Overview

The SceneGraph Developers: Build a Channel course teaches novice Roku developers how to develop an app from the ground up with the Roku SDK. This course features a set of 13 video lessons and a comprehensive sample app that walks developers through each step in building a basic, high-performance Roku app that passes certification. This course is ideal for developers that are new to the Roku platform and want a simple, streamlined path for quickly understanding Roku development.

Course content

This course starts with introductory material including how to get started developing on the Roku platform, SceneGraph core concepts, and how to create a feed with the metadata for the content in your catalog. It then guides developers on creating the essential screens in a Roku app UI: the grid screen, video player, details screen, and episode selection screen. It concludes with advanced topics such as monetizing content through video ads and subscriptions, implementing deep linking, and testing an app for certification-readiness.

Before starting this course, watch the Streaming overview and Roku development overview videos. These videos provide a high-level overview of streaming and Roku development for developers getting started on the Roku platform.

How to watch the video lessons

Each video lesson in this course is embedded in a dedicated webpage specifically designed for that lesson. You can select a lesson from the left sidebar and then click anywhere on the video player at the top of the page to start watching.

You can also watch the video lessons from your TV by installing the Roku Developers app on your Roku device.

How the video lessons work

Each video lesson is broken down into individual sections that summarize the material being taught, conceptualize the feature being implemented, and demonstrate the completed feature. A step-by-step walkthrough of code is also included in the lessons that build the app UI and implement video ads, subscriptions, and deep linking.

The code used in these lessons has been packaged into individual apps within a master sample app that accompanies this course. For example, the lesson explaining how to build a GridScreen has an associated GridScreen sample app that you can download, review the code implementation, and then sideload and test on your Roku device.

Overall, the master sample app includes apps for building the screens in the app UI and implementing the video ads, subscriptions, and deep linking features. You can download all the apps used for this course from Roku's GitHub project.

What to do after watching a video lesson

The webpage for each video lesson includes an About this lesson section that summarizes the topics covered, a Resources section listing the actions you should take after watching the video, and a Related section with links to documentation and other materials relevant to the topics covered in the lesson.

After watching a lesson, finish the tasks in the Resources section before moving on to the next lesson. Tasks can include signing up for required Roku accounts, downloading and testing the sample app accompanying the lesson, and reading developer documentation.

You can also read the documents in the Related documentation to learn more about the specific SceneGraph components, BrightScript code, and tools discussed in the video.

Where to discuss the video lesson or the course in general

If you have questions while taking the course, go to the Roku Developer Forum and post comments in the dedicated thread created just for the course. Feel free to participate in the discussion thread and reply to posts based on what you've learned from the course.

More about the Roku master sample app

Beyond providing the code associated with the lessons, the master sample app serves as a model for building a certification-compliant app. Both newer and experienced developers can use this app as a reference when building their app UI and implementing the covered features. This sample app is certification-compliant; therefore, content creators looking for a template for quickly creating and publishing a customized Roku app can use this sample app as the foundation for their project.