WebEpg development (1 Viewer)

[doskabouter]

Hi,

Is there still someone who maintains the webepg plugin?
It seems that it was long time ago that someone worked on it (2 years to be exact)

The thing is, I want to add a json parser, but I first want to get a bit of consensus on which json lib I should use.
I'm a bit familiar with newtonsoft.json (used in onlinevideos), but there must be a lot of alternatives out there which have it's pros and cons

Edit: Just found out, newtonsoft.json is actually called json.net

 

[Tony Wall]

Yes if the developer has lost interest or has no time it'd be good to take it over and fix it up a bit. It's a lot easier than messing around with XMLTV grabber scripts. I too would like to extend it for DigiGuide UK (full personalized guide, not just the free stuff) and try to improve the automatic channel mapping.

Regarding JSON, use of the Newtonsoft library is no longer necessary, assuming .NET 4.0 or later is allowed for plugins. Microsoft already started integrating it into their framework (goes with all the new simplification of web services/MVC/WebAPI and all). It's documented here..

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.runtime.serialization.json(v=vs.100).aspx

I've used this myself and it's fine. There are still some benefits of the Newtonsoft library but personally I think using as few third party libraries as possible is better. Regarding simple JSON serialization (probably all you need) the only outstanding benefit of the Newtonsoft library is a claim of some extra speed, which is not relevant here.

 

[Edalex]

I'm using System.Web.Script.Serialization.
BTW, since when .net 4.0 is supported?

 

[doskabouter]

Well, I don't want to step to .NET 4.0 already, I want to stick as closely to mediaportal as I can, so I don't have to hassle users to download & install yet another .NET version

 

[Edalex]

Both json libraries are available for .net 3.5
More important if you want to extend existing grabber template. We thought it could hold more parameters. Maybe @Vasilich can bring to mind some more details.

 

[doskabouter]

I know they are both available, but I don't want to add another dll, or a bunch of code.
I'll check out if System.Web.Script.Serialization does the trick.
And as for new params: I don't (yet) want to dive in too deeply, got my hands full at onlinevideos and browsetheweb already...
It's just a time-filler for me

Edit: after a bit of digging, I'm indeed able to deserialize json with System.Web.Script.Serialization, but configuration of it (preferably with xpath like expressions) is difficult without making my own xpath evaluator

 

[Sebastiii]

If all will be ready, 1.6.0 Pre release should have NET 4.0.

 

[doskabouter]

Anyone know an example of an xml-based grabber file? I only see "html", and one "Data"

Edit: never mind, I managed to create one from scratch

 

[doskabouter]

I've created a pull request for it https://github.com/MediaPortal/MediaPortal-1/pull/30

Edit: but hold on, I do want to do some more testing

 

[doskabouter]

Confirmed working!

Sample grabber file is www_nickelodeon_nl.xml.

And while I'm at it, here's one for 24kitchen.nl too.

So, @Sebastiii : You can go ahead and create the jira call, and merge the branch (the XXX version is indeed the correct one)