Connection between Samsung Smart TV and iOS app

Question

I got a Samsung Smart TV UE40D8000 (Apparently from 2011 series ?) and an iOS device. I'd like to make them both exchange information (most likely small chunks of text), via a dedicated app on both sides;

Now, it turns out the best way would be to use the Convergence API : I've built a basic TV App that looks an awefull lot like the sample code they give, and an iOS App for UPnP discovery and sending POST requests onto the TV. UPnP discovery works great.

But on the actual device, I can't seem to be able to manage to connect : the requests to /ws/app/{appID}/connect fail (with an actual appID of course) as if there would be no server.

• Is the Convergence API available for my TV ? (there does not seem to have a compatibility list anywhere) Is there a way to upgrade to a 2012 platform if it is indeed a 2011 one ?
• Can we test that API on a simulator ? My simulator runs under Windows 7 in a VM on my Mac (there is not Mac version of their dev tools...)
• Is there really anything I can do to have a more precise diagnostic ? like logs from the appilcation running on the TV ?

Thanks

Answer 1

Finishing answering my own question: like @Dobiatowski mentions, I'm screwed for Convergence API and 2012 platform The Interactive API's documentation is not clear, and virtually non-fonctionnal despite 3 days of my best effort. Half of the sentence in the documentation don't actually make sense.

Still did not manage to make the interactivity simulator to work, Looks like it's not possible on Win7

Basic answer is : not possible

Answer 2

This Convergence page sounds like existence of MultiScreenService UPnP service equals the capability of Convergence API calls. So if you say "UPnP discovery works great" (given that you do an ST-limited M-SEARCH per example, not an unrestricted UPnP discovery), it should mean that your particular TV supports Convergence. Have you tried querying the TV simply with telnet? Are you sure about the port number on which the TV listens? Here the doc claims that it should be 80 for the TV and 8008 for the simulator, but i for one am very interested in the UPnP description.xml served by the TV for MultiScreenService. You could even discover some UPnP functions for diagnostic there...

Disclaimer: i have no experience in Convergence, only UPnP in general and unfortunately Samsung in general too. The fact that Samsung pushes such half-baked proprietary mockup reminds me of my short bloody disgusting career as Bada developer. Only Sony can sustain pushing proprietary mockups with dignity :)

Answer 3

Your year model is 2011 and you can't upgrade to 2012.

2012 models uses API v3.5 and 2011 models uses API v2.5

So this what you try to do won't work at your device as Convergence API is in API v3.5.

Check this one http://www.samsungdforum.com/Guide/View/Developer_Documentation/Samsung_SmartTV_Developer_Documentation_2.5/API_Reference/JavaScript_APIs/Interactive_API

It gives you possibility to communicate between devices, so maybe it will fit your needs.