How to programmatically launch Tizen Samsung TV app on boot?

Question

I've been tasked with developing an app for Samsung TV to match our existing suite of apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, iOS, and Android. One of the key features of our app is that it must launch automatically on boot.

Is there any way to create an app that will launch automatically on boot in Samsung TV's Tizen OS?

The auto-launching portion of the app doesn't even have to have a user interface. It can, but it doesn't have to. So even just a background service would be enough. But some kind of custom code has to launch on boot, or else the platform just isn't viable for our product.

I've Googled and Googled and cannot find anything that speaks clearly to this.

If this is possible, and you know how to do it, please provide enough instructions (or a link to something that does provide them) that I should be able to create a "Hello World" app (or something similarly trivial) that launches on boot.

If you know for a fact that it isn't possible, please let me know that it is impossible, and also tell me how you know this, so that I can stop spinning my wheels.

Thank you so much!

Answer 1

I had encountered the same problem, I had discovered two ways to implement and make it work. There are two below approaches that worked for me -

• Created a node service that uses SDB (Samsung Development Bridge) to connect the Samsung Tv over the IP and execute the run app command provided by the tizen cli when node service detects the Tv gets turned on using samsung-tv-control package(https://www.npmjs.com/package/samsung-tv- control). Below is the command to run the app -

  tizen run -p <appID>

  This is the flowchart of node service to programmatically launch Tizen Samsung TV app on boot: FlowChart of node application to launch the tizen application on boot

The code below is an idea how this application will work -

const net = require("net");
const { exec } = require("child_process");
const { Samsung } = require("samsung-tv-control");
const dotenv = require("dotenv");

let flag = false;
let isAvailable = false;

dotenv.config({ path: "./config.env" });

// Client settings
const clientPort = process.env.CLIENT_PORT;
const clientAddress = process.env.CLIENT_ADDRESS; // IP address of client
const clientMac = process.env.CLIENT_MAC;

const appId = process.env.APP_ID;
const appPackage = process.env.PACKAGE_NAME;

const config = {
  debug: false,
  ip: clientAddress,
  mac: clientMac,
  nameApp: "NodeJS",
  port: clientPort,
};

const control = new Samsung(config);

const runApp = () => {
  console.log("trying to run app...");
  try {
    exec(`tizen run -p ${appId}`, (error, stdout, stderr) => {
      if (error) {
        console.log(`running stderr: ${stderr}`);
        setTimeout(() => {
          launchApp();
        }, 5000);
      } else {
        flag = true;
        console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`);
      }
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.log("Failed to launch: ", err);
    setTimeout(() => {
      launchApp();
    }, 5000);
  }
};

const installApp = () => {
  console.log("trying to install");
  try {
    exec(`tizen install -n ${appPackage}`, (error, stdout, stderr) => {
      if (error) {
        console.log(`installing stderr: ${stderr}`);
        return;
      }
      console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`);
      runApp();
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.log("failed to install", err);
  }
};

const connectDevice = () => {
  try {
    exec(
      `./sdb connect ${clientAddress}:${clientPort}`,
      (error, stdout, stderr) => {
        if (error) {
          console.log(`connect tderr: ${stderr}`);
          setTimeout(() => {
            launchApp();
          }, 5000);
        } else {
          console.log(`stdout: ${stdout}`);
          runApp();
        }
      }
    );
  } catch (err) {
    console.log("failed to connect", err);
    setTimeout(() => {
      launchApp();
    }, 5000);
  }
};

const launchApp = () => {
  console.log("trying to launch....");
  connectDevice();
};

control.turnOn();

const checkAvailability = async () => {
  isAvailable = await control.isAvailable();
  console.log("isAvailable: ", isAvailable, " already running ?: ", flag);
  if (isAvailable && !flag) {
    launchApp();
    flag = true;
  } else if (!isAvailable) {
    flag = false;
  }
};

setInterval(async () => {
  try {
    await checkAvailability();
  } catch (err) {
    isAvailable = false;
    console.log("isAvailable: ", isAvailable, " already running ?: ", flag);
    console.log("Something went wrong", err);
    flag = false;
    setTimeout(async () => {
      await checkAvailability();
    }, 5000);
  }
}, 5000);

• Using the URL launcher provided by the Samsung Smart Tv - Here is the way to make it work - https://www.samsungdforum.com/B2B/Guide/GuideT3/TIZENH_GUIDE?appId=63