Creating a Client-Server TVML App

Display and navigate between TVML documents on Apple TV by retrieving and parsing information from a remote server.

Overview

A TVML app creates a client-server connection to retrieve information stored on a server. The retrieved information is parsed into a document and displayed on a TV screen. Use this sample code project to create your first client-server app. The app uses JavaScript to load an initial TVML document from a local server. The user navigates between two images and the app loads a new document after the user selects one of the images. For detailed information about the TVML framework, see TVML.

Configure the Sample Code Project

Before running the app, you need to set up a local server on your machine:

1. In Finder, navigate to the fokusOnTVOSJSPlayerDemo directory inside of the fokusOnTVOSJSPlayerDemo project directory..
2. In Terminal, enter at the prompt, cd followed by a space.
3. Drag the fokusOnTVOSJSPlayerDemo folder from the Finder window into the Terminal window, and press Return. This changes the directory to that folder.
4. In Terminal enter cd Server to change to this folder.This folder contains our TVML app files.
5. In Terminal, enter ruby -run -ehttpd . -p9001 to run the server.
6. Build and run the app.

After testing the sample app in Apple TV Simulator, you can close the local server by pressing Control-C in Terminal. Closing the Terminal window also kills the server.