Announce: BBC LARDY - New Dynamic Source

[McBainUK]

1st thought was it has to be there cos its funny that way

But I reckon it stands for Radio.

[STX1300MAN]

1st thought was it has to be there cos its funny that way

But I reckon it stands for Radio.

Correct on both counts

BBC Listen Again Radio DYnamic source

Mike

[Carlito]

Ahhh, threw me off from the first post

BBC LARDY stands for BBC Listen Again Dynamicsource

No radio in there Just me trying to comprehend stuff before I've woken up

[STX1300MAN]

OK, I've sorted things out now. Seems Visual Studio was having problems.:mad: I created a new project and copied my code in and it all worked on my non-development machine. (Ubu the CLSID was correct).

So I've made the following changes and updated the attachment to the original post.

1. Removed need for Internet Transfer Control, now uses built in .NET funcionality. Hence no longer needs an extra Interop DLL.

2. Added installation instructions to Zip file.

3. Added clickthrough url to each station, so everyone's conscience is clean.

4. Added setup batch file to tidyup and do the registration.

Mike Roberts
STX1300man

[ubu]

OK, I've sorted things out now. Seems Visual Studio was having problems.:mad: I created a new project and copied my code in and it all worked on my non-development machine. (Ubu the CLSID was correct).

Now works flawlessly. Nice one, Sherlock!

One comment: you don't seem to be writing any progress or stats info to standard output so the BBCLARDynSource.Playlist.log file is always empty. At first glance, this suggests something went wrong with the download. If you're not going to write any progress info, at least writing something like "BBCLARDynSource download successful. n links written to the PLX file" would be "reassuring".

Tangential note: I notice that, when using several DynSource apps with a lot of sections selected, the UbuStream station list can get pretty large and unwieldy. I don't know if I mentioned this before but I've recently added the ability to navigate to a station panel from the group panel in the config app. Just double click on the station name in the group station list.

[STX1300MAN]

Now works flawlessly. Nice one, Sherlock!

One comment: you don't seem to be writing any progress or stats info to standard output so the BBCLARDynSource.Playlist.log file is always empty. At first glance, this suggests something went wrong with the download. If you're not going to write any progress info, at least writing something like "BBCLARDynSource download successful. n links written to the PLX file" would be "reassuring".

Ubu, I didn't write anything to the logs as I wasn't sure if the Config app had the files open or not. Can you confirm that when my Dyn Source exe is running (either for sections or playlist) I can empty (flush/re-create) and write to the log file with no worry of getting any conflicts? If so, I'll add some logging messages to the next drop, though I'll wait to see if there is any other feedback.

Hope you enjoy using BBCLARDY.

Regards

Mike
STX1300man

[ubu]

Ubu, I didn't write anything to the logs as I wasn't sure if the Config app had the files open or not. Can you confirm that when my Dyn Source exe is running (either for sections or playlist) I can empty (flush/re-create) and write to the log file with no worry of getting any conflicts? If so, I'll add some logging messages to the next drop, though I'll wait to see if there is any other feedback.

You can't write to the GB-PVR log. Just write to standard output (Console.WriteLine(...) in C#). At run-time, UbuStream redirects standard out (and standard error) to the log files (<appname>.Sections.log and <appname>.Playlist.log, respectively). You don't need to flush anything (actually I don't think Console IO is buffered - there's no explicit flush method).

Hope you enjoy using BBCLARDY.

Great addition to my database. Now, if you could grab the text for things like Book At Bedtime and the Afternoon Play and stick it into the Description field, so I could see what I'm about to play, I'd be a really happy camper.

[Kronalias]

Nice one, Mike!

Best regards, Kronalias ( of the Beebotron )

[Kronalias]

You can't write to the GB-PVR log. Just write to standard output (Console.WriteLine(...) in C#). At run-time, UbuStream redirects standard out (and standard error) to the log files (<appname>.Sections.log and <appname>.Playlist.log, respectively). You don't need to flush anything (actually I don't think Console IO is buffered - there's no explicit flush method).

Great addition to my database. Now, if you could grab the text for things like Book At Bedtime and the Afternoon Play and stick it into the Description field, so I could see what I'm about to play, I'd be a really happy camper.

Can't help you out with the full text, but the synopses of what you're after are here: http://beebotron.awardspace.com/synopsis.html

Mike - Could you grab this data from my site?

Cheers, Kronalias

[STX1300MAN]

Can't help you out with the full text, but the synopses of what you're after are here: http://beebotron.awardspace.com/synopsis.html

Mike - Could you grab this data from my site?

Cheers, Kronalias

Kronalias

First let me apologise for not emailing you about my application. Bad form on my part, but it genuinely slipped my mind (it happens as you get old)

I did look at that part of your site but it would involve some "hard coding" of the programmes, making it very vulnerable to changes of content (as with most scrapers). I also looked at using the BBC Backstage API, but the ban on under three second polling rate blew that out of the water, also I couldn't really see the point of multiple people doing with their PCs, what your site is already doing.

What part of the BBC Backstage API licence prohibits the use of the synopsis data with the Listen Again programme data. I had another read of them and couldn't see a problem. Perhaps there is a way we/you can structure your two pages so that it makes it easier to merge the data for both my application and your handheld community?

I don't know how your kron jobs spider the BBC, but I guess for the Listen Again content you are using their text only feed. I knocked up something that trawled there having worked out a pattern from the RealAudio URL to get to the detail page. This worked in about 80% of cases but boy was it slow, and I'm sure someone would soon notice if several users were running my app. It seems crazy the BEEB are effectively moving towards every individual using their data doing the same "joining up exercise", there should be a "give me it all" option for programmes or even station content.

Regards

Mike