[Xmltv-devel] Representation of repeat

[Paul Webster]

Hi Folks,

For a closed system I generate a file in XMLTV format.
There are a lot of repeats - and I want to cut down the size of the listings by not repeating programme descriptions
(result presented on phones).

I know that the "programme" element can indicate a repeat via "previously-shown".
Is that the right way to tell display software to go back to the original programme (which I know will be in the same
file) to show the show synopsis (etc)?

(Given it is a closed system I could simply agree a way with the other developer but would rather do it the right way
just in case the closed stuff ever becomes open)

Paul

[Nick Morrott]

Post by Paul Webster
Hi Folks,
For a closed system I generate a file in XMLTV format.
There are a lot of repeats - and I want to cut down the size of the listings by not repeating programme descriptions
(result presented on phones).
I know that the "programme" element can indicate a repeat via "previously-shown".
Is that the right way to tell display software to go back to the original programme (which I know will be in the same
file)  to show the show synopsis (etc)?

That is a valid way of marking repeats, as the <previously-shown>
element can optionally include the XMLTV ID and start time for the
original showing. It is up to your specific implementation to decide
whether to (and how to) locate the earlier premiere in the data using
the channel/ID information and substitute that programme's data for
the later repeat showings - I do not think this specific behaviour is
present in all XMLTV parsers.

Cheers,
Nick

[Robert Eden]

Post by Paul Webster
For a closed system I generate a file in XMLTV format.
There are a lot of repeats - and I want to cut down the size of the listings by not repeating programme descriptions
(result presented on phones).
I know that the "programme" element can indicate a repeat via "previously-shown".
Is that the right way to tell display software to go back to the original programme (which I know will be in the same
file) to show the show synopsis (etc)?
(Given it is a closed system I could simply agree a way with the other developer but would rather do it the right way
just in case the closed stuff ever becomes open)

I don't know of any grabbers that "normalize" the data in any way.
(Normalization is a database term that avoids replication of
information). The XMLTV format is designed specifically to not need to
cache values for future reference.

Of course in relational databases, normalization is a good thing and
your solution is a good one. I just don't think it's compatible with
other system.

Robert