iOS DeepLink / universal link support for opening a movie via link on tvOs

[whysoemby 1]

Referencing this reply:

This works like a charm on mobile devices like an iPad:

emby://items?serverId={id}&itemId={id}

Using the DeepLink Beta tvOS app (https://testflight.apple.com/join/7jcRh9fo) I’ve been able to do some sick home automations starting movie in plex (before they imploded). 

trying the same link on tvOS, emby opens but does not load the specific item page.

Would greatly appreciate this feature.

….

And while I’m asking for stuff, just wanted to say thanks for the awesome product. So happy to be free from plex. Emby has great functionality, great api documentation, etc. Very fun to play with!

 

 

[Luke 42216]

Hi, we'll take a look at this. Thanks.

[whysoemby 1]

Following up here..

To the credit of the API, it is definitely possible to implement a workaround but I've founds some odd behaviors and still think universal / deep link support for tvOS would be more reliable...

- I've found that if I use ios shortcuts to 'wake' the appleTV and then open Emby, this creates an emby session.
- Then I call [EMBY_API_URL]/Sessions` and filter for a matching ip, user id, and device type i can get the active session id

 

[whysoemby 1]

[continued]

 
- Then I call [EMBY_API_URL]/Sessions` and filter for a matching ip, user id, and device type i can get the active session id
- Then I call [EMBY_BASE_URL]/Sessions/[session.Id]/Playing?itemIds=[embyId]&playCommands=PlayNow

Some things I've observed...

- This seems to work fine for movies, even if a movie is already playing
- In the case of TV eps, it seems to fail if an ep is already playing... you have to exit back to a main screen prior to the next call
- Obviously, if there's a failure in the ios calls to open the app, a session wont be created so all emby-api calls will fail
- Some odd rights stuff if you have multiple users... if you create a session with a user with limited access, then call to play a movie with that session that shouldn't have access, it still plays

Like I said above, I'm blown away by how capable the api is. I'd love to see a deeplink that pens emby, prompts for a pin if the most recent user has one, and once auth is complete either plays or fails to play the related movie based on if the currently auth'd user has access to the releated embyId