MyTVSeries - Plugin that organizes TV Video Files (4 Viewers)

mzemina · September 29, 2006

zeflash said:
Funny thing, this banner site doesn't work properly in Firefox (at least 2.0 RC1).
Looking at it in FF I was wondering how one would search something there

I'll take a look at how things are working in the HTML parsing area (without any promises, I have a job, a kid and a pregnant wife so free time is counted).

My firefox (1.5.0.7) I can view the banners (looked at a couple) ok.

Maybe you should speak with the website guy: banners@fluxxx.net to find out the best approach and it could be he has a backdoor that meedio also uses? Worth a try to ask!

Hesse · September 30, 2006

One day I'd like to help with this plugin as well. There are a few things I'd like to see in the plugin. I won't have time for a while though.

zeflash · September 30, 2006

I digged a bit more into the HTML parsing. It uses the sgmlreader dll from microsoft and some complex code (sgmlparser) in order to match the template file to the actual html code.

After some debugging, I now understand why Fifth gear isn't added properly;
The template *needs* a matching description, an IMDB url and a tv.com url.
Trouble is for fifth gear there isn't a tv.com url. So even though the other fields are there, it fails to parse properly.
Furthermore, the way the parser works means that it will always end up the description on the first BR tag.
On Fifth gear, the plot outline of the series uses <BR /> to indent the description => I'm only getting the first line.

So, I ask you this question (since I'm new to this project):
What is the need for sgmlparser, when one could use regular expressions to properly parse pieces of the page?
For instance, here is the description parsing using sgml:

Code:

<body>Plot Outline:<br>{show_description}<br>

that only extracts the text up to the first BR tag.

Using Regex, it looks like this one works better:

Code:

Plot Outline:.*?<br>(?<description>.*?)<br><br>

Doesn't look more difficult to understand to me - and it gets the whole thing.
And with a little change to the way the template is read by the plugin, some values could just be optional (tv.com or IMDB) so it wouldn't break the whole import process.

In the end, my belief is that the SGMLParser.cs file adds rigidity and more complexity to the process for the only upside of being able to write more natural (in a sense) templates.
Given that those templates are rarely modified and that regexp, once understood, are pretty easy to write too, it looks like an unnecessary layer to me.

For those still reading this thread, what do you think? Do you know of any parsing case that would not work with regexp and would need the SGML parser to work?

Edit:
Well, or course, it makes it easier to list multiple episodes. Hmm. I'll keep thinking about this. It would really help to know what this sgmlparse class is able to do!
I can retrieve the episodelisting info with this:

Code:

<tr bgcolor=".*?td.*?>(?<production_number>.*?)</td>.*?<a href="/episode/(?<episode_id>.*?)">(?<episode_season_and_number>.*?)</td>.*?<a.*?>(?<episode_title>.*?)</a>.*?<td.*?>(?<production_id>.*?)</td>.*?</span>.*?<a.*?td nowrap.*?>(?<broadcast_date>.*?)</td>

And then cycling through all the different regex matches. That's an alternative to the episodelist[] search tag in the SGMLParser template.
I'll try to have an equivalent regexp for all the templates. If I'm able to do that, then I just might change the whole parsing to use those instead of sgmlreader.

Simius · September 30, 2006

Change default view

Hi everbody, is there a way to change the default view for the plugin, from List to Icons, in example? Even if a change the view in MP, when I restart the software the plugin go back to list view.

thanks.

Hesse · September 30, 2006

zeflash,

If it can be done with just the built in regular expressions, that seems like the best way to go. It seems like the best way is to use standard regex for everything and if there is some special aspect of the sgmlparser that is needed, use it for that now until a generic method can be programmed in an alternate way.

Jesse

Hesse · September 30, 2006

Has anyone though about using the same database that is used in the Meedio plugin? With that database, it is possible to bring information in from TV.com and I'm sure something could be done for episodeworld as well. It makes the plugin easier because it only has to talk to a database instead of having to parse HTML. Also, it would then be easier to use all of their nice banners

.

Jesse

zeflash · September 30, 2006

Well, I talked a bit a while ago with the meetvshow guy about how things were working, and his approach of how the exchange works between the server data & the client is not efficient.
Here is the problem: the server parses the tvshow websites to keep the info up to date.
The client connects to this server to get up to date info.
How does the client/server know what to retrieve/send if something was changed on the website? His approach is that the client plugin should retrieve back all shows, on every check, if the info is less than 3 weeks old.
Wrong design! That just kills the bandwidth on the server side and it doesn't ensure that 100% of the client data is up to date.
So in the end everyone is killing all the local db once in a while & retrieve everything back.

Of course, having a central server that would concentrate all the necessary information from the shows would be more efficient than having every client parse the data itself.
Trouble is, someone has to host this server, keep the data up to date, and pay for the bandwidth. If for any reason the server dies, everyone is hurt, too.
So it's a much more complicated project. Interesting one though.
I'd say, let's make it work fairly well locally first, and thing of enhancements afterwards.

zag2me · October 1, 2006

The meedio plugin worked really well, the database was updateable by its users, they also created lots of custom banners and series boxes for tv shows and there where no parsing errors.

I personally thought it was a very good approach to a tv shows plugin.

WeeToddDid · October 1, 2006

Hey guys. Just catching up on things here at MP. Took a look at the latest version of the My TV Series plugin. I noticed alot of work has been done on the import sides of things since I as last involved in it. Great Job.

I have a few hours a week I could spend programming, so I figured I would continue helping out.

I figured I would start by corrrecting any issues/bugs (if any), then work on some new features that people have requested.

Am I stepping on anybody's toes here? Or is this cool?

jimmyo · October 1, 2006

Great to have you back WeeToddDid !

Have been using this plugin daily for two months, can't live without it

Reading through the entire tread solved alot of my problems with this plugin, but I have some that maybe you want to look into.

Trying to play Special Episodes quits MediaPortal.
Can't get Banner import to work on all series (Eureka, Psych, Survivor, Top Gear...)
Problem to import foreign series (Life on Mars...)

I would also be great if you could have support for multiple files per episode.
Different views for shows, season, episodes that saves.
Change color of episode name if you have watched an episode (yellow).
Automatically goto first unwatched episode of the series.

Have Fun

Jimmy

MyTVSeries - Plugin that organizes TV Video Files (4 Viewers)

Should I implement an automatic file organizer to move and rename files?

Absolutely, I don't have time the clean up my files

No, You'll break other applications like Windows MediaPlayer

Yes, Only if I can configure exactly what it does

mzemina

Retired Team Member

Hesse

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zeflash

Portal Pro

Simius

Portal Member

Hesse

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Hesse

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zeflash

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zag2me

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WeeToddDid

Retired Team Member

jimmyo

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