RSS feeds for recodings

[lstepnio]

It might be very handy to have an option in the request to generate an XML file that provides the data into XML seperated elements for easy parsing. The RSS feed is great for a human readable usage but the attributes of the recording aren't easily parsable in this format.

I think I recall that there is a option to export recording to an XML file in the GB-PVR configuration. The exported XML recodings file is pretty much the type of format I'm referring to. This feature would go a long way to allow folks to remotley and easily export and parse GB-PVR data for use with 3rd party and custom applications.

To bring this whole thing to a level of customized and remote interactivity it would be ideal if data included URLs for each show that when requested would delete, cancel, etc the recording.

[pastro]

I tested the feeds using http://feedvalidator.org/
and it claims there are a couple of problems with the feeds.
Not sure if this is the trouble with Thunderbird but it's probably a good start.
Also since the date-time field isn't right it's probably whats causing IE7.0 to not be able to sort by date.

Here is the report

Sorry
This feed does not validate.

line 16, column 45: pubDate must be an RFC-822 date-time: Sunday, February 18, 2007 7:00:00 PM (51 occurrences)

<pubDate>Sunday, February 18, 2007 7:00:0PM</pubDate>
----------------------------------------------^
line 318, column 0: Missing channel element: link

</channel>

EDIT:
Here are three dates that they claim would be valid.
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 08:00:00 EST</pubDate>

<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 13:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>

[UncleJohnsBand]

I tested the feeds using http://feedvalidator.org/
and it claims there are a couple of problems with the feeds.
Not sure if this is the trouble with Thunderbird but it's probably a good start.
Also since the date-time field isn't right it's probably whats causing IE7.0 to not be able to sort by date.

Here is the report

Sorry
This feed does not validate.

line 16, column 45: pubDate must be an RFC-822 date-time: Sunday, February 18, 2007 7:00:00 PM (51 occurrences)

<pubDate>Sunday, February 18, 2007 7:00:0PM</pubDate>
----------------------------------------------^
line 318, column 0: Missing channel element: link

</channel>

EDIT:
Here are three dates that they claim would be valid.
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 08:00:00 EST</pubDate>

<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 13:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

<pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2002 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>

Yea....I know about the 2 issues reported in the validator....the one I have no idea (/channel) not being found....everything does line up.....I think it is a bug in the validator (assuming you are using the W3C validator like I have been using.

I did have the time set to the last format....Feed Readers (at least the two that I tried) did not convert the times to my local time and couldn't find any settings in the readers to do so. The center one offers no offset to convert it to local time like the last one so that one was out. The top one is military time.....I hate military time.

Then thinking about RSS feeds in general for EWA.....you are going to using this for your own information so you would want to see it in your time format....and if someone else across the globe is looking at it they really aren't going to care about that date anyway....that date is just the date that you recorded the show on.

Since the two items don't cause any issues that I have found I left them alone.

[UncleJohnsBand]

It might be very handy to have an option in the request to generate an XML file that provides the data into XML seperated elements for easy parsing. The RSS feed is great for a human readable usage but the attributes of the recording aren't easily parsable in this format.

I think I recall that there is a option to export recording to an XML file in the GB-PVR configuration. The exported XML recodings file is pretty much the type of format I'm referring to. This feature would go a long way to allow folks to remotley and easily export and parse GB-PVR data for use with 3rd party and custom applications.

To bring this whole thing to a level of customized and remote interactivity it would be ideal if data included URLs for each show that when requested would delete, cancel, etc the recording.

Hmmmm....remote management of recordings over the Inernet.....isn't that EWA?

RSS - Really Simple Syndication is designed for providing information on any given subject. Adding links for deleting and canceling can be done but I am leary of ending up attempting to build a whole other recording management interface into RSS feeds.

As is....the links for playing, downloading and streaming are embeded in the description of the RSS item....which means if you want to use this info in another app you have to parse the description looking for the HTML tags that contain the info.(which you already pointed out).

RSS is a standard format that only has certain element id's available too it....if you go outside those elements you break the standard and RSS readers won't be able to read the feed.

What you are looking for is a Web Service interface....not an RSS interface.

Someone started that some time back but I think it died.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Thunderbird hangs when trying to verify the rss feed. Not sure what's up it acts like it sees the feed (the wrong address times out quickly) and the progress bar fills up and then it hangs and never verifies the feed. Anyone else see this?


IE 7.0 found them no problem so I'm sure the addresses are ok.

I Don't use ThunderBird......comes up in RSSReader and SharpReader without a problem. IE6 and FireFox also display the feed without issue.....

EDIT: I take that back....I was able to set them up in the readers because there was something there.....now that there is nothing I do get an error......I think rather than returning nothing I may need to return an empty RSS feed item......I'll give that a try.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Using IE 7.0 to display the feed the dates all show up at the same time for pending recordings. I looked in the xml file and there is a pubdate field that I would have thought would have allowed IE to sort by date and show the recordings in order that they will occur. This isn't the case. Is there a different field that IE is looking for to sort by date?

The publish date should represent the date/time that the recording is scheduled to occur. That is what I see showing up in my readers....there looks like there a some with the same date and time but that is because it is two shows on the same date at the same time but on different channels.

[UncleJohnsBand]

Thanks very much for this! It's very useful, but can I make a request?

I'm using this to monitor for recording conflicts. Most of the time there aren't any, and the RSS feed then returns an empty file -- for which my RSS alert tool just reports an error.

If there are no entries in a list, could you return a single entry something like "No conflicts" (or "Nothing Pending" or "Nothing Deleted", etc.)?

Thanks.

What Reader are you using......nothing is being returned in an empty case(or at least shouldn't be)......could be a bug in your reader....the two that I test with RSSReader and SharpReader don't seem to have an issue in this instance.

EDIT: I take that back....I was able to set them up in the readers because there was something there.....now that there is nothing I do get an error......I think rather than returning nothing I may need to return an empty RSS feed item......I'll give that a try.

[UncleJohnsBand]

If you haven't upgraded EWA to the latest release you may want to do that....there are changes in that relase for RSS that are not in the beta that was here......
[URL="http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=24479"]
EWA Support Forum Build 56 Thread[/URL]

Also post any issues there.....I keep forgetting this thread is here and I don't always have time to check my e-mail notifications......

[pastro]

The publish date should represent the date/time that the recording is scheduled to occur. That is what I see showing up in my readers....there looks like there a some with the same date and time but that is because it is two shows on the same date at the same time but on different channels.

On IE7.0 the entire feed has the same date-time, so it's pretty much unuseable.
I don't know if that's an error with the date field rearing it's head, or part of MS's wisdom.
On sharpreader it works fine.

[UncleJohnsBand]

On IE7.0 the entire feed has the same date-time, so it's pretty much unuseable.
I don't know if that's an error with the date field rearing it's head, or part of MS's wisdom.
On sharpreader it works fine.

My guess is that IE is showing the post date and not the publish date.....