Android client

[tmrt]

There exists a java MVP-like GUI-client which might be easily portable to Android.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdr-medi...200506171/

[bgowland]

I guess you access EPG data etc via the NEWA interface?

I'm developing a service for the PC end which directly queries the npvr.db3 file to produce EPG data in daily chunks (individual text files). The Android app maintains 7 days of EPG data, each day discarding the previous day's and downloading a new '7th day'.

[Barsk]

Ok, I see. That is something that will be dependant on Sub's choices on how he changes the database model. I did propose that an official webservice should be provided by NPVR to properly expose the inner data in an abstract way. That would help us plugin and App makers to communicate with NPVR and its data in a controlled manner. But I never got any backing for it.
Maybe your service could serve the same purpose? Have you considered creating an open API of some form for it? A RESTful webservice is probably the most efficent and platform independent IMHO. If using JSON protocols the bandwidth use is low. XML data is Ok too, but uses more bandwidth.

[Barsk]

There exists a java MVP-like GUI-client which might be easily portable to Android.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdr-medi...200506171/

That is highly interesting. I will sure have a look. Thanks for the tip!

[bgowland]

That is something that will be dependant on Sub's choices on how he changes the database model.

Over the years I've been using gbpvr/npvr, the DB structure has rarely changed and I don't know of any case where columns or tables have been renamed. Even when sub changed from an Access DB to SQLite, I think he retained the same structure (or very close at least). I admit there is always a chance that DB changes in future could cause problems but it's a relatively small chance.

I did propose that an official webservice should be provided by NPVR to properly expose the inner data in an abstract way. That would help us plugin and App makers to communicate with NPVR and its data in a controlled manner.

Plugin developers should never need to have direct access to the DB - there are enough helper classes/interfaces to allow plugins to do pretty much anything within the framework. Direct access by external applications isn't officially supported by sub (and I don't blame him for that) anybody who wants to do this sort of thing (and any users of their applications) have to accept that.

Have you considered creating an open API of some form for it?

No, I'm mostly concentrating on just getting it to work at the moment. The reality is that the Android app is quite specific in what it does (although with the possibility of adding new features in the future). As a result, the data I'm retrieving is quite specific and just a small subset of what's there - unlikely to be of much use to others.

Cheers,
Brian

[re-Barr]

I have been using PRemoteDroid for wifi mouse and keyboard also remote file browser (don't actually use that part often). works great. but the jumi remote looks awesome if only for android.

[UncleJohnsBand]

I wanted to throw out here the NEWA has a complete web service API......this should make creating a UI on any platform much easier than having to write a UI plus integrate to the NPVR API on the server side.

mvallevand has used it to power Searchlite and Ton wrote a whole XBMC integration for GBPVR and is working on one for NPVR.

[Barsk]

Well, I have heard that NEWA did have some data that could be used, but a complete webservice API. This is exactly what i have been whishing for! Will sure make my future Android APP project that much easier. Thanks for the heads up!

If only I had the spare time available so that I could start this project now....

[mvallevand]

The real problem with NEWA Web Services on other platforms is the Windows Authentication scheme it uses (it's really Microsoft at fault here) and finding the right libraries for non-Windows platform and even with Java it is not trivial. I tried to finding something in python for XBMC but I wasn't lucky enough to find the one Ton found but it takes work.

Martin

[Barsk]

Ok, so maybe some quirks to work out. But webservice to me is either RESTful or SOAP-based traditional. Are there other variants around? Like M$ variants? I am not a .NET programmer myself so if there is a private M$ APi in use I am surely not familiar with it. That could be a drawback.