Launch App on TV

Many TVs and streaming players include support for launching installed apps. The following is a simplified example of how to launch YouTube on a device.

Launch an app

device.getLauncher().launchApp("YouTube").success(function (launchSesssion) {
    console.log("app launch success");
}).error(function (err) {
    console.log("app launch error: " + err.message);
});

Device-specific app identifiers

On each device (webOS TV, Roku, etc) apps are identified by different values. Here is an example of the different identifiers in use for the YouTube app.

webOS: youtube.leanback.v4 (value may change with future updates)
Netcast: 0000000000017498 (value may be different on each TV)
DIAL: YouTube (listed in DIAL registry)
Roku: 837 (Roku-specific channel number)

Launching an app with device-specific identifiers

The following snippet shows how to detect the platform of your device and launch with the appropriate app identifier.

var appId;

if (device.hasService(ConnectSDK.Services.WebOSTV)) {
    appId = "youtube.leanback.v4";
} else if (device.hasService(ConnectSDK.Services.NetcastTV)) {
    appId = "0000000000017498";
} else if (device.hasService(ConnectSDK.Services.Roku)) {
    appId = "837";
} else if (device.hasService(ConnectSDK.Services.DIAL)) {
    appId = "YouTube";
}

if (!appId) {
    return;
}

device.getLauncher().launchApp(appId).success(function (launchSesssion) {
    console.log("app launch success");
}).error(function (err) {
    console.log("app launch error: " + err.message);
});

Launching an app with parameters

In most cases, a device’s launcher object will allow you to pass launch parameters to your app. Connect SDK has normalized the parameter input type to a keyed set of values. These values are then parsed into the appropriate format for the protocol (XML, JSON, URL params, etc).

var params = {
    "someKey": "someValue"
}

device.getLauncher().launchApp(appId, params).success(function (launchSesssion) {
    console.log("app launch success");
}).error(function (err) {
    console.log("app launch error: " + err.message);
});

Important

Due to the variety of protocols in use, it is strongly recommended that you only use strings for the keys AND values of your parameters.