Starting work on a new plugin... AUTO CHANNEL UPDATER

[hashman]

ok

i've finally done it, i've designed what I want to do, now I'm going to sit down and start work within the next few weeks and months on an idea i've had since months, but never given it enough thought as to its implementation.

Here goes the idea in a few words:
Contexte

Many sky users will notice, that if they don't update their bouquets regularily, many channels will start to disappear with the very common "path not found in SID" error
this is because BSkyB change their frequencies (they manage their lot of frequencies as they please... so we should adapt)

This was very frustrating for me, because I have 4 boxes, 2 Enigma1 (dm500) and 2 Enigma2 (1 dm800 and vu+duo)
The problem is not loading the bouquets via dbedit... but its that all 4 boxes are used by different people (sister,brother and myself to be precise) => everyone has their own bouquets, and its a pain in the ass updating all 4 because neither of them is computer savy and I have to do the support!

Idea

1. A simple web interface that will allow to generate a bouquet based on channel names (and not satellite.xml file)
- behind each channel name will be a frequency that will not be seen by user, therefore, he doesn't care if he got the right sky sports 1 or the right bbc (out of the multiple ones available in dbedit)

2. a plugin which updates the userbouquets and custom made satellite.xml file on a daily basis with the webserver that has a php script running which would generate the files on the run

3. whenever a frequency would change, all it would take is to update it once for the change to be replicated to all users that have the given channel in their bouquet

The key to success

1. community run: i'm thinking of a community system where anyone with the correct rights would be able to assign a new frequency/pid to a channel

2. auto updated: further down the line, using sites such as kingofsat the update of a channel could be automated to a certain extend

Advantages

1. I have the bouquet i create once updated automatically
2. I don't have to recreate/customize my bouquets every time the channel changes frequency

The first script will probably be enigma2 because i'm connected to my vu+duo at the moment and playing around on it to call and download content from a web server, worst case scenario i'll just use wget LOL

I'll use a space on a webhost account i got as i don't think i'll be generating too much traffic...

So look out for this space

[bassethound]

Sounds like a great plan hashman im sure there a plenty of people on here willing to help out on your project

[punisher]

yeh sounds fantastic mate and can see loads of people wanting to use this plugin

[digidude]

youll be surprised at how popular this will become m8, believe me, i know

a tip for you to save you days of fustration though, for it all to 'auto' update, have a VERY simple control file on the server, and when you update the boquets pack, update the control file as well, this will save you having to create numerous complex scripts to do one simple thing

[pooface]

I was speaking to andy about such a feature a while back ... But he doesn't have the time to work on it just yet... Worked in a very similar fashion tho...

One thing to keep in mind ... Sky Sports 1 is a popular name on many packages, e.g. 28.2, 13 and 19 (UK, IT & DE) all have the name. So, will need to be careful to get the correct one in the bouquet updating. Also, can't say doesn't matter which bbc they get, as in bouquets people have regional setups. E.g. Sky 1 have UK & Eire variations with same name. Someone in UK will want the UK variation, and someone uk Eire will want the Eire variation...

Good luck with the project tho, and be great to get it going, and possibly even working with all different sats & packages...

[hashman]

thanks,
at the moment the progress is so far:
1. i've designed the database structure
2. i'm reading up on the lamedb file structure, as it'll be source of entry

next steps:
3. understand the conversion from KOS data to lamedb

Then i'll work on the rest

My way of export will be very simple, without making too complicated features, it'll simply be what dreambox edit does: i.e upload a list of files to your /var/engima2

As for managing the different channels with same name on different satelites: i'll just base it on the satellite i see that info in lamedb already

too bad andy didn't work on it, would have saved me the hours already spent
cheers

[pooface]

Does it work on the box itself, or as a pc program that connects to your box?

[mickbrush]

This is a top idea just to be clear this would mean I could keep my personalised bouquets and update and without it messing up. That would be much better than the updater I am using now

[hashman]

it'll be online
i'm at the moment working on a php script that decrypts the lamedb somehow... no idea yet, just manage to read file, but i've downloaded dreamboxedit sourcecode, will see if i can figure it out

the idea is :

once you create your bouquets, behind a channel is a reference that is added in the bouquet file and at the end will be generated a lamedb file with all the channels that are in yoru bouquet and a corresponding satellite.xml file
all this will be downloaded via a cron job on a daily basis by the dreambox from the website (based on a username)
so if a channel changes frequency, which is updated on the website, at the next sync, it'll be updated in the dreambox automatically

[punisher]

will it update it in your favorites list too or just the satellites.xml file? as normally it would only update the satellites.xml file and you would manually have to remove the old channel and replace it with the new one in your favorites list

[hashman]

my idea is to create fresh bouquet files and fresh lamedb and satellite files every time its synced
the idea is that i'll create one bouquet, and it'll be spread through the different dreamboxes as they'll download the whole set everytime
This is also important if i add new channels to my bouquet from newly added channels to a satellite, at the next sync (or manual sync), they'll appear on the dreambox

the same can be applied to others, if you create a bouquet, and i want it, i can set my dreambox to sync your bouquets, so any change you make, will show up on my box automatically...that's the whole point of community run (atleast the idea i have)

maybe whist implenting, i'll realise the limitations to my current knowledge, but my idea is what i just tried to describe

[hashman]

progress going good so far, i've managed to determine:

Channel name / provider / sid/NS/TSID/ONID/STYPE

i've matched for some examples the SID to the same as the one in KOS, ...

[rossi2000]

you can always use the dreamboxuk frontend and database to create your new bouquets, its updated with freq changes etc and is in line with slys epg numbering.
upload them to your hosting.

then you can install the autoupdate plugin and initiate a download of the new bouquets from your hosting on each box. this is what i currently do with family / freinds

i just create a new set of bouquets and upload them to my hosting, then the user can initiate the download of new bouquets from there box and it installs them. you can always set it up as a cron job too.

[Alanp]

Good luck with this will be great when its working

[digidude]

the autoupdater i made for the tm800 (with help with the actual script), a channel list is uploaded to the server, and a very simple text based control file is also edited. This control file is checked once every 24 hours, if the control file has changed, a message onscreen asks if you want to update, if you say yes the boquet list is downloaded, installed and settings reloaded, if you choose no, itll ask again in 24 hours, or you can do it namually from my plugin / ppanel