LCDSmartie Plugin For EWA RSS

[fering]

I put this plugin together for LCDSmartie specifically to read the RSS feeds generated by EWA. Basically it reads the RSS feed and sorts the items by PubDate. This way when selecting items, 1 is the next item to be recorded (for pending at least), 2 is the one after that etc.

I found this a bit easier than calling GBPVRcli to create a bunch of files in various pre/para/post batch files and reading those into LCDSmartie.

At the moment I'll say its in "Beta", mostly because I've only been running it for 2 days now. But I haven't seen any problems yet.

DESCRIPTION
===========
An LCDSmartie plugin used to read the RSS feeds generated by the GBPVR Enhanced Web Admin (EWA) to provide information on recordings.

INSTALLATION
============
Copy the LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll in LCDSmartie plugin folder.
You will also need to copy RSS.dll and RSS.NET.dll from the \gbpvr\web\bin folder to your LCDSmartie plugin folder.

Be sure that .NET Framework 2.0 is installed on your system (you need this for GBPVR so it shouldn't be a problem)

USE
===
Use following syntax:

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,[Function Number],[RSS URL],[Item Number])

where
[Function Number] is the function number you wish to call (1-20)
[RSS URL] is the GBPVR RSS feed you wish to use (see http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...bAdmin#rss for valid values)
[Item Number] is the item number from the feed you wish to display (sorted by pubDate)

for example:

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,1,http://localhost:7647/gbpvr/public/rss.aspx?filter=in-progress,1)
returns the first item in the in-progress feed (see below for what each function actually returns)
$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,1,http://localhost:7647/gbpvr/public/rss.aspx?filter=pending,2)
returns the second item in the pending feed (see below for what each function actually returns)


FUNCTIONS
====

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,1,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
RSS Title, RSS PubDate date and RSS PubDate time (for in-progress recordings shows end time)
"The Cosby Show today at 12:00 PM" or if in-progress "The Cosby Show finish at 12:30 PM"

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,2,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
RSS Title

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,3,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
RSS Description

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,4,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
RSS PubDate date

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,5,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
RSS PubDate time (start time)

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,6,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
Show Subtitle (from RSS Description)

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,7,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
Show Recorded Date (from RSS Description)

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,8,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
Show Recorded Time(from RSS Description)

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,9,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
Show Recorded Channel (from RSS Description)

$dll(LCDSmartieGBPVRRSS.dll,10,[RSS URI],[Item Number])
Show Description (from RSS Description)

NOTES:
======

If there is no data for a particular feed or particular item "No Data" will be returned.
This is helpful for turning screens on or off (for instance if there is nothing in-progress, you can skip those screens)

RSS data is cached for 5 minutes.

[stu8080]

Sounds Excellent!

I have the GBPVRCli setup, however i think it crashes LCDSmartie (there are no logs so i have no idea whats causing the crash!)
This should be a much better solution and more flexible, i appreciate it!

[stu8080]

Works a treat, time will tell if it cures the crashing.

Just a though: how feasable is it to have custome messages if there is no data?

[pBS]

why do we need a plugin? i thought smartie could already read rss feeds..
what does your plugin do exactly?

[stu8080]

RSS feeds are by default in the wrong order. Plus this gives the dates in a better format - ie today at 12:00, rather than just 18/03/2008 12:00

[pBS]

one side effect, it does keep the web sever active for when you log in..
[doesn't take so long to startup, it's been running updating the feed]

there are some formatting functions and plugins for smartie already..
but this is nicer/easier and packaged..

[fering]

Works a treat, time will tell if it cures the crashing.

Just a though: how feasable is it to have custome messages if there is no data?

To do that I'd probably have to use a ini file to store the message, which would also allow me to store a few other things like refresh rate, maybe some customs for today/tomorrow as well.

But in the mean time you could probably use the LCDSmartie warnif.dll, basically if the GBPVRRSS plug in returns "No Data", then the warnif plug in can return a custom message for you.

Out of curiosity what do you want to return? I use the actions to turn screens on and off if there it returns "No Data" for a particular feed, so the value itself is irrelevant to me, but I'm always looking to improve my LCD experience...

[fering]

one side effect, it does keep the web sever active for when you log in..
[doesn't take so long to startup, it's been running updating the feed]

there are some formatting functions and plugins for smartie already..
but this is nicer/easier and packaged..

My favorite side effect, is that I can now use my spare LCD on my office server to display whats happening on my HTPC downstairs. Not the most useful thing in the world, but kinda neat to be able to glance up and see that a show I know I'm missing is being recorded.

As mentioned before the RSS feed in smartie didn't sort properly so it was difficult (or impossible) to find the "next" recording. Also only function1 of this plugin actually does formatting, I put in the remainder of the functions (that return individual pieces of raw data) so using the other formating functions and plugins the message can be customized. (I kept function1 for exactly what I wanted it to return )

[stu8080]

I will probably just use the warnif.dll function, i didnt know about that. All i wanted to return was something more explanitory, such as 'no conflicts at this time' or 'nothing recording at this time', just so it didnt look like it was broken!

P.S: LCDSmartie crashed on me today again! It does it randomly, at different screens like BBC Weather, RSS feeds, CPU usage. Whats frustrating is that short of disabling each plugin at a time and waiting a few days for a crash each time, i cant pinpoint the cause.

Do you know where i could find logs, or how i interpret bug reports to establish which plugin (or what, if its not plugin related) is causing this crash?

[fering]

I've had the same problem in the past with trying to figure out exactly what LCDSmartie is doing. I haven't been able to find any command line arguments to enable logging or a debug mode or anything like that.

If you want to post up some of the bug report I'll have a look to see if I can see anything (no promises though).

(woohoo! 30 posts! I've finally graduated to "Member", and it only took 2.5 years)