Ice XML Guide 2.0 now available

Started by Russell at IceTV, February 10, 2005, 05:05:50 PM

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Russell at IceTV

Hi guys,

Version 2.0 of the Ice XML Guide is now ready for beta testing.  You can find the web form (primarily for testing and manually retrieving XML data) here:

  http://server.icetv.info/cgi-bin2/xmlguide2.cgi
  Username: beta
  Password: getdata

For help in retrieving XML data programmatically, click the "View Help File" button on that same page.

Changes in version 2.0:

- All dates and times are now in UTC.  Start and end times always have the time zone "+0000".

- Removed the "broadcast-type" entity that contained flags such as BW, WS, HD, R, and CC.  Now using fields defined in the original XMLTV spec. for these items (actually the XMLTV spec didn't include a field for HD, so we created a new "quality" entity, but the others were there, just kind of oddly-named):

  <video>
     <colour>no</colour>
     <aspect>16:9</aspect>
     <quality>HDTV</quality>
  </video>
  <previously-shown/>
  <subtitles type="teletext"/>

- Added a new "ice-xml-version" entity, which shows the version of the XML format we're using.  It's set to 2.0 for this new version of xmlguide.

- Version 2 uses a new DTD, which you can view here:

   http://server.icetv.info/webguide/xmlguide2.dtd

- Added the current date and time to the "date" element of the "tv" entity at the top, to show when the data was created.  The format is "YYYYMMDDhhmmss" and it's in UTC.  For example:

   <tv date="20050208040012" source-info-url="http://www.zaptv.info" source-info-name="ZapTV" generator-info-name="ZapTV" generator-info-url="http://www.zaptv.info">

- Added the ability to specify a "last modified time" in the URL.  If included, only program records modified after the specified time and date are sent. The usual format is "&mod_time=YYYYMMDDhhmmss", expressed as UTC. This value can be copied from the "date" element of the "tv" entity, which shows the time and date the XML data was created. By sending this value back in a new request as the last modified time, the output can be limited to only those records modified since the last request. This includes any new programs added since the previous request, as well as programs that were sent before, but have since changed.

Please help us test out this new version by incorporating it into your programs and PVRs.  As always, feedback is welcome.

Please post comments about this new version to one of the other forums.  This one is reserved for announcements only.

Thanks,
Russell