBounds:) );
if ( main != NULL )
{
norm = class_getInstanceMethod( [BRMenuController class],
@selector(listFrameForBounds:) );
if ( norm != NULL )
main->method_imp = norm->method_imp;
}
And here are some shots of the results; as usual, click on the images for a full-size version:
Well, the ATV Loader has been out for a couple of days now, and appears to be in good shape. As such, I think this is a good time to issue a call for translators.
If you would like to take on the task, please email me — I’m ‘alan’ at this domain. Alternatively contact me via IRC in the AwkwardTV channel. Translators will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis, but if someone else later says they can do better, well, they’ll get a chance too.
I look forward to hearing from you all soon.
It’s been a long time in the making, but finally it’s here. The ATV Loader is born!
So far it has its own page, a download containing an installer to do the fiddly bits of installation via SSH on the AppleTV, and lots of pictures.
If you’re as excited as I am (or even if you’re, you know, not), go and look at the full details here.