[mythtv-users] tv_grab_au which script?

David Collett david.collett at gmail.com
Thu Aug 4 10:32:42 UTC 2005


Hi all,
While I havent actually used it, the Michael Smith one does indeed
look better. It is not suprising that only a 1 line fix was required
for this recent change as this script appears to use a proper HTML
parser modue rather than plain regexes which are more suceptable to
minor changes (addition of a new attribute, not actually a change of
the attribute of interest is what broke the other script).

Neither of them are particularly maintainable IMHO. Perl doesnt lend
itself to that for starters, and there doesnt appear to be much
documentation, at least at a high-level, of how the parsing actually
works.

An ideal design would abstract the parsing and support code, and be
easily extensible to add more sources. The other HWW sites (seven,
yahoo etc) are ideal candidates as they have much in common (region
id's, pids etc). A d1 source could be trivially added to such a source
also (isnt d1 data already in XMLTV format?), and perhaps oztivo too.

Time permitting I may write such a grabber in python. Hosting and
starting an sf project etc, are probably not really appropriate for
such a script. Legal issues could arrise if unwanted attention is
drawn to the script, and rapid changes are required to adapt to
problems like this recent one (we cant all have commit access to
sf??). I think the mailing list is doing an ok job, when someone asks,
they get pointed in the right direction fairly quickly. Though I agree
it is difficult for a newbie who doesnt look on this list and just
follows the instructions at mythtv.org...

Dave

On 8/4/05, Phill Edwards <philledwards at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I agree with Matt.  It would be better to have a single consolidated
> > script which services all states etc.  If the state is not serviced in
> > the script, someone add it to the script then recommit.
> >
> > If the XMLTV project allows us to update the scripts then fine,
> > otherwise we need to centralise the script (without causing anyone to
> > be libel) and allow the script to be modified by the user base.
> 
> Do we also need to think about _which_ nineMSN script may be the best
> in the long run? There are 2 nineMSN scripts going around - the Damon
> Searle one, and the Michael Smith one. Personally, I prefer the
> Michael Smith one as it has an external config file which means that
> you don't have to update the script itself whenever a new version
> comes out. It lives at http://immir.com/tv_grab_au but the version
> that is there at the moment hasn't had the 1 line update to cope with
> the changed URL.
> 
> Regards,
> Phill
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