Recurring recordings disappeared

[jghanisco]

Very strange, as this has been working fine for 4+ months. I wake up today expecting ~90 pending recordings, but only 23 show up. It ends up that only individually selected recordings are showing, and the recurring recordings aren't set at all. Yesterday I had some for today scheduled, namely Avengers & Ultimate Spider-Man for my son, and that's what clued me in. All the recurring recordings still show up on the recurring page.

I just tried deleting and re-adding a recurring recording, but nothing is scheduled. Logs included, can upload db3 files if necessary.

[johnsonx42]

It seems to be getting an error parsing the EPGEvent details for each recurring recording, but I have no idea why. I suspect sub may need your npvr.db3 to see what's gone crazy.

[jghanisco]

That could be my screw-up, as I manually edit the npvr.db3 file to add _Movie & other titles to files, and haven't saved a back-up before editing in months... regardless, here's the link to the npvr.db3 file:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxcbwsKT...sp=sharing

[sub]

That could be my screw-up, as I manually edit the npvr.db3 file to add _Movie & other titles to files, and haven't saved a back-up before editing in months...

What did you edit exactly?

I can see it's unhappy with some of illegal characters in the database entries. For example, the '&' character in the <Subtitle> node in the following recording. I checked the code, and it looks like the app would have always escaped this character to &amp;

Code:

<Event>
    <OID>2697390</OID>
    <Title>Tom &amp; Jerry: Robin Hood And His Merry Mouse</Title>
    <SubTitle>Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood And His Merry Mouse</SubTitle>
    <Description>Jerry, the smallest member of Robin Hood&apos;s gang, joins forces with Tom, a feline squire to Maid Marion.</Description>
    <ChannelOID>7249</ChannelOID>
    <StartTime>2013-04-14T13:00:00.0000000Z</StartTime>
    <EndTime>2013-04-14T14:18:00.0000000Z</EndTime>
    <FirstRun>false</FirstRun>
    <Rating>TV-G</Rating>
    <Genres>
    <Genre>Kids</Genre>
    <Genre>Special</Genre>
    </Genres>
    <UniqueID>SH01584996.0000</UniqueID>
</Event>

[johnsonx42]

oh, I see, I misunderstood the nature of the exception I was seeing... I thought it was complaining about the recurring recording XML rule, which I couldn't see anything wrong with. now I see it was processing that rule against the EPG database, and getting the exception looking at the EPG entry.

good thing that 'sub' guy hangs around to set me straight from time to time

[jghanisco]

What did you edit exactly?

I can see it's unhappy with some of illegal characters in the database entries. For example, the '&' character in the <Subtitle> node in the following recording. I checked the code, and it looks like the app would have always escaped this character to &

Code:

<Event>
    <OID>2697390</OID>
    <Title>Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood And His Merry Mouse</Title>
    <SubTitle>Tom & Jerry: Robin Hood And His Merry Mouse</SubTitle>
    <Description>Jerry, the smallest member of Robin Hood's gang, joins forces with Tom, a feline squire to Maid Marion.</Description>
    <ChannelOID>7249</ChannelOID>
    <StartTime>2013-04-14T13:00:00.0000000Z</StartTime>
    <EndTime>2013-04-14T14:18:00.0000000Z</EndTime>
    <FirstRun>false</FirstRun>
    <Rating>TV-G</Rating>
    <Genres>
    <Genre>Kids</Genre>
    <Genre>Special</Genre>
    </Genres>
    <UniqueID>SH01584996.0000</UniqueID>
</Event>

Aaargh!!! User error!!! Ok, I know what that would be - I go into the db3 file and go into edit record. I do a cut of the name (field 2), change it to _Rob (for my son) or _Movie, and then paste that name into the field 11: event details line, into SubTitle to be precise. The field "2. Name" uses "&", while the event details uses" &amp;". I usually catch those and just copy the Title from inside the event data, but definitely missed that - and I know I changed that one last night. Hence that it appeared "broken" today.

I corrected that entry, and now when I add a new recurring entry, it sets up the record as expected. The existing recurring entries aren't refreshed. Oh, I just ran UpdateEPG, and that refreshed the recording schedule.

Thanks so much for fixing my screw-up!!!!! Is there a way to check for these errors since you found the "unhappiness" from that character?

[sub]

Aaargh!!! User error!!! Ok, I know what that would be - I go into the db3 file and go into edit record. I do a cut of the name (field 2), change it to _Rob (for my son) or _Movie, and then paste that name into the field 11: event details line, into SubTitle to be precise. The field "2. Name" uses "&", while the event details uses" &". I usually catch those and just copy the Title from inside the event data, but definitely missed that - and I know I changed that one last night. Hence that it appeared "broken" today.

I corrected that entry, and now when I add a new recurring entry, it sets up the record as expected. The existing recurring entries aren't refreshed. Oh, I just ran UpdateEPG, and that refreshed the recording schedule.

Thanks so much for fixing my screw-up!!!!!

Ok, no worries.

Is there a way to check for these errors since you found the "unhappiness" from that character?

Not easily. There is lots of things users could potentially break in an xml strings. To be honest, its not worth me trying to code around things the user might break when manually editing xml. It's better for nextpvr to just assume the xml is valid, and let it fail the Microsoft xml libraries fail to load it if invalid.

[jghanisco]

Ok, this failure on my part was reason enough to make an attempt at the Plugin "Files", as that is where I learned about adding the "_Movies" title during a move to another folder. And after 45+ minutes of trying, I figured it out. Thanks again for helping me out on this one.

[mvallevand]

Why not configure multiple directories in NextPVR and have the recurring or one-off rule do the hard work for you?

Martin

[Jaggy]

Ok, this failure on my part was reason enough to make an attempt at the Plugin "Files", as that is where I learned about adding the "_Movies" title during a move to another folder.

I was going to suggest the Files plugin to you..... the "_Movies" "_Films" is what I came up with for my own use

And after 45+ minutes of trying, I figured it out. Thanks again for helping me out on this one.

Was that because the top box in the setup screen is (what I call the advanced options) & it is a heap easier to use the second option to set it up for what we are doing??

While it's not my plugin.... I think it needs some instructions editing (but I couldn't figure out exactly what wasn't clear for new users of it) & as you have just gone through it ..... could you let me know what needs changed in the instructions to make easier to setup for the first time?? (& I will edit it on the wiki)