[mythtv-users] Zap2It needs our help

[Jason Keirstead]

>
>
>Has anyone considered how they would actually do this?  I've seen people
>volunteering their bandwidth, but this is not just straight file mirroring.
>First, you would have to mirror their databases which include listings and
>channel definitions for the entire US, plus some additional content.  Then,
>you would have to mirror the personal preferences database, which contains
>userIDs, passwords, and your selection of cable providers and channels.
>THEN, you would have to run a SOAP server which accepts requests in the same
>format as zap2it's.  Quite complex
>  
>
Indeed, overly complex is more like it.

All you'd have to do is write a small SOAP handler that proxies between 
your server an zap2it.   When someone makes a request for a listing, if 
you don't already have that time period / region downloaded and cached, 
then you get it from zap2it. Otherwise, you serve your cached copy. Then 
you just flush old data every few days. It is not that difficult.

The only part that is even moderatly complicated is the fact that data 
direct stores your region on the server with a username / pw. Anyone 
who  wanted to use this system would have to accept that their zap2it 
account data would be cached on the proxy server as well ( as in, first 
time you connect to proxy, it uses your username / pw to download your 
region info and cache it. Then you just update the cache every few days ).

The code behind all this is quite simple. You could even do it on a 
single PHP / Perl CGI.