Completely Dynamic Apple TV Top Shelf using a Remote JSON file, Alamofire, Semaphore and SwiftyJSON

ServiceProvider.swift

//
//  ServiceProvider.swift
//  BT Top Shelf
//
//  Created by HalBook on 9/28/15.
//  Copyright © 2015 HalGatewood.com. All rights reserved.
//

import Foundation
import TVServices
import Alamofire

class ServiceProvider: NSObject, TVTopShelfProvider {

    override init() {
        super.init()
    }
    
    var pingURL = "https://bibletalk.tv/appletv-topshelf.json"
    
    var items: [TVContentItem] = []

    // MARK: - TVTopShelfProvider protocol

    var topShelfStyle: TVTopShelfContentStyle {
        // Return desired Top Shelf style.
        return .Sectioned
    }

    var topShelfItems: [TVContentItem] {

        // START SEMAPHORE
        let semaphore = dispatch_semaphore_create(0)
        
        
        // REQUEST REMOTE JSON
        Alamofire.request( .GET, self.pingURL )
            .responseJSON { response in
                
                
                var ContentItems = [TVContentItem]();
                
                let json = JSON(response.result.value!)
                let sections = json["sections"].arrayValue
                
                // LOOP ARRAY OF SECTIONS
                for section in sections
                {
                    let items = section["items"].arrayValue
                    ContentItems = [TVContentItem]();
                    
                    // LOOP ITEMS
                    for item in items
                    {
                        // PASS IN THE IMAGE SIZE
                        var image_shape : TVContentItemImageShape = .Square
                        switch item["image_size"].string!
                        {
                            case "HDTV": image_shape = .HDTV
                            case "ExtraWide": image_shape = .ExtraWide
                            case "Wide": image_shape = .Wide
                            case "SDTV": image_shape = .SDTV
                            case "Poster": image_shape = .SDTV
                            case "None": image_shape = .None
                            default : image_shape = .Square
                        }
                        
                        // APPEND THE LATEST ITEM
                        ContentItems.append( self.buildShelfItem( item["slug"].string!, Title: item["title"].string!, Image: item["image"].string!, ImageSize: image_shape ) )
                    }
                    
                    
                    // SET THE SECTION DETAILS
                    let sectionItem = TVContentItem(contentIdentifier: TVContentIdentifier(identifier: section["contentIdentifier"].string!, container: nil)!)
                    sectionItem!.title = section["title"].string!
                    sectionItem!.topShelfItems = ContentItems
                    
                    
                    // SET THE ITEM, IN THIS CASE THE WHOLE SECTION
                    self.items.append(sectionItem!)
                }

                // TELL THE SEMAPHORE WE'RE DONE
                dispatch_semaphore_signal(semaphore)
        }
        
        // WAIT FOR THE SIGNAL
        dispatch_semaphore_wait(semaphore, DISPATCH_TIME_FOREVER)
        
        // RETURN
        return self.items
    }

    
    func buildShelfItem( Slug: String, Title: String = "", Image: String, ImageSize: TVContentItemImageShape = .Square) -> TVContentItem
    {
        // BUILDS THE ITEM, YOU WILL NEED TO MODIFY THE displayURL, etc.
        let item = TVContentItem(contentIdentifier: TVContentIdentifier(identifier: Slug, container: nil)!)
        item!.imageURL = NSURL(string:Image)
        item!.imageShape = ImageSize
        item!.displayURL = NSURL(string: "bibletalktv:///" + Slug);
        item!.title = Title
        return item!
    }
}

You can see the remote JSON structure here: https://bibletalk.tv/appletv-topshelf.json

You'll need SwiftyJSON as well for this.

This is really helpful. Were you able to get alamofire working on device? I'm struggling with @rpath issues when trying to build my project.

hi,
xcode Module Alamofire has no member named request :(

Hi,
I managed to make it work properly but everytime I come back on the app icon the reload append the data for another time.
any known issue on your side?
Thanks!

Alamofire module not loaded it shows error how to add for topshelf, service provider

Add this to your podfile. I hope this will helps you.

target 'MyAppExtensionName'
do
pod 'Alamofire', '~> 4.0'
end

Thank you for sharing.
I've used this and it works fine. However, I noticed that the top shelf does not self update when my endpoint updates.

After long research and tests, I've found the issue. At line 21 var items: [TVContentItem] = [] if I move this inside the AlamoFire callback and configure AlamoFire to not cache responses then the self update starts working.