MyStuff_Extended_Info_V0.44

MyStuff_Extended_Info (MEI) is a win32 utility written in VB6 that converts an XMLTV file into a flat file format that can easily by used by Topfield TAPs to provide complete program information (which is currently a shortcoming on the Topfield API). There are additional benefits over the standard program information provided by the current Topfield API (as of now, November 2005), in that more fields are available for the TAP author to utilise (fields such as: Genre, Film Rating, Film Classification and programme Aspect Ratio).

Although MEI should work with any XMLTV data file, it currently requires some additional features that are only available with XMLTV data grabbed by Alan Birtles excellent XMLTV Radio Times grabber. This means that MEI is currently limited to users in the UK, as Radio Times only have EPG data available for UK. (Note: although it will require some text editing, it is possible to use MEI with XMLTV data generated by other grabbers, therefore there are possibilities for users from other countries to utilise MEI. Post in the forum thread at www.toppy.org.uk if you want to do this.)

This readme is fairly detailed. Once installed and configured, MEI is a genuine “1 click and it’s done” application.

At this time, the following TAPs are known to work with MEI:

 

How to install and use MyStuff_Extended_Info

INSTALLING MEI AND XMLTV APPLICATIONS

  1. Download and unzip the latest install package from here
  2. Run the setup.exe program to install it. MEI is a VB6 application, and requires a number of DLL files be installed and registered on your machine. If, for some reason, the installer fails to complete, then it is possible to manually install the application, although you will need to register some DLL files before it will function. See this post in the forum thread at www.toppy.org.uk for more information.
  3. The current version of MEI requires that XMLTV data is grabbed using Alan Birtles excellent XMLTV Radio Times grabber. You need to download and install version 2.2 of this application from here. You MUST install XMLTV Radio Times to the default installation location as recommended by the installer. There are later (beta) versions of the grabber, which we MAY migrate to in the future. This will allow some "nice" extra features (getting data for radio channels, only downloading correct broadcasting hours for the TopUpTV channels amongst others).

CONFIGURING YOUR XMLTV GRAB

  1. There are 2 additional text files available for download: AltChIds.txt and userchannels.txt. You need to copy these to the directory in which XMLTV Radio Times has installed (almost certainly C:\Program Files\XMLTV Radio Times\). Don’t worry about overwriting the text files of the same name that are currently in there.
  2. Start the XMLTV Radio Times (XMLTV_RT) application. Click CONFIGURE from the menu, click the CHANNELS tab, and click the REGENERATE CHANNELS button. This will ensure you have the latest channel listing that is currently available from the Radio Times website.
  3. You now need to find your regional BBC1, BBC2 and ITV1 channels in the left hand channel list, and add them to the grab in the right hand list by clicking on the >> button. Click OK when you have added all 3.
  4. You can now carry out a datagrab by clicking the GRAB LISTINGS button on the main window. You should be able to monitor progress of your grab, and hopefully all will go well. Radio Times provides programme data for 14 days. There are currently around 50 channels in the Freeview & TopUpTV lineup, so the XMLTV download is >4MB. If you have a slow connection this could take a while (or you could remove all the non-essential channels from your grab).

RUNNING MEI FOR THE FIRST TIME

  1. Start MEI from your Start Menu – it will have created a new group called MyStuff_Extended_Info
  2. MEI currently has 3 options:
    1. Get Input File Location from XMLTV_RT.ini
    2. Download New XML file before conversion
    3. Upload to Toppy

Ensure Get Input File Location has a check mark next to it. This will allow MEI to automatically find the XML file generated by XMLTV_RT

If you want to download a new XML data file then check the 2nd option too. When selected, a new window will open, offering you the possibility to select the number of days to XMLTV data to grab. Options are from 1 to 14 days, then max (which will grab all available data).

If you check the 3rd option, then a new window will open, and you are required to select your upload method: either FTP (probably via Aldarin's FTP, slug, asus router, xbox or similar), OR upload via Aldarin's TFCopy command (via USB from your PC to your Toppy). If you choose FTP, then you need to provide FTP site, port (if other than default) and username and password (if required by FTP server). If you choose TFCopy, then you need to tell MEI where the TFCopy executable resides on your system.

  1. You can leave the output file set to the default location (which is the same directory as the MEI executable), or you can choose a more sensible location (eg \My Documents\Toppy\MEI Data\). For current versions of MyStuff (V3.0) the MEI file needs to be called “MyStuff.mei”. MEI will default to this filename. Note that the Topfield OS differentiates between UPPER and lower case, so the file really needs to be “MyStuff.mei”, and not “mystuff.MEI” or “MYSTUFF.MEI”.
  2. You can now click the GO button in MEI, and you should see a file conversion progress bar. It takes only a few seconds to complete the entire task. Of course, if you chose to download a new XML file, then MEI will spawn a runtime instance of XMLTV_RT, and will wait for it to complete before converting the file. If you also chose to upload to your Toppy, then MEI will do this for you after the file is completed.
  3. On completion, you can exit MEI. MEI will record all your settings, so next time you need to grab XMLTV data, it should be a 1-click operation for you.
  4. If you intend to use MEI as a scheduled event, you can add a "-go" option to the command line in the Run: box in the task setup. -go avoids the need for you to click the GO button in the MEI window, and will also shutdown MEI when it has completed.
  5. If you need to manually upload the MyStuff.mei file to your Toppy, follow instructions provided by BobD for MyStuff (currently, you need to put it in /ProgramFiles - beside all your lovely MyStuff skin files!).

 

Changes in V0.44 from V0.43

  1. Tidied up code to parse the XMLTV episode numbering system.
  2. Added option to select the number of days EPG info to grab with XMLTV_RT

Changes in V0.43 from V0.42

  1. Bugfix - I had swapped a couple of output columns. This was stopping MyStuff reading one of the programme parameters (prog_subtitle) - eg "Friends", "The One About Joey's Dad".

Changes in V0.42 from V0.41

  1. Bugfix that corrected problems in the link to TF-Copy if there are spaces in the source directory or filename

Changes in V0.41 from V0.40

  1. Added support for Aldarin's TF-Copy program, which is a much better solution for direct upload of MEI file to Toppy for users with a USB connection between Toppy and PC

Changes in V0.40 from V0.31

  1. Added an internal FTP client to allow true 1 click (or no click if scheduled) generation and upload of MEI file to Toppy
  2. Changed the command line autostart option to "-go" as MEI does more than grabbing"

Changes in V0.31 from V0.30

  1. Added support for the command line autostart option "-grab" to facilitate task scheduling of MEI

Changes in V0.30 from V0.21

  1. Output file format changed from Jags CSV compatibility to MyStuff.mei format

 

Next Release

Changes for the future releases *may* include

  1. Internal ability to map channel numbers (losing reliance on XMLTV_RT AltChIDs.txt file), and making MEI a much easier process for users of other XMLTV grabbers / those in countries other than UK
  2. Support for later versions of XMLTV_RT, which include capability to download EPG data for Radio as well as TV