The OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) is a platform for the cable television industry. Targeted at set-top boxes and televisions, OCAP provides a standard, hardware-independent basis for interactive applications that enhance the cable TV experience for consumers. The consumer-facing name for OCAP is tru2way; tru2way licensees include many well-known companies in the consumer electronics marketplace (see Resources).
 
The OCAP specification is developed by the CableLabs industry consortium. The document is publicly available, along with dozens of related specifications, at the CableLabs Web site (see Resources). The OCAP 1.1.2 document is 667 pages long, and like any good specification it builds on a foundation of many other documents. The sheer complexity of the platform makes it hard for a would-be OCAP developer to know where to begin. This three-article series aims to get Java™ developers interested in building applications for the platform off to an efficient start via the OCAP Reference Implementation (RI). Here in Part 1, you'll learn more about OCAP, download and install the RI, and run some applications on it. In Part 2, I'll cover how to create your own OCAP applications, using either a command line or the Eclipse IDE. Finally, Part 3 will take you under the hood and show you how you can build the OCAP RI yourself. It also includes a high-level guide to the source code. 
 
 
 
Getting started with OCAP, Part 1: Running the OCAP RI
The OpenCable Application Platform Reference Implementation (OCAP RI) is a freely available implementation of a comprehensive platform for interactive applications that run on set-top boxes, televisions, and other devices. This article, first in a three-part series, explains OCAP at a high level and describes how to obtain and run the RI. You'll learn how the OCAP RI locates applications and how to run any application. 
Articles  02 Mar 2010   
  
 
Getting started with OCAP, Part 2: Writing applications for the OCAP RI
Learn how to create applications for the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP). This article, the second in a three-part series, describes how to use standard Java technology and the OCAP Reference Implementation (RI) to create applications, called Xlets, that run atop OCAP.
Articles 09 Mar 2010