I-xmltv >Incremental XMLTV download utility

[cginzel]

Jim,

When I installed v0.97.7 I decided to go for broke and I uninstalled v0.96.12, deleted all of my old directories and started fresh with the v0.97.7 install. I put in the lastest comskip v0.79.42 which does include a PostProcessing.bat, but I have GBPVR configured to run comskip without calling the batch file. I have the Weather plugin and ContourHC skin installed and I had your older v06.5.05 release running and everything was working fine. Oh and I had converted GBPVR to SQLite...

Now, last night I installed your updated v06.5.14 release and the lastest SlimmGBPVR v1.1.2328.27831.

The UpdateEPG.bat was exactly like yours except I changed:

SET AddDetails=0

But this may be the cause... SlimmGBPVR had a problem I think when it let go of the DB connection to let GBPVR do it's "compress" which I wonder if sub is doing now for the SQLite DB. And I didn't realize it, but SlimmGBPVR was trying to repeatedly get a new connection from what I can see.

So the problem may have been an interaction between I-xmltv and SlimmGBPVR...:o

[UncleJohnsBand]

Yes I read about your ZapTools earlier and it looks great, I also love your Adv Web Admin as you can see by the list of installed features in my sig.
I even asked if you would consider importing the unique-ID from a xmltv generated zap2it file in a different thread (before 97.7 was released) Modifying the GBPVR mdb is well beyond my ability, but it’s a moot issue with sub’s new release anyway.
xmltv handles the zap2it downloads, my utility just modifies the files xmltv gives. Two files are downloaded, “today + tomorrow”, and the “last day”, any compression would be handled on the xmltv side.

To be honest I’ve completely moved away from using zap2it in the GBPVR config utility for several reasons.
I have several computers, tuners, and TV guides. I wanted to cover all of them and their individual little quirks by modifying a single xmltv download into several customized files. When I was using config’s zap2it option I had to select complete reload or I ended u with holes in the epg. For some reason I don’t have the overlapping and failed recording problem after switching to I-xmltv.

I guess the last thing is, I don’t like asking other people to do something if I can think of a way I can do it myself. And writing this little utility was a lot more fun than installing, testing, and uninstalling utilities from the wiki.
I hope I didn’t step on any toes, by creating something that already exists, because that wasn’t my intention.
In the end I have exactly what I wanted, and thought I’d share it for others.
An incremental xmltv download manager that will customize the GBPVR TV Guide the way I want it. While at the same time, grabbing a minimal 3-day download each evening from Zap2It and producing a single file that all my computers can share.

No toes stepped on here .....just the thought of combining efforts rather than seperating....I think that is the Open Source way....many peoples ideas and efforts combined into an integrated solution create a far more superior and functional unit of work that individual efforts.

Since I haven't used your tool I am not totally familiar with how it works....it sounds as though you are pulling in the data and loading the GBPVR tables with what you have downloaded....is that correct?

Zaptools is a supplemental side db that just adds extra info that is not in the native GBPVR DB.

[Jim_]

Jim,

When I installed v0.97.7 I decided to go for broke and I uninstalled v0.96.12, deleted all of my old directories and started fresh with the v0.97.7 install. I put in the lastest comskip v0.79.42 which does include a PostProcessing.bat, but I have GBPVR configured to run comskip without calling the batch file. I have the Weather plugin and ContourHC skin installed and I had your older v06.5.05 release running and everything was working fine. Oh and I had converted GBPVR to SQLite...

Now, last night I installed your updated v06.5.14 release and the lastest SlimmGBPVR v1.1.2328.27831.

The UpdateEPG.bat was exactly like yours except I changed:

SET AddDetails=0

But this may be the cause... SlimmGBPVR had a problem I think when it let go of the DB connection to let GBPVR do it's "compress" which I wonder if sub is doing now for the SQLite DB. And I didn't realize it, but SlimmGBPVR was string to repeatedly get a new connection from what I can see.

So the problem may have been an interaction between I-xmltv and SlimmGBPVR...:o

Ok, I was hoping it was something like that.
The last thing I want to do is release something that will cause sub a support nightmare!

It's probably the same problem as last time, where you could run UpdateEPG.bat from windows, but it would fail when called from GBPVR. But only if SlimmGBPVR tray is installed. Honestly, it’s impossible for me to troubleshoot this if your having known problems by using another installed utility.
Here’s the thing, with SET AddDetails=0 there just shouldn’t be any notable difference between the old and new version of I-xmltv. I tried to be very careful when laying out the sub routines so they wouldn’t overlap, or require additional memory. Basically, its 4 separate programs in one executable.
One thing that could have caused problems with your particular system is if SET ShiftListingTimes=0 was set to "1". And the first zip in the announcements forum had it enabled.

[SIZE="4"]v0.97.7 testing is complete.[/SIZE]
No problems with either database type.

[Jim_]

No toes stepped on here .....just the thought of combining efforts rather than seperating....I think that is the Open Source way....many peoples ideas and efforts combined into an integrated solution create a far more superior and functional unit of work that individual efforts.

Since I haven't used your tool I am not totally familiar with how it works....it sounds as though you are pulling in the data and loading the GBPVR tables with what you have downloaded....is that correct?

Zaptools is a supplemental side db that just adds extra info that is not in the native GBPVR DB.

Hi UncleJohnsBand, agree completely!
Sorry I missed your post yesterday, I was in a hurry to get this tested with gbpvr v97.
First how the utility works.
It is a completely standalone dos utility called by UpdateEPG.bat.
It does not connect to (or modify) GBPVR or its database in any way, it only accesses and modifies the xml file that gbpvr loads for the EPG source. If gbpvr doesn’t like the epg file for any reason, it just wont use it, so there should be no compatability issues (or risk) at all.


One of the things I had in mind when I was doing this was how it would work with the Adv Web Admin. Seriously, you should give it a try!
Now that it's finished and tested, I'll spend some time over the next few days doing screen shots and explaining how the changes to the EPG can be used.
Like finding all premiere comedy TV-shows in the web admin, by simply searching for a "space *" and choosing comedy as the genre. For {Rated}movies just search for "{" and the genre (horror in the second jpg).
I hope someone updates RecTracker, or makes a new version that works with v97 in the near future, because gbpvr’s built-in dupe avoidance teamed up with RecTracker works soooo nice!

[Jim_]

In the mood for a 1940's western?
Search for (194 and choose Western as the genre.
Or maybe just a 4-Star movie? [4
Or only G-Rated movies? {G

[UncleJohnsBand]

Hi UncleJohnsBand, agree completely!
Sorry I missed your post yesterday, I was in a hurry to get this tested with gbpvr v97.
First how the utility works.
It is a completely standalone dos utility called by UpdateEPG.bat.
It does not connect to (or modify) GBPVR or its database in any way, it only accesses and modifies the xml file that gbpvr loads for the EPG source. If gbpvr doesn’t like the epg file for any reason, it just wont use it, so there should be no compatability issues (or risk) at all.


One of the things I had in mind when I was doing this was how it would work with the Adv Web Admin. Seriously, you should give it a try!
Now that it's finished and tested, I'll spend some time over the next few days doing screen shots and explaining how the changes to the EPG can be used.
Like finding all premiere comedy TV-shows in the web admin, by simply searching for a "space *" and choosing comedy as the genre. For {Rated}movies just search for "{" and the genre (horror in the second jpg).
I hope someone updates RecTracker, or makes a new version that works with v97 in the near future, because gbpvr’s built-in dupe avoidance teamed up with RecTracker works soooo nice!

Thanks....now I understand how this works....interesting idea. Rather than needing to deal with a db you are updating the desired info in the data itself which is then loaded in to GBVPR.

Provides the same end-game on data available in the EPG. I'll have to download this and give it a try.

[cginzel]

Honestly, it’s impossible for me to troubleshoot this if your having known problems by using another installed utility.

yeah... sorry Jim! I was just so surprised when I saw all of the instances running I sort of had a knee jerk reaction... :o

But I installed it again last night and alls well this morning... thanks again for all of your efforts... very nice utility!

[Jim_]

yeah... sorry Jim! I was just so surprised when I saw all of the instances running I sort of had a knee jerk reaction... :o

But I installed it again last night and alls well this morning... thanks again for all of your efforts... very nice utility!

Not a problem Charles, glad it worked!
Talk about a panic attack though! I knew in the back of my mind I-xmltv shouldn’t have any compatibility issues with (any?) future release of GBPVR, because it doesn’t connect to GBPVR in any way. But stranger things have happened….
If a future version of GBPVR supports xmltv 5-years from now, this utility should work 5-years from now.
I avoid writing utilities that will be obsolete in 6-months.
Jim