Can I Pre-Process the xml Files?

[LewE]

Today, I posted a "Wishlist" item to have the ability to define (possibly in CONFIG) the ability to add/subtract some time to/from the times in the program guide. I want to do this because the technicians that maintain the cable service for my complex (by an exclusive contract) are incompetent and occasionally point the satellite receivers to the wrong feed so show listings end up being three hours off because they point at an East Coast feed rather than a West Coast feed like they are supposed to.

It occurred to me that if I were to go into the xml file before Ultra runs, I could have a program I write for myself do the manipulation of the start and end times of the programs in the xml files.

Is there a way I can schedule my own program to run before Ultra does each day?

Do you see any problems I would introduce by doing this?

[LewE]

Looks Like It Will Be Simple To Do.

zehd,

I ran a couple experiments and found that if I play with the +0000 filed after the Start Time and Stop Time I can have Ultra modify the start and end times for me. If I set the field to +0100 it moves the date/time to be one hour earlier, etc.

I plan to have my program called by run-xmltv.bat right after xmltv gets a fresh xml file and before Ultra gets called. It will modify the +0000 fileds for the channels that have to be time shifted.

I'm not sure why your program modifies the times like it does but it will save me a little bit of processing. Thanks

[zehd]

Looks Like It Will Be Simple To Do.

zehd,

I ran a couple experiments and found that if I play with the +0000 filed after the Start Time and Stop Time I can have Ultra modify the start and end times for me. If I set the field to +0100 it moves the date/time to be one hour earlier, etc.

I plan to have my program called by run-xmltv.bat right after xmltv gets a fresh xml file and before Ultra gets called. It will modify the +0000 fileds for the channels that have to be time shifted.

I'm not sure why your program modifies the times like it does but it will save me a little bit of processing. Thanks

Ultra 1 had an Hour offset built in. I have the control on the v2 form, just hid it cause I haven't worked it... If you think this is import, I'll have a boo...

In my opinion this is something that the enhnacer should handle rather than something before or after

[LewE]

Ultra 1 had an Hour offset built in. I have the control on the v2 form, just hid it cause I haven't worked it... If you think this is import, I'll have a boo...

In my opinion this is something that the enhnacer should handle rather than something before or after

I'm happy with the way Ultra2 handles this right now.

The situation I am taking care of is cable technicians that point a receiver at the wrong satellite feed. This may last for a couple days or for many months before they point it to the feed that corresponds to the listings I get for them from Schedules Direct.

If Ultra can handle this on a specific list of channels, some of which may need +3 hour offsets added and others need -3 hour offset added, this would be great and save me some work of writing my own utility to handle it. I think my case is the one in a million situation so having this handled by another tab in Ultra may just cause confusion to most of your users.

[zehd]

I'm happy with the way Ultra2 handles this right now.

The situation I am taking care of is cable technicians that point a receiver at the wrong satellite feed. This may last for a couple days or for many months before they point it to the feed that corresponds to the listings I get for them from Schedules Direct.

If Ultra can handle this on a specific list of channels, some of which may need +3 hour offsets added and others need -3 hour offset added, this would be great and save me some work of writing my own utility to handle it. I think my case is the one in a million situation so having this handled by another tab in Ultra may just cause confusion to most of your users.

Well, a while ago, someone had asked for a time offset, but it was for all channels and that was what I was planning on putting on back in. Having different timeoffset for different channels isn't out of the question but more work for sure. As far as being rare, I would like Ultra to be flexible for many different circumstances.

I already have it changing the ids for each channel, so that the final xml is more readable. Changing the timeoffset for isn't that far off....

Perhaps, you should just yell at your installers..

[zehd]

I'm not sure why your program modifies the times like it does but it will save me a little bit of processing. Thanks

Well that is whurslton's doing taking the inherent timeoffset of the original xml and adjusting the times to effectively 'remove' the offset.

There seemed to be a channel offset program around, and I just recently saw the thread again, but I can't find it...

Oh. Looks like I have the file. I believe that you could call it and then read the help

[LewE]

Well that is whurslton's doing taking the inherent timeoffset of the original xml and adjusting the times to effectively 'remove' the offset.

There seemed to be a channel offset program around, and I just recently saw the thread again, but I can't find it...

Oh. Looks like I have the file. I believe that you could call it and then read the help

Thanks.

This program does pretty much the same that I was going to do in the program I planned to write. It stuffs an offset into the +0000 filed after the start and stop time.

The only hiccup I had as that it took me a couple tries to figure out that I couldn't use channel names like HBO but had to use the Channel IDs like I10240.labs.zap2it.com

[LewE]

Perhaps, you should just yell at your installers..

I could yell at the installers but I would end up waiting less time for the proverbial monkeys to type out a Shakespeare play than for these guys to properly configure the equipment they maintain.

I have been waiting over 9 months for them to point one of their receivers to the same satellite feed that they say they are providing. The zap2it listings are 3 hours ahead of the actual programming I would get. It wasn't a channel I watch all that often so I let it slide by until they messed up a couple channels I watch regularly.

[zehd]

Thanks.

This program does pretty much the same that I was going to do in the program I planned to write. It stuffs an offset into the +0000 filed after the start and stop time.

The only hiccup I had as that it took me a couple tries to figure out that I couldn't use channel names like HBO but had to use the Channel IDs like I10240.labs.zap2it.com

THat's where you might like to use it After Enhnacing. In Ultra, I change the IDs so that its far more readable...

Code:

    <channel id="I2.28460209.microsoft.com">
        <display-name>2 TVGN</display-name>
        <display-name>2</display-name>
        <display-name>TVGN</display-name>
        <display-name>TV Guide Network</display-name>
        <display-name>Cablecast</display-name>
    </channel>
    <channel id="I3.28456112.microsoft.com">
        <display-name>3 CFCN</display-name>
        <display-name>3</display-name>
        <display-name>CFCN</display-name>
        <display-name>CFCN (CTV)</display-name>
        <display-name>Canadian Independent</display-name>
    </channel>
    <channel id="I4.197317694.microsoft.com">
        <display-name>4 CJCO</display-name>
        <display-name>4</display-name>
        <display-name>CJCO</display-name>
        <display-name>Canadian Independent</display-name>
    </channel>

Code:

<channel id="2.TVGN.0">
    <display-name>2 TVGN</display-name>
    <display-name>2</display-name>
    <display-name>TVGN</display-name>
    <display-name>TV Guide Network</display-name>
    <display-name>Cablecast</display-name>
  </channel>
  <channel id="3.CFCN.1">
    <display-name>3 CFCN</display-name>
    <display-name>3</display-name>
    <display-name>CFCN</display-name>
    <display-name>CFCN (CTV)</display-name>
    <display-name>Canadian Independent</display-name>
  </channel>
  <channel id="4.CJCO.2">
    <display-name>4 CJCO</display-name>
    <display-name>4</display-name>
    <display-name>CJCO</display-name>
    <display-name>Canadian Independent</display-name>
  </channel>

The last digit of the string is appended to be sure that even if there are duplicate channels (which there shouldn't be but) are unique

[zehd]

I've had a eureka moment, and I know how I can add Individual Channel time Offsets. I should have that for you by tomorrow...