Re: [icebox-devel] IceTV XML to TGD

[Peter U. <ice...@ur...>]

Fred wrote:

>I had hoped that some of the work done for the JavaXMLTV to TGD stuff would be
>useful, and that XML parsing wouldn't be too much work in Java (which has
>proven to be great for cross-platform Toppy apps).
>  
>

The JavaXMLTV stuff and TGD specification I did was a one night quick 
hack to put together a proof of concept. I just wanted to get some data 
as quickly as possible so that Tony H. could get the EIT insertion TAP 
going. I have never intended for it to become the defacto standard for 
the Toppy.

The code I wrote does not parse the XML at all, it just dumps the 
serialised data structures used for persistent storage of the EPG.

>What are the complications in doing an IceTV XML parser? Is it just a comment on
>how hard the c XML libraries are to use?
>  
>

No, not really a difficulty issue, more of a time issue. First, I'd need 
to choose a library (probably expat), then I'd have to learn it's API, 
then I'd have to understand the finer points of the iceguide XML data, 
then actually write the parser and the code to dump out the TGD. 
Frankly, I'm too lazy/busy to get started on that, given that there are 
alternatives.

>I must admit I hadn't considered this, and it should be fairly straightforward
>as you say. I'll download the source to ice_daemon tonight and have a look to
>see how much work it would be to port.
>  
>

I'm not intimate with the code, but I believe it's a classic case of a 
POSIX/BSD daemon coding. With the exception of the commands used for the 
actual transfer of data to the Toppy, it should be straight forward to 
get it going on OSX. Assuming MacTF is scriptable, the changes should be 
minimal. Perhaps your effort would benefit from Nathan's input. Feel 
free to invite him to join this list if he is interested.

>Where would the ICE EPG files be obtained from? Do IceTV provide those directly
>as well as the XML feed? (Aplogies if these are basic questions, I've gone over
>the IceTV website in some detail, but have not yet downloaded the sourceforge
>source code).
>

I don't believe the flat file format is advertised or the specification 
published anywhere, however the code should be readable enough to figure 
out how to construct the URL. Look for the retrieveEPG() function and 
look in the corresponding header file for the base URL.

Hint: If you want to avoid downloading the TAP, send a TAP version time 
stamp that is in the future.

Warning: Be careful about what the daemon does when there are excessive 
failures. First time I ran into it's way of recovering from persistent 
errors, I ended up cursing for hours!