[29.11.05] WebEPG 0.2.0 update on website (2 Viewers)

[madmat17]

Hi James,

Here's the form...
http://www.8ung.at/madmat17/tvinfo-form.htm

Cheers,
Mat

 

[Artman]

Hi Artman,

If you put this URL into a web browser without visiting the site first you also don't get a page. This URL does not contain the channel to be viewed. I had a look at the site and it appears that the channel selection menu, down the left side is using Java script. Not sure.

/James

ok this is my stupidity. I indeed already visited the page before testing and then it will show the guide
I will continue searching for a solution but I thnk that gids.omroep.nl has done this with a purpose...so now I certainly want to find out how this is handled

update: I saw the disclaimer of this website and it says that is's forbidden to retrieve any data in an automatic manner or eg via bots, spiders or scripts.
So I think we can left this website behind us and just work with the other guide (tvgids.nl) which is also a good one. Or are there more sites where it is forbidden to retrieve data but are included in webEPG?

 

[James]

Hi Mat,

Thanks for that. However, the get forms are not a problem. That how most sites work. It is the post forms and other methods involving java. That are causeing problems.



Hi Artman,

Most sites have some kind of disclaimer about getting pages by automatic means. What are automatic mens?

How is WebEPG + MP that different from IE?

They both download HTML published on the web, for personal use. We display the content in a different way. However, who said that there is only one way to display HTML source. Each browser does look a little different and many support ad and popup blocking, so filtering content doesn't seem to be a problem.

Both programs can store the content for off line access. IE has a feature to automatically download web pages for offline access, is this also forbiden.

Can a site that publishes free information on the web, forbid a user from saving a personal copy for later viewing? (Then they better ban web caching)

Just my throughts,

/James

 

[madmat17]

Hi James,

OK - I slightly can remember a grabber for WebEPG which uses form-fields to find the wanted information... My fault - I should have been thinking before posting.

edit:
How did you realize the "get" method?
Which program language do you use?


Concerning the legal ramifications:

Check, if it's possible to start a partnership with gids.omroep.nl.

tvinfo.de offers a partner program; one of the partners is a project called "OpenEPG".
That program is open source (and per definition non-commercal software) and does the same as WebEPG does; it is downloading TV listing information to store it locally.

Maybe "someone" can send a request to several TV listing providers anonymously... 8)

Greez,
Mat

 

[Artman]

James, I think you're right but heee I'm just translating what stood in the disclaimer...off course this is not my opinion. It's a guide made by the public channel which is financed by the government so actually it should be free for all (especially for dutchies) because we pay tax for these channels!

I will continue checking the site how to get that one into webEPG and again my compliments for this program. It really works great!

 

[James]

Hi Artman,

Thanks, again for the support. I'm sure how much work it is worth for this site, because it only has 3 days guide data.

I will continue to look into supporting such sites in general, because this is not the only site to have such a method for access. Wether it is on purpose or they have just choosen to build there site in this way with certain tools. That I cannot comment on. If it was always this way then there may not be any motive behind using this method.

However, I have seen sites change from one form of access to another and there one can question what the motive for the change was.

Cheers,

/James

 

[madmat17]

Hi James,

I just finished the tvinfo-grabber. But I've got a problem with the channels.xml. As soon as I correct the total channels amount (893) and add the channels to the according country entry, WebEPG-configurator doesn't load.

Could you please have a look at it?
http://members.kabsi.at/mbux/tvinfo-grabber_channels.zip

Thx in advance,
Mat

 

[Taipan]

Hi James,

I have just tried the latest version of WebEPG, and I am very impressed! It is easy to set up and fast to gather the data.

I only have 6 channels to grab for (in Melbourne) and I was hoping to be able to get the title, description, genre (Category?) and rating. I tried all the URLs available for AU, and D1 seems the best, but I do not get a description, and it looks like part of the category and the rating (MA15+) is in the description field. Here's an example:-

<programme start="20050814010000" stop="20050814033000" channel="7-vic-metro@seven.com.au">
<title>The Big Lebowski</title>
<desc>Comedy (MA15+)</desc>
<category>Movie</category>

Is this a limitation of the data available on the D1 site?

 

[qawaali]

Taipan,

Unless things have changed recently the D1 does not provide descriptions sadly

Pete

 

[Taipan]

D1 does not provide descriptions sadly

That's a shame...because none of the other URLs provide the descriptions either (except the SBS one) - but at least D1 provides the category and the rating.

Surely there is a URL somewhere in Australia that can provide the title, description, category, rating and not put a break in a program that spans from one day's schedule to the next?