Cartoon Network app

[ikeg]

Cartoon Network is now available on Boxee!

http://www.imgilbert.com/repository/cartoon-network-image-1.03.png

http://www.imgilbert.com/repository/cartoon-network-image-1.03-2.png


FEATURES:
Browse videos by show with a using a visually appealing interface modeled after the Cartoon Network site.
A channel inspector appears while browsing through clips and episodes that includes a preview image, episode name and description, and the content rating of the episode.


New to this app a a fully configurable assortment of Parental Controls.
This works with the embedded content ratings on the Cartoon Network site to give parents the ability to filter out, by show and by episode,
any age-inappropriate content for their children.

This is, to my knowledge, the most complete implementation of Parental Controls available in any Boxee app.
Any shows or episodes that are inappropriate will not be displayed in the user interface.
The Parental Controls can be locked using a Password to prevent them from being reset or changed.


http://www.imgilbert.com/repository/cartoon-network-image-1.00-2.png


Filter videos to display only clips, episodes, or everything.


You can decide whether you want the videos sorted by date (newest), popularity (most views), or critical acclaim (user rating).


Cartoon Network App remembers the category, show, and filter options you were using the last time it was launched.
This reduces the time to reach your favorite episodes/clips.


App loads "screens" of thumbnails at a time to reduce load times.
The channel list will automatically expand as you navigate to the end of the list.


Navigate by scrolling through the channel list, or use the page up/page down buttons to move one screen at a time.
Mouse users can also navigate using the scrollbar control.


Clips AND episodes are fully navigable through "Recently Used" and can be replayed from the logic screen.


No commercials play in-between segments, instead a loading page is displayed on screen.
This app bypasses commercials by mimicking the flash player on the Cartoon Network site, loading the flv files directly.


App has been tested and verified working on the AppleTV and Mac versions of Boxee.


The Python libraries used in this app are identical to the ones used in the Adult Swim app, which should make it easier to add fixes and features across both apps.


This app is based VERY ROUGHLY on code provided my xNuggetx. While none of his code was actually used in the application, the visual appearance of the app is generally similar to the one he had devised (although all the graphics have been redrawn). Thanks, xNuggetx.



CAVEAT LIST:
This App is currently in its initial releases, so there may be bugs I have not encountered. Please report any problems you find, and they will be quickly addressed.


The thumbnails are pretty low quality. Nothing I can really do about that.



My Repository: http://www.imgilbert.com/repository

Please report back any problems you find with the app, especially any problems children have using it.
This is another thank you to the boxee community for keeping me cable free for the past year!



Version 1.04 of the Cartoon Network app has been released.

Changed the method used to grab show collections from the server. This means more shows, new categories like "Premieres," and episode lists that are identical to the ones on Cartoon Network's website.


Added code that checks to see if an update is available in the repository when the app is launched. Thanks to Fuzzgtp for this code.


Improved the text handling of the application, including the handling and display of unicode characters.

[samcraig]

Just gotta say THANKYOU and beautiful work.

[gatherlight]

Cool app.
All I would say is that the red highlighting is kind of annoying. It would be much better to slightly dull down (adjust transparency) of the left side bar shows and when you select them they come into full color (transparency off)

other than that, thanks so much, great app.

[ikeg]

Cool app.
All I would say is that the red highlighting is kind of annoying. It would be much better to slightly dull down (adjust transparency) of the left side bar shows and when you select them they come into full color (transparency off)

other than that, thanks so much, great app.

That's actually a good idea-- the red was kind of a kludge, the Cartoon Network flash player actually highlights the selected show with aqua blue-- probably the strangest choice because it was hard to see what was actually selected. The scrollbars and buttons were red, and it made sense to me to use the same color for highlighting throughout the app.

So what I've done is change the transparency of the unselected shows to about 60%, and added a big 9 pixel red border around the selected show.
This allows for the selected show to be both readable and highly visible. I'll release a point update in a couple of days with this change, and anything else that crops up between now and then.

[bmoura]

Just gotta say THANKYOU and beautiful work.

I'll second that! Just used the app to watch an episode of George of the Jungle.

[marcel]

very nice...:)

[jendabom]

It is awesome. Powerpuff girls baby ;) yay!

[xmcnuggetx]

The plugin was originally being developed and tested on windows, but does appear to no longer work on windows. Getting these errors in my log: http://pastebin.com/m7e2eca29

[ikeg]

The plugin was originally being developed and tested on windows, but does appear to no longer work on windows. Getting these errors in my log: http://pastebin.com/m7e2eca29

Not sure if it's related to Windows, because (IIRC) bmourna and jendabom are also running the Windows version of Boxee. I'd ask for anyone else seeing the same problems to speak up, so I can get more data points on what is actually happening here...

BTW, this app actually has NO code in it originating from the source you provided. All the python code is shared with my Adult Swim app that has been released for some time. The internal server queries made by both players is remarkably similar, so starting from my AS implementation seemed the best way to go. The only thing I needed to change for the most part was the urls.

[ikeg]

The plugin was originally being developed and tested on windows, but does appear to no longer work on windows. Getting these errors in my log: http://pastebin.com/m7e2eca29

It looks like urllib was unable to grab the XML file off of Cartoon Network's server. This could have been some sort of random connection error, or my app could have sent urllib a bogus url. One possible (though very unlikely) way this could occur is a conflict within Python, centering around the CONFIGURATION_URL variable-- which is currently in global namespace.

I've recoded my python library to change all of the global variables into class variables (or local variables). This will make the code more resistant to any sort of namespace conflicts. I'll be dropping a new version of this app (and the Adult Swim app) tonight, together with the changes to the red-highlighting on the show panel that was suggested earlier in the thread.

[ikeg]

Version 1.01 of the Cartoon Network app has been released.

Improved the visual appearance and readability of the show selection panel.


Python Library: Made internal changes to the variable handling that may improve reliability on Windows systems.

[ikeg]

Sometime today Cartoon Network made changes to their server side API that has broken my code. I'll need to implement another method of retrieving data from the server-- not that complicated to do-- this will unfortunately remove with the ability to filter clips/episodes/bydate etc. Parental filtering should still work properly. I'll have it out in a few days.

[ikeg]

Version 1.02 of the Cartoon Network app has been released.

Python Library: Updated to correct for changes made to the Cartoon Network server API.



Luckily, the changes made on the server side were less drastic than I originally thought. This means that all of the original capabilities of the app have been restored.

[poppi]

When this app first came out, it worked great. Then stated that there was no content available for a couple of days. Removed the app to reinstall it, but it is not showing up again. Were others having the same problems?

I am using ATV with most current version of Boxee.

Love the app btw.

[ikeg]

When this app first came out, it worked great. Then stated that there was no content available for a couple of days. Removed the app to reinstall it, but it is not showing up again. Were others having the same problems?

I am using ATV with most current version of Boxee.

Love the app btw.

Yes, the app was broken for a couple of days. Cartoon Network changed some of their XML formatting, which made my app unable to see the content on their site. This was affecting everybody, including me. I don't use the app very often at all, so you might have even caught the problem before I did.

Version 1.02 that I released yesterday fixed these issues. I don't know what is going on with your copy of Boxee (or my repository at the time), but just now I deleted my copy of the Cartoon Network app and reinstalled the new version from my repository. Try again, I guess?

Hopefully Cartoon Network is done messing around with their XML files for a while, they seem to be making small changes all the time. I've personally witnessed things like content ratings changing over the days I spent building the app.

Thanks,
Ike

[Fuzzgtp]

Glad to see this is fixed, my daughter was so excited to see this and i had to tell her it wasn't working Oo

[triffle]

Hey Guys... I am having the same issue... I was getting the "no content available" went and uninstalled the app and reinstalled the newer version (v1.02), I still get the "no content available", I am on Ubuntu 8.10, Boxee 0.9.14.... ...Love the app by the way.

[ikeg]

Hey Guys... I am having the same issue... I was getting the "no content available" went and uninstalled the app and reinstalled the newer version (v1.02), I still get the "no content available", I am on Ubuntu 8.10, Boxee 0.9.14.... ...Love the app by the way.

It's been working fine on my development Mac/AppleTV platform here, but it's possible that there is an issue I just can't see. Could you post your boxee.log somewhere where I can have a look at it? I want to make sure that you are retrieving the right XML files from the Cartoon Network server. Also, you are in the United States, correct? I've heard that Cartoon Network blocks access from certain countries, and I want to rule out this possibility.

Thanks,
Ike

[bmoura]

Version 1.02 of the Cartoon Network app has been released.

Python Library: Updated to correct for changes made to the Cartoon Network server API.



Luckily, the changes made on the server side were less drastic than I originally thought. This means that all of the original capabilities of the app have been restored.

Looks good. Working fine here with Windows 7 RTM, 64 bit !

[ikeg]

I'm not a big fan way this app turned out. The fact that there are two different scrolling panels (and one with a 42 total rows!), the disappearing preview overlay... I think the interface tries to do too much in too little space. Some of the text is a little too small to read on my TV as a result, and things just seem "cramped" on-screen and too complicated.

I've done a re-design of the app to improve the usability and readability of the app. This was done primarily by separating the show selection and the episode/clip selection onto two separate screens. This allows an the show panel to have three columns-- and a little more than 2 full page-downs to scroll (instead of 6). Shows now display their parental rating on screen (instead of just individual episodes), which makes content filtering much more efficient.

http://www.imgilbert.com/repository/cn-new-concept-1.png

In the episode/clip selection screen, I've reduced the number of on-screen videos from 12 to 9. This reduces the visual clutter on the screen. Also, the useless "preview" thumb has been removed, allowing for larger fonts for the title and description text.

http://www.imgilbert.com/repository/cn-new-concept-2.png

I've posted these screenshots to get any early feedback before the new interface is actually released. I'll be upping it to my repository in a couple of days (assuming reactions are mostly positive), once I get to the bottom of these Ubuntu/"No Content" issues.

Ike

[marcel]

looking good..:)

[sendmail2tuan]

I can't wait to try it tonight. However, is the app in the app box? or is it in a different depositories.

[poppi]

Mine is back up and running normally. It reappeared in my App box, and everything is working well now. Incredible app, this finally gives us all of the programing we enjoyed when we had cable.

Thanks again.

[ikeg]

Mine is back up and running normally. It reappeared in my App box, and everything is working well now. Incredible app, this finally gives us all of the programing we enjoyed when we had cable.

Thanks again.

Did you enter my repository url (http://www.imgilbert.com/repository) into your app box, or are you using one of the urls that aggregate a bunch of repos together? I've diagnosed problems where the aggregators are slow to update, point to outdated versions of my apps, and hilarity ensues. (I only keep the newest released version on my server.)

Right now, I'm finishing up with all the visual nits on the new version, running through my app over and over to get the transitions smooth. Expect a release very soon, possibly tonight.

Since Cartoon Network mucked with their XML files AGAIN last night, I've made changes to ensure that show banners don't go missing. The new show banners aren't as crisp as the old ones were, but they're perfectly fine considering how horrible the thumbnails look.


You can now view "Recently Added" shows.

Thanks,
Ike

[ikeg]

Version 1.03 of the Cartoon Network app has been released.

The graphical user interface of the Cartoon Network app has been completely redesigned, to improve readability and usability while navigating through videos.


Shows are now selected from the front panel of the user interface. This allows the show panel to have three columns-- and a little more than 2 full page-downs to scroll (instead of 6). Shows now display their parental rating on screen (instead of just individual episodes), which makes content filtering much more efficient.


The "thumbnails" used for each show are now pulled from the XML file differently, to combat recent changes that made many of the thumbnails disappear from the user interface.


At the moment, you can also navigate a selection of the newest clips and episodes added to the player. As CN's XML is in a contant state of flux, there is no guarantee that this will be a permanent feature.


In the episode/clip selection screen, I've reduced the number of on-screen videos from 12 to 9. This reduces the visual clutter on the screen. Also, the useless "preview" thumb has been removed, allowing for larger fonts for the title and description text. These changes have made video browsing much easier.


Various improvements have been made to the page loading transitions that improve the smoothness of the user interface. Some graphical nits have been corrected.

[samcraig]

some of the shows arent updating. Ben 10 AF for example. the new shows arent showing up

[ikeg]

Version 1.04 of the Cartoon Network app has been released.

Changed the method used to grab show collections from the server. This means more shows, new categories like "Premieres," and episode lists that are identical to the ones on Cartoon Network's website.


Added code that checks to see if an update is available in the repository when the app is launched. Thanks to Fuzzgtp for this code.


Improved the text handling of the application, including the handling and display of unicode characters.

[kcc1982]

This work in the beta?

[DPK]

This work in the beta?

Works for me, just tried it! Watching some Scooby-Doo right now. :)

[jaminm]

The Cartoon Network app is really good and my son has been watching it with the Alpha release but since the Beta was released we have been unable to get it to work. This applies to Ubuntu Karmic only and I have not tested in Windows or OSX, but I'm guessing it must not be an issue or someone else would have said something. I made a support ticket here if anyone is interested: http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/APP-125

[ikeg]

The Cartoon Network app is really good and my son has been watching it with the Alpha release but since the Beta was released we have been unable to get it to work. This applies to Ubuntu Karmic only and I have not tested in Windows or OSX, but I'm guessing it must not be an issue or someone else would have said something. I made a support ticket here if anyone is interested: http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/APP-125

Hi, it's me, the guy who developed the app.

This does appear to be an issue with the Ubuntu version of Boxee, because I am able to use the app with no problems on my MacBook or my Windows PC.

It would be helpful if you could capture some debug logs of this crash, as it might help the Boxee devs and I to get to the bottom of the issue. From what I can tell, this is an issue with Boxee and not with my app code-- but a debug log will go a long way to proving that point.

Thanks,
Ike

[jaminm]

The solution to this problem and all other slow loading apps in my case was to turn off the vertical blank sync. It was turned on by default in boxee beta. It's in the settings and appearance menu. Once this is turned off on my machine everything loads immediately and there are no more problems. I got a clue to this by going through the forums and saw someone mention that XBMC was recommending to turn this off for a similar situation. I think it's actually a bug in their software, but I'm not sure. The cartoon network app is working great and I have not had any more issues.

[fanaticore]

FTW and way to go for Cartoon Network (http://cartoonnetworkgame.org/)!
:)

[buccdaddy]

awesome apps I got cartoon network and adult swim running no problem. I am using ubuntu 10.4 as well. Thank you.