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March 5, 2010
7:22 pm Central

Development: ABC News Local is now ABC News [Boxee]

As I mentioned in a previous post, a new version of ABC News Local was in the works. So much work has occurred, I feel the app will qualify for a major version number upgrade. But that's not the only upgrade happening.


ABC News Local is now ABC News (Mockup Design)

ABC News Local is becoming ABC News. Not only will you still be able to get the top stories from ABC owned and operated stations, but you will also be able to get national news directly from ABC News. Also, as noted in the previous post, you will also be able to narrow down local (and now national) news to specific sections.

The only thing that will not be available still is the streaming of live video. I really want to get to that, but for the time being, it will have to wait. All of this is a major change in itself.

I am still trying to get the hang of a lot of the new programming items I'm having to do as this project has become pretty massive now, so please bare with me. I already have the city navigation work (thanks to the grouplist control), but still a lot to do as each individual feed has to be manually added since Group Lists don't quite work with feeding RSS feeds to it.

I'm very proud of this work so far and really look forward to releasing this in the future. As always, if anyone has any ideas, suggestions, advice, or programming tips, feel free to send that info this way!

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March 4, 2010
4:21 pm Central

Commenting Open to All

For some reason, commenting on the site was only allowed if you were logged into Posterous. I guess I forgot to make the necessary setting change, but you can no comment on posts without logging into Posterous.

Of course, if you DO have a Posterous account or a Twitter account, you can still log into those services to share your comment to the world. Facebook commenting is in the works.

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March 4, 2010
3:21 pm Central

Development: New Version of ABC News Local in the works [Boxee]

Just wanted to let the Boxee community know I've finally got a little more inspiration as to how the next version of ABC News Local will work. The picture above is the latest mockup design of what it will look like.

As you can see in the picture above, ABC News Local is going to take a bigger focus on the locals, breaking down each available city into additional sections (which vary from city to city).

I am still fighting with myself how to layout the video: one long list like the current version, a video carousel like Windows Media Center, or another layout not even considered yet. (This is why there is a lot of whitespace in the video list at the bottom.)

Also, I would like to incorporate Live Video, but this requires using the Mozilla Browser in Boxee to access the Flash video and full screen it. I have not learned how to use this technique yet and am still combing the forums and developers guide for answers. If anyone has information on this, I would appreciate hearing from ya!

Anything else you want to see ABC News Local? Just let me know here on the forum so I can add it to the list!

This release is still a little bit away as I need to focus (still) on getting a job. Boxee development doesn't pay.  (Maybe I COULD put a PayPal donate link on the repository site.)

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February 21, 2010
2:22 pm Central

Update: GameTrailers.com RSS now available in HD [Boxee]

After some tinkering, GameTrailers.com RSS is now available in HD (when available).

As of now, GameTrailers.com RSS will be available as two separate apps (GameTrailers.com and GameTrailers.com HD) until I can find a better means of selecting between SD and HD content.

Now, since my computers choke hard trying to play HD content, I will need some feedback on the functionality. Please let me know of any and all issues you run into trying to run the application (both SD and HD versions) either in the comments here on the Boxee Forum.

For information about how to access GameTrailers.com RSS, visit http://dir.internalserver.net/.

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Posted by Travis Tubbs 

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February 20, 2010
8:38 pm Central

Update: GameTrailers.com RSS - Feed Update [Boxee]

The GameTrailers.com Feed received a small update. I keep scouring GameTrailer's web site for anything new that pops up. If you see anything that I don't already have listed, let me know!

What's New

Features (previously labeled as Specials)
Pach-Attack!
Filled with the golden nuggets of wisdom, the Pach-Attack brings the smarmy seer's insight straight to GameTrailers.com.

Penny Arcade: The Series
A reality show based on the exploits of the Penny Arcade company and its founders, Gabe (Mike Krahulik) and Tycho (Jerry Holkins).

GTTV
GTTV with Geoff Keighley*
Updated with proper feed address

Originals
HourONE*
The first hour of gameplay from newly released games uncut.

*As of now, promos for episodes of GTTV and HourOne are only available in the feeds.

To be able watch these would require creating a true Boxee app (as compared to this RSS app) to enable opening the appropriate web page to full screen the Flash video (similar to how Hulu is done on Boxee). I might get around to doing that, but not right now. I'll have to read up on how to do that first.

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February 5, 2010
12:48 pm Central

Update: GameTrailers.com RSS - "Add to MyApps" bug fixed [Boxee]

For those that were unable to add GameTrailers.com RSS to the My Apps section, this bug has been fixed. There was a version mismatch issue between the one in the app’s descriptor.xml and the repository’s index.xml.

If you are still unable to add GameTrailers.com RSS to My Apps, you may need to delete the net.internalserver.dir.gtrss folder from your Apps directory first. Your Apps directory can be find in…
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/apps
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<windows username>\Application Data\BOXEE\userdata\apps
Windows Vista/7: C:\Users\<windows username>\AppData\Roaming\BOXEE\userdata\apps
Linux: ~/.boxee/UserData/apps

If you run into any other issues, please let me know!

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February 3, 2010
8:16 pm Central

Release: GameTrailers.com RSS [Boxee]

I am proud to announce the beta release of my very first Boxee app: GameTrailers.com RSS.

gametrailers-rss-info.png

GameTrailers.com RSS brings you the latest gaming news, previews, and reviews from popular gaming web site GameTrailers.com.
The reason this is called GameTrailers.com RSS is that it is a very simple RSS application with no skinning. It relies on RSS Feeds from GameTrailers.com's web site, either from Podcasts or using the Feed Creation form on GameTrailers.com's site, as well as Boxee's built-in support for GameTrailers.com videos.

As this is a beta release, expect the application to be buggy. I highly encourage everyone who uses the app to please report any issues on the Boxee Forums. If there are any Boxee developers out there willing to lend some advice, please let me know, because I have no idea how on earth I got this far to being with. :)

To access this app, add the following repository to Boxee:
dir.internalserver.net

My web host currently charges by how much bandwidth I use. I have no idea how much bandwidth this will use. I'm unemployed and don't really have any money to spend on anything, but I feel really confident about this app and will risk having to spend a little money to get this out to the public.

Once again, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or helpful insight for this app, please let me know over on the Boxee Forums.

(And yes... this is almost word-for-word the same message I used for the release of my ABC News Local app. Just saving myself some time.) :D

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February 3, 2010
7:17 pm Central

Release: ABC News Local - Local News from ABC O&O Stations [Boxee]

I am very proud to announce the beta release of an app I've been working on for less than a week: ABC News Local.

abcnewslocal-day04-layout.png

ABC News Local brings you local news videos from ABC Owned and Operated (O&O) Stations from across the country. You can now get the top news stories from major cities in the US right on Boxee.

As this is a beta release, expect the application to be buggy. I highly encourage everyone who uses the app to please report any issues on the Boxee Forums. If there are any Boxee developers out there willing to lend some advice, please let me know, because I have no idea how on earth I got this far to being with. :)

To access this app, add the following repository to Boxee:

You can see a video preview of the app in action on YouTube:

My web host currently charges by how much bandwidth I use. I have no idea how much bandwidth this will use. I'm unemployed and don't really have any money to spend on anything, but I feel really confident about this app and will risk having to spend a little money to get this out to the public.

Once again, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or helpful insight for this app, please let me know on the Boxee Forums. And, by the way, I already have ideas for the next version of this app. :D

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February 2, 2010
2:56 pm Central

Development: ABC News Local - Day 4 [Boxee]

I can now say that design and layout for the ABC Local News app is complete!

Today, I have implemented an actual news feed from my local ABC affiliate here in Houston. The feed pulls in perfectly, scrolling through the list changes the contents of the video details above the list just fine, and playing a video works exactly as it should.

I changes the layout of the video list from the original mockup as I didn't realize that the images from the feed would be smaller than that on the web sites. No big deal. I kinda like this list view a little more.

  abcnewslocal-day04-layout.png
As the design/layout portion is complete, it's time to get to the tough parts of this project: getting the stations to speak to the video list.

As mentioned in a previous update, the station list is pulled from a RSS Feed on a web server so that I can update the list if need be. Unfortunately, this seems to be preventing me from getting the station list to tell the video list to update for news from that station.

The station list is using the list control type with itemlayout and focusedlayout controls within it and image and label controls within those. I think since I'm using these, I'm not able to perform the onclick command. Instead, when I click on one of the stations, I get the dialog box similar to that of when you want to play a video.

abcnewslocal-day04-wrong.png

This is the point where I am asking of help from the Boxee community. I'm assuming I'll actually need to be using the button control, but is it correct to use the button control within the list control? Is a different kind of control needed? Do I need to scrap my stations list and start over to get it to send the RSS Feed address of the station's top stories to the video list?

Any suggestions, thoughts, and ideas would greatly be appreciated. I am SO close to finishing this, I can taste it! ... ... ... and I can tell it tastes SO good.

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February 1, 2010
5:17 pm Central

Development: ABC News Local - Day 3.5 [Boxee]

NOTE: You can also follow my progress of this app on the Boxee forums - http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?p=84633
I got a little impatient. Maybe it's just excitement from this app visually coming together. I know I still have a long road ahead, but I couldn't wait to get the next part of this app going.

Visually, I went ahead and skinned the selection button in the list of stations. To accomplish this, I downloaded the source code for Boxee and used line_view_click.png and line_view_on.png as a starting point. These buttons were too big for the space I needed, so I edited them down to size and changed the color from green to blue.

Next up, I put in the framework for the Video Content box, which will display the video title, description, and date of video, along with its thumbnail. Right now, just some placeholder text is in place (to ensure it will be spaced properly). I wished I could get the line spacing in the description to be a little bit closer, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet, so its current spacing will have to do.

abcnewslocal-day03-layout2.png

The real hard work is yet to come, but to see the looks and graphics come together is a really great feeling.

Now only if I could find a job that pays for tinkering around with things I feel like playing with. :)

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