Displaying PowerPoint Files

I have an existing app called Adventures In Ministry. One of its main draws is that it includes over 400 song lyrics within the app. These are all set up as PPT files. I use a UITableView to display the names, and clicking one opens a new ViewController with a UIWebView that shows that PPT. I am wanting to port this app over to the new Apple TV, as it would simplify use in large groups, by not having to AirPlay someone's device to another Apple TV. However, I understand there is no UIWebView in the tvOS, so what would you all reccommend to view a PPT file?

Replies

If it's already web based, why does it need to be ported?


Just surf on your iPad and use AirPlay Mirroring. If it's not on the web, create a modern HTML5 website and PDF those PPTs. That gets you iOS and Android support out of the box, so everyone in the pews can mobile if so desired.

I'm wanting to make an actual app for this, easily browse through WITHOUT the need for someone doing AirPlay. AirPlay is nice, but it is sometimes glitchy, is not full screen on mirroring, and if the one doing it forgets to put in Do not disturb...well, notifications can be annoying. It is not web based, just on the app, embedded in all the files as PPT.

What does it have to do with a large group?


Individuals would download make use of an ATV app, at home, singularly, not a group, in a church, unless each person is sitting in front of their own monitor and own ATV...doesn't make sense, sorry.

Honestly, it doesn't have to make sense to you, in order to provide some hlpful feedback. However, there are times we have small groups of 15-30 over at our house, and putting songs up on our 65" TV with a new Apple TV would make sense. Churches may also start buying the new apple tv and plugging it up to their projector and 120" screen, which would also make sense to have this. Just a few examples that aren't even necessary.

It's an interesting use-case of HTML rendering. I suspect one of the reasons why Apple decided against putting Safari and releated APIs into tvOS is that web-browsing using the Apple TV remote would be a horrifically bad user experience; far better to use AirPlay from an "iDevice" in that case. Your use-case though, isn't about web browsing. You should maybe file a feature request with Apple.


However, in the absence of that, one way to go about to solving your problem is to think about using a file format other than PowerPoint. What about rolling your own file format that you can render graphically using your own code? To me, using PPT doesn't seem the best way to describe song lyric visualisation.


I won't go into the copyright issues surrounding publishing song lyrics, but in case you haven't gone into that, you might want to take a look.

Still stuck on this, though I have gone through and converted all the PPT files to PDF