External portal loading

External OTT/IPTV portal

External Portal is a Web application that is loaded in STB in order to get access to multimedia services of particular OTT / IPTV platform.
Being client–server computer program, External Portal covers two sides - client side that is loaded to STB and server side that acts on MiddleWare server (MW) which is a bridge between STB and various media services such as access to audio-video content, recordings, other applications, etc.

STB interacts to MW by HTTP protocol. Accordinly, External Portal address is a HTTP URL. In order to make connection to particular MW, URL of its Portal should be pre-specified in STB.

STB can be configured in a way that during STB booting Portal is loaded (in other word, STB connects to Portal) automaticaly or manually by choosing particular Portal from the list.

Connection to External Portal may include authentification stage: this case to access Portal, user is asked for entering, in proposed Authentication form, a personal log-in and password that were obtained from the Operator (service provider). After STB connects to Portal, user gets access to OTT / IPTV services provided by Operator.

External portal of each OTT / IPTV platform has original User Interface (UI) designed on Desktop environment principle and contains general tools of service management and portal settings like windows, icons, folders, menu, etc.

Interaction between particular STB model and MW becomes possible after mutual pre-integration. STB models of MAG family, as default, are integrated with Ministra TV platform.

Specifying External portal in Software image and in System Settings

In open platform STB models, access to External Portals can be configured in the following ways:

1. Portal URL is specified by operator in STB software within software image creation (in case of operator and custom software images). This Portal will be loaded in STB automatically. In addition, during image creation operator can ban access to Embedded Portal - see Instruction.
2. Portal URL is manually configured by user in System settings of Embedded Portal - see below. This way of Portal specifying
   is available by default in public and factory images that are provided by STB manufacturer.

Configuring access to portals in Embedded portal

Portal section (Normal portal settings)

To configure access to External Portals the following section of Embedded Portal is used: System settings ⇒ Servers ⇒ Portals.
In Portals section, by default, it is possible to specify one or two External Portals.

Multiportal mode (extended portal settings)

In multiportal mode, STB can store information about up to 8 External Portals. Extended portals settings are configured in System settings ⇒ Portal ⇒ More section. If Multiportal mode is enabled (Multiportal mode option set to ON), additional options are opened in More window:

• first group (Default portal, Portal load delay) determines extended rules of portal loading in STB;
• second group (Use portal N, URL N, Portal Name) is intended to add additional (more than two) external portals.

In multiportal mode, information in Portals window becomes grayed out. It indicates that extended portals settings are being applied.

How to add External Portal

An example of manual configuring connection to External Portal is given below. To enter configuring data the screen keyboard is used.

Normal settings of External Portal:

Take as an example: Portal 1 (Name: stalker, URL: http://10.1.3.1/stalker_portal/c).

1. In Embedded portal open: System settings ⇒ Servers ⇒ Portals.
2. Bring up the screen keyboard (with KB button on RC).
3. Specify Portal 1 name value (do not click Enter). In example: Test_portal.
4. Remove the keyboard (with KB button on RC).
5. Go to Portal 1 URL option (with Down button on RC).
6. Bring up the screen keyboard (with KB button on RC).
7. Specify Portal 1 URL value: http://10.1.3.1/stalker_portal/c
   Note. If incorrect value is specified, the appropriate warning will be displayed when you attempt to save.
8. After edition completing, click Enter on keyboard to save entered data.
9. Exit from Portal settings (Exit on RC). To check connection to Portal 1, restart portal: System settings ⇒ Restart Portal. The specified portal (Portal 1) must be auto loaded.

Extended setting of Portals (Multiportal mode):

Take as an example: Portal 2 (URL: http://192.168.1.1).

1. In Embeded portal open: System settings ⇒ Servers ⇒ Portals.
2. Click More (F1 on RC). In appeared Multiportal mode field set ON. This opens extended Portals options:
   1. In Portal option select number of portal to be edited (in example: Portal 2);
   2. Set option Use portal 2 to ON. This opens Name 2, URL 2 options.
   3. Set required values in Name 2, URL 2 options (in example: URL 2: http://192.168.1.1).
   4. If necessary, make additional settings for other portals similarly as described in items a...с.
   5. Choose one of portals to be as default (auto started) portal - specify this portal in Default Portal option (in example: Portal 2).
   6. Select value of Portal load delay option (for example, 3 sec);
   7. Save the changes with command Save (OK on RC).
3. To connect to Portal 2, restart Embedded portal: System settings ⇒ RestartPortal. The specified portal (Portal 2) should be auto loaded.

When portal loading happens

Portal loading is getting started in the following cases:

• after STB reboot (including after SW update);
• on exit from Embedded portal (i.e. exit from Main menu - use Exit on RC);
• after restart of Embedded portal;
• on exit from External Portal (if this option is implemented in External Portal and enabled in SW image).

Portal loading variants: autostart and manual start

There are two variants how portal loading can be done in STB:

• autostart (autoloading) - portal is loaded without user assistance (see Portal autostart description).
• manual start - required portal is chosen by user in Select a portal a portal for loading window.

Normal settings

In case of Normal settings mode:

• if External Portals are not specified, autostart of the Embedded Portal is applied;
• if a single External Portal is specified, autostart of the specified External Portal is applied;
• if both External Portals are specified, manual start is applied.

Multiportal mode

In case of multiportal mode one of portals (Embedded or External) is assigned as default and portal loading denends on value of Portal load delay option:

• in case of certain delay time (3 s .... 2 min) - the default portal will automatically be loaded in STB, after a set delay.
• in case of Without auto start value - manual start is applied.

For example, in order to configure Portal 2 autostart for above description you should:

• set Default portal = Portal: 2;
• set Portal load delay = some value (any except Without auto start).
  

Portal autostart

How to configure portal autostart (autoloading) is described above. The process of portal autostart is as follows:

• In the beginning of portal loading the message "Loading portal..." appears on the screen.
  Note. Duration of displaying "Loading portal..." message is 3 sec, as default. In multiportal settings mode this value can be changed with Portal load delay option.

• If during Loading portal... message displaying user presses Menu on the RC, the loading interrupts and Select a portal for loading window opens: user can manually start some portal loading or change required system settings.

• After the expiration  of the delay time (if loading was not interrupted), the portal autoloading starts. After successful loading, a start page of Portal is displayed. If loading gets failed, the Page loading error will be given on the screen.

Select a portal for loading window (Manual portal start)

Select a portal for loading window provides users to connect to required portal (this is an alternative to auto start):

• In case of normal portal settings mode: if both external portals are configured, the manual portal start is applied.
• In case of extended portal settings (multiportal) mode: if option Portal load delay is set as Without auto start.

There Select a portal for loading window can be brought up during portal loading, as well:

• If during Loading portal... message displaying user presses Menu on the RC, the loading interrupts and Select a portal for loading window opens.
  

The window Select a portal for loading allows to select manually a portal to be loaded (Embedded or external). In addition, user can make changes of Portal settings (System settings ⇒ Servers ⇒ Portals) or other parameters of System settings before start Portal loading.

Page loading error

If STB fails to load an External Portal, then Page loading error window (page 404) displays. It contains Try again command (retrying connection to the portal) and other commands that are similar to commands of Select a portal for loading window.

If Page loading error window is displayed, possible user actions:

1. Eliminate the cause of the issue (for example, recover network connection) and try to reconnect the Portal.
   1. Check network connection status in Select a portal for loading window. To recover connection, you can change network settings (in System Settings) back to Select a portal for loading window (use Back button on RCU) and try to load the Portal again.
2. Enter to System settings, change portals settings, and then back to Select a portal for loading window (use Back button on RCU) to load the Portal again.
3. Load another portal (Embedded or External) from the list .

In case portal is not loaded ( 'Page Loading Error', 'Blocking access to portal from Operator' messages):

• If booting starts (logotype and Starting... messages become visible on the screen) but External Portal is not being loaded (loading ends with Page Loading Error page), check the following:
  • URL of the Portal;
  • network connection;
  • if IPTV provider's Portal is available;
  • if the access to service from IPTV provider is not locked.
• If network conection has been checked but Portal does not load then restart STB.
• If connection to network is correct but network services are not available then contact IPTV operator.
• Locked access to services by IPTV operator (messages such as 'STB is blocked', etc.) - attentively read Info message on the TV screen, contact operator or fix the specified issue by yourself, reboot STB.

DHCP portal

An external portal to be loaded in STB can be specified from DHCP server. This feature is called DHCP portal and is configured in the next section: System settings ⇒ Servers ⇒ More.
Set ON in Use DHCP portal field to enable DHCP portal feature.

If DHCP portal option is enabled, then STB, at booting stage, retrieves URL of External Portal from DHCP server. For this purpose the DHCP server must be pre-configured properly.

The value of DHCP portal is set in STB environment variables as portal_dhcp. Accordingly, this value displays in More window in DHCP portal field.

DHCP-portal has higher priority comparing to portal values assigned in System Settings.That is, if after STB restart a particular value of DHCP portal is being obtained, STB will try to auto load this Portal despite the values of other portals (Portal 1, Portal 2, ...).

How to configure portal settings in software image

Instruction on how to configure portal settings during building of software image:

• Рortal address (URL) is specified in environment variables file (env.txt) - see Creation of software image. Key points section of Operators Utilities and instructions for building STB software image :
  • For example, for Portal 1 to set the address http://example.com - in env.txt file there should be next line: portal1=http://example.com - this portal will be automatically loaded in STB.
• By default, Portals section is accessible in Embedded portal: System settings ⇒ Servers ⇒ Portals. To hide (not to display) Portals section you should add in env.txt file the next line: custom_url_hider=true.
• It is recommended to perform check variables procedure, to control unauthorized changes of variables - see Checking of variables during STB / portal start.
• How to handle various pages related to portal loading (see Disabling items of System settings, Settings. Disabling entering to embedded portal and other ⇒ /home/web/system/pages/loader/rules.js content):

- Lock/unlock access to Select a portal for loading window during Loading portal... message displaying with Menu button of RC;
- Lock/unlock access to System settings in Select a portal for loading and Page loading error (Page 404) windows;
- Hide/unhide configured portal list (URLs and names) in Select a portal for loading and Page loading error (Page 404) windows;
- Lock/unlock access to Embedded portal in Select a portal for loading and Page loading error (Page 404) windows.

• How to disable access to file system of STB (via SSH protocol) - see SSH - change password, port, disable/enable.