UK - Atlas MetaBroadcast not happy - via xmltv (1 Viewer)

hucknallred

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Well, it was good while it lasted...

"
Hi,

As part of some ongoing changes, we have noticed your Atlas application is requesting a large amount of data each day, including requesting more than 24 hours of data in a single API call.

Please can you ensure that you are fully compliant with the terms and conditions, listed here: http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/admin#/terms.

For clarity, this means you should only request the data you need, when you need it, and not every channel in one batch. Additionally, please limit each call you make to a maximum of 24 hours of data.

Please make the changes required by 1800 BST on Saturday 14 May. Unfortunately, if we see further calls after that point that do not match the terms, or request more than 24 hours of data in a single call, we will need to suspend your API key.

Free access to Atlas is offered on a self-service basis. We hope you can find all the info you need in our own documentation at http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/, or from the maintainers of any 3rd party software you are using.

If you do need to contact us, please use the form here: http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/admin#/contact. We are unable to answer correspondence via any other route.

Thanks for your cooperation,
Chris "
 

mm1352000

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    Thanks for reporting. It seems pretty clear that the "client" (method) you're using to download the data is the reason you're receiving this message... but you haven't specified which client you're using. If you're using mc2xml, please report the message to the mc2xml developer. If you're not using mc2xml, maybe you should try it.
     

    hucknallred

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    Hi, I'm not up to speed on mc2xml, will take a look.
    I'm using xmltv via command line on a cheduled task pulling 13 days data every morning, just as I did with Radio Times, I did a thread here https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/posts/1122475/ & left it chugging away ever since.

    Will look at alternatives now before my time is up.

    Cheers
     

    CyberSimian

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    pulling 13 days data every morning,
    Do you really need to do that? When I used WMC on Vista, Microsoft provided a 14-day EPG, but I connected to the internet and downloaded the EPG only once per week.

    Perhaps you need a more sophisticated batch process to control what is downloaded, something like:

    (1) Download the EPG for the current day (so that your stored EPG is updated with recent schedule changes).

    (2) Download the EPG for the first day that is not in your stored EPG (i.e. the day that is 13/14 days in the future). Obviously your batch process would need to remember which was the last day downloaded successfully by the previous run.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    stubright

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    I received the same email and wrote back to them asking about mediapc tvguide use, I also offered to DL less data, ie two or three times a week instead of daily, this is their response.

    "If your query pattern is wasteful we'll request optimisations, and expect these to be implemented within days, or immediately in an extreme case."

    It's considerably easier for our servers to handle queries of up to 1 day each.

    Furthermore, there's no way a user requires all that data at once. it should request fresh data when a user requires it. If your software can't meet these requirements, please contact the makers of the software.

    If you need to contact us again, please log in using a supported browser. We recommend Google Chrome.

    Thanks in anticipation of your cooperation.


    As Hucknallred said, it was good while it lasted.
    Stu
     

    mm1352000

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    Guys, I really think you should try mc2xml instead of giving up so easily. Other guide data services such as SchedulesDirect have similar requirements to the new Atlas requirements. mc2xml supports SchedulesDirect. Therefore I think there's a strong probability that mc2xml does (or will easily be able to be modified in order to) meet the Atlas requirements. The output of mc2xml would be the familiar XMLTV file which you'd import using TV Server's XMLTV plugin, exactly as you do now. In other words: the only change would be that you would no longer use the script that downloads all the data for all channels every day. This situation does not need to drive you back to RT. A little persistence is very likely to pay off.
     

    hucknallred

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    Had a quick read of MC2XML & had a bash with it but got this error back from Atlas when about to grab "Error: AS Enable UK lineups on ATLAS website?"
    I'll have another go tomorrow, but it looks promising, it grabs 7 days by default though which will fall foul of Atlas. This can be reduced but I don't see how you'd populate the guide using the -24 hours data rule.
     

    mm1352000

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    ...it grabs 7 days by default though which will fall foul of Atlas.
    For SchedulesDirect, mc2xml uses a local database to cache grabbed data, and only request the information for channels/days/programs that have been added or changed. If mc2xml does the same with Atlas then it would not "fall foul". That's precisely why I recommended you try it.

    This can be reduced but I don't see how you'd populate the guide using the -24 hours data rule.
    As above - keep a local copy of data, and only request new and changed data (which should be minimal).
     

    hucknallred

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    Well, I've had a chance to sit down & have a look at this, I reckon it can still be used by changing the parameters & thus keeping Atlas happy, I currently just grab 13 days at 4am every morning.
    By changing the parameters I can trim this down to -24 hours in a go, from their help guide:

    - to retrieve a schedule for the next 12 hours:

    tv_grab_uk_atlas --hours 12

    - to retrieve a schedule for the next 12 hours starting tomorrow:

    tv_grab_uk_atlas --hours 12 --offset 24

    I'll have a play later but setting the task to grab 12 hours data twice a day is the way forward. I'll probably use the offset parameter to get each days data, but space out the downloads from Atlas.
     

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