Not long back Chris Wayne published a post about a scope creator tool.  Last week, I was visiting bq and we decided with Victor Gonzalez  that we should have a scope for Canal bq. The folks at bq do an excellent job at creating “how to” and “first steps” videos, and they have started publishing some for the bq Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition.

Here is a few screenshots of the scope that is now available to download from the store:

The impressive thing is that it took us about 5 min to get a working version of the scope.  Here is what needed to do:

• First, we followed Chris’ instructions to install the scope creator tool.
• Once we had it set up on my laptop, we run:
  scopecreator create youtube com.ubuntu.developer.victorbq canalbq
cd canalbq
• Next, we configured the scope. The configuration is done in a json file called manifest.json. This file describes the content of what you will publish later to the store. You need to care about: “title”, “description”, “version” and “mantainer”. The rest are values populated by the tool:
  scopecreator edit config
{
"name": "com.ubuntu.developer.victorbq.canalbq",
"description": "Canal bq",
"framework": "ubuntu-sdk-14.10",
"architecture": "armhf",
"title": "Canal bq",
"hooks": {
"canalbq": {
"scope": "canalbq",
"apparmor": "scope-security.json"
}
},
"version": "0.3",
"maintainer": "Victor Gonzalez <anemailfromvictor@bq.com>"
}

• The following step was to set up the branding: Easy! Branding is define on an .ini file. “Display name” will be the name listed on the “manage” window once installed, and also will be the title of your scope if you don’t use a “PageHeader.Logo”. the [Appearance] section describes the colours and logos to use when banding a scope.
  scopecreator edit branding
[ScopeConfig]
DisplayName=Canal bq
Description=Youtube custommized channel
Author=Canonical Ltd.
Art=images/logo.png
Icon=images/logo.png
SearchHint=Buscar
LocationDataNeeded=true
[Appearance]
PageHeader.Background=color:///#000000
PageHeader.ForegroundColor=#FFFFFF
PreviewButtonColor=#FFFFFF
PageHeader.Logo=./images/logo.png

• The final part is to define the departments (drop down menu) for the scope. This is also a json file and it is unique the youtube scope template. You can either use “playlists” or “channels” (or both) as departments. The id PLjQOV_HHlukyNGBFaSVGFVWrbj3vjtMjd corresponds to a play list from youtube, with url= https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjQOV_HHlukyNGBFaSVGFVWrbj3vjtMjd
  scopecreator edit channels{
  “maxResults”: “20”,
  “playlists”: [
  {
  “id”: “PLjQOV_HHlukyNGBFaSVGFVWrbj3vjtMjd”,
  “reminder”:”Aquaris E4,5 Ubuntu Edition”
  },
  {
  “id”: “PLjQOV_HHlukzBhuG97XVYsw96F-pd9P2I”,
  “reminder”: “Tecnópolis”
  },
  {
  “id”: “PLC46C98114CA9991F”,
  “reminder”: “aula bq”
  },
  {
  “id”: “PLE7ACC7492AD7D844”,
  “reminder”: “primeros pasos”
  },
  {
  “id”: “PL551D151492F07D63”,
  “reminder”: “accesorios”
  },
  {
  “id”: “PLjQOV_HHlukyIT8Jr3aI1jtoblUTD4mn0”,
  “reminder”: “3d”
  }
  ]
  }

After this, the only thing left to do is replace the placeholder icon, with the bq logo:
~/canalbq/canalbq/images/logo.png
And build, check and publish the scope:
scopecreator build

This last command generates the click file that you need to upload to the store. If you have a device (for example a Nexus4 or an emulator ), it can also install it so you can test it. If you get any issues getting the scope to run, you might want to check your json files on http://jsonlint.com/. It is a great web tool that will help you make sure your json doc is ship shaped!

It is super simple to create a scope for a youtube channel! so what are you going to create next?

Since I lead the Ubuntu Edge campaign, I have been trying to keep up with other crowd funding projects.  I am mainly interested on technology and gadgets, and I have found it hard to navigate Kickstarter, but also to have to keep hoping between Kickstarter and Indiegogo to see what is going on.  Specially since now, seems like interesting projects are evently split between them.  You might share my friction on this… so I give you Techfunder:



Techfunder is an Android app that provides an easy way to browse crowd funding projects launched across the main industry websites. Techfunder gathers Technology and Design projects from Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

Using Techfunder side navigation you can easily switch between:

•  Popular
•  New this week
•  Staff Picks
•  Design – Popular

Then you can browse as many projects on a compact scrollable list. Just click on the project you are interested to expand into a full screen view.From there you can tell the world about it using the share button. 

If you want to contribute or found out more about it, click on the “browse” button and Techfunder will launch the project page in your web browser. When you are finished, just press the Android back button to return to Techfunder.

I am currently planning to add a favourites/watchlist functionality and looking into a way to select additional crowd sourcing platform. I hope you enjoy it!