TV Plugin
The TV Hive Runner plugin is used for managing HTML application tests on TVs and set top boxes.
Contents
Prerequisites
Communication between TVs and the Hive Runner depends on Hive Mind and so this needs to be set up with the hive_mind_tv engine.
Between tests the devices need to be running a holding application such as Hive Capture. This holding application should be installed on a web server and will allow the TV to poll Hive Mind. The holding application url and the application name that it reports to Hive Mind will be used in the configuration of the Hive, below.
For more details about the communication between the Hive and TVs see the TV test lifecycle section below.
Installation
The Ruby gem for the TV Hive plugin is hive-runner-tv and it can be added to an existing hive by adding
gem 'hive-runner-tv'
to Gemfile and executing bundle install while the Hive is stopped. Before restarting the Hive the following lines should be added to the config/settings.yml file inside the controller section:
tv:
name_stub: TV_WORKER
port_range_size: 10
and in the network section add:
hive_mind: http://<hive mind url>
tv:
titantv_url: http://<holding application url>
titantv_name: <holding application name>
Alternatively, the TV plugin can be included when setting up a new Hive. Select the option to ‘Add module’ and enter tv as the module name. The network section above will need to be configured after installation as above.
TV test lifecycle
The TV Runner provides capabilities for executing tests on Smart, or Connected, TVs.
For Smart TVs, the Hive does not normally have direct connection with the device. As the applications for TVs are Javascript web applications this problem is overcome by loading Javascript libraries along with the application to communicate with the Hive and with Hive Mind, and between tests a “holding application” that communicates with Hive Mind is loaded.
The communication between the device and Hive Mind or the Hive is done by making a regular request (a poll) where the server is able to respond with instructions for the device.
When Hive Mind is polled it may respond with a url for the device to load, either for the application to be tested or the holding application at the end of a test.
During a test the Hive runs a Talkshow server for the device to poll and the responses are the test commands.
An overview of the communication flow between the device, Hive Mind, the Hive and Hive Scheduler is given below.
