The PlayOn Plugin API allows content publishers or independent developers to add video content to the PlayOn platform. Plugins can be written in .NET 2.0 or the Lua scripting language.

Starting with PlayOn 3.3, the API was rewritten to make it easier to use and includes support for PlayDirect. PlayDirect is an extension to the new plugin API that provides access to web-based media player content in a simple way that should reduce development time. While the new API is available to all PlayOn Basic and Premium users, the PlayDirect extensions will only be available for Premium users at this time. As long as you do not use the PlayDirect extensions, any plugin or script written against the new API will work for everyone, so feel free to start porting!

Development Tools and Documentation

If you're interested in creating your own channel for PlayOn, we have written some documentation and sample code to help you get started.

PlayOn Plugin API v2 w/ PlayDirect for PlayOn 3.3 and later:

• .NET plugin documentation
• Lua script documentation
• Util.dll XML for Visual Studio inline documentation.
• Sample code containing a .NET 2.0 C# VS2K5 project and two Lua scripts

PlayOn Plugin API v1 for PlayOn 3.2 and earlier (deprecated):

• .NET plugin documentation
• Lua script documentation
• Util.dll XML for Visual Studio inline documentation
• Sample code containing a .NET 2.0 C# VS2K5 project
• Plugin Debugger (Developed by the folks at playonplugins.com)
• Plugin installer generator to make plugin installations a breeze

All PlayOn versions:

• PlayOn Plugin Channel Packager - Use this to create a .pwn file that can be used to submit Plugin Channels to the channel store.
  Instructions: 
  1. Download the Plugin Channel Packager zip file and unzip it.
  2. Run the executable "ChannelPackager.exe".
  3. Browse to a *directory* that contains the plugin file (.plugin, .luacomp or .lua) in question.
     Note that all files and subdirectories in that directory will be included in the package.
  4. Browse to the directory where you'd like to save the .pwn file.
  5. Verify that the Channel Metadata looks correct in the right pane.
  6. Press Generate to create the .pwn file.
• Background image template - A custom channel logo must be placed on top of the background image provided in the template and the image size should be 150 pixels x 150 pixels. This image will  be required as part of the .pwn file. 
  
  

Have some questions or comments about the PlayOn Plugin API? Feel free to reach our developers by emailing us. We plan on expanding the SDK greatly, and any feedback you may have will certainly help us moving forward. 

Distributing your own Plugins

The PlayOn Plugin API is intended to allow content providers and third-party developers to enrich the PlayOn experience for everyone's benefit. By developing or distributing a channel for the PlayOn platform, you are bound by the terms and conditions of the PlayOn software license agreement.

If you are distributing plugins elsewhere, please let us know -- we'd love to hear about it, and potentially add a link to your site as well.