folders for inserted and non-series shows

[chrised]

Last time I looked, the TmsId (and not the ServerId) was consistent across SA and combo units for a given Series.

I hope you're wrong. Otherwise my solution will fail when you go cross platform. Can someone out there with both do some investigation and let me know for sure one way or another?

Its my understanding that Tivo uses the ServerId as a global unique identifier. Each series has three identifying elements: object id (unique to each database), TmsId (assigned by Tribune Media Services), and ServerId (assigned by Tivo "central").

chrised-

Your method of sending the data across AND building series id record objects is, well, fantastic.

I will play with your code tonight, since it is more complete. It looks PERFECT for what people have been looking for, at least, for me!

Btw, I changed nothing in the "sending" code. In fact, my testing involved using sending units with the normal mfs_ftp code. Everything that was needed was already in the xml. All I did is consume nearly all the xml, and introduce it into the database objects.

[alldeadhomiez]

I think chrised figured out the naming scheme for the ServerIDs which is based on the TmsId:

The guide data does not seem to be indexed this way on my SA (sw 5.4-01-2-595):

% dumpobj 5841
Series 5841/11 {
  Episodic       = 1
  Genre          = 1014 88
  IndexPath      = /Server/17028
  ServerId       = 17028
  ServerVersion  = 148
  ShortTitle     = {Stargate SG-1}
  ThumbData      = Predicted 0 0
  Title          = {Stargate SG-1}
  TmsId          = SH225421
  Version        = 3
}
% dumpobj /Server/ATSH225421:4:0:0
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

Its my understanding that Tivo uses the ServerId as a global unique identifier. Each series has three identifying elements: object id (unique to each database), TmsId (assigned by Tribune Media Services), and ServerId (assigned by Tivo "central").

Sounds about right. But the problem we face here is that TiVo probably does not issue ServerId's to DirecTV for the APG. It looks as though they have worked around this by allowing the DirecTV APG system to create special ServerId's in the "AT" namespace, based on the TmsId. The end result is that the two guide data sources have little in common other than the TmsId.

[Jamie]

I hope you're wrong. Otherwise my solution will fail when you go cross platform. Can someone out there with both do some investigation and let me know for sure one way or another?

I added a recursive dump feature to mfs_dumpobj that might be useful for this investigation. We can accumulate dumps of /Server from various hardware and software versions. I could easily write a little perl script to check whether the ServerId <-> TmsId mapping is unique once I have the dumps.

[chrised]

The guide data does not seem to be indexed this way on my SA (sw 5.4-01-2-595):

% dumpobj 5841
Series 5841/11 {
  Episodic       = 1
  Genre          = 1014 88
  IndexPath      = /Server/17028
  ServerId       = 17028
  ServerVersion  = 148
  ShortTitle     = {Stargate SG-1}
  ThumbData      = Predicted 0 0
  Title          = {Stargate SG-1}
  TmsId          = SH225421
  Version        = 3
}
% dumpobj /Server/ATSH225421:4:0:0
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

Ahh crap. I'll add a warning to my "release" page. This code is DTivo only until someone with a mixed environment modifies it to another approach.

[philhu]

Although the tmsID's are compatible across platforms, since it is tms based, ther seriesids are not!

I have a S2 SA (v4.01b) and a S1 SA (v3.x). The tmsid's DO match, but serverid's do not for the same show recorded off the same channel on both machines.

I think the Tivo creates the server id on the fly, pointing it to the tms id.

On Canadian Tivos, we store/use TMSIDs from zap2it, but we build seriesID, programID from a list we keep and assign from.

[jbuehl]

Ahh crap. I'll add a warning to my "release" page. This code is DTivo only until someone with a mixed environment modifies it to another approach.

I have the C program that will search Tms.index almost done. You should be able to call it from your script to get the series fsid. I expect to have it done tonight. In the meantime, if someone wants to try what I described in post #5, I'll send you that program. It should work, it's just suboptimal.

[alldeadhomiez]

I think the Tivo creates the server id on the fly, pointing it to the tms id.

The local machine should never create a ServerId locally in the "main" namespace. The "AT" stuff is handled differently, so these ServerId's will never conflict with the numeric ones coming from the mothership.

As it so happens, the same Series object (with the same ServerId) appears to be sent down to all SAs, regardless of lineup:

Series/1/17028/148 {
        TmsId: {SH225421}
        Title: {Stargate SG-1}
        Genre: 88
        Genre: 1014
        Episodic: 1
        ShortTitle: {Stargate SG-1}
}

[chrised]

I'd like someone to use MRV to transfer a show cross-platform.

Once its to the other side, use Tivowebplus MFS browse, go to the program/series object, and post the details of the series here. (Make sure you mention the source and destination used in this test).

I am dying to know if MRV has the ability to cross-reference series by TmsId, or if it simply duplicates the "foreign" series object.

If it duplicates the foreign object, we then know that it is safe to do that.

I've already got a good idea on what I need to change in the code to make it work properly on SA units. Its just the cross-platform transfers that look really tricky.

It would also be nice to see the details on the station object.

[jbuehl]

I have the C program that will search Tms.index almost done. You should be able to call it from your script to get the series fsid. I expect to have it done tonight. In the meantime, if someone wants to try what I described in post #5, I'll send you that program. It should work, it's just suboptimal.

I attached the interim program and scripts to post #5.

[jbuehl]

I have tried a few transfers to a S2 D-Tivo and it is mostly working.

Shows that were extracted from a S2 get placed into existing folders. They are linked to the correct series and station objects. I haven't yet tried importing 2 or more shows that would result in creation of a new folder.

The bad news is that shows that were extracted from a S1 SA cause a crash:

05:55:52:AM - 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p-Jamie-ChrisEd:V1 - {sock24} from "192.168.1.12:33264"
05:55:53:AM - 331 User name okay, need password.
05:55:53:AM - 230 Running in TiVo Mode.
05:55:53:AM - 215 UNIX
05:55:53:AM - 200 Type set to I
05:55:53:AM - 257 "/" is current directory.
05:55:53:AM - 200 PORT command successful.
05:55:53:AM - 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.
05:55:53:AM - 226 Transfer complete.
05:56:07:AM - 200 PORT command successful.
05:56:09:AM - 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for "{SouthPark-SimpsonsAlreadyDidIt-20020630.tmf}"
bgerror invoked with error

 " can't read "stationpath": no such variable "

re-initializing mfs_ftp

Here is a snippet of the xml:

  <Object type="Station" id="Station">
    <Affiliation>Satellite</Affiliation>
    <CallSign>COMEDYP</CallSign>
    <Name>Comedy Central (Pacific)</Name>
    <ServerVersion>76</ServerVersion>
    <TmsId>10150</TmsId>
  </Object>

It looks like the Station object doesn't contain a ServerId tag which is causing the code in setrecinfo that initializes stationpath to be skipped. This same show imports successfully using mfs_ftp with Jamie's mods.

I'll continue testing.

[chrised]

The bad news is that shows that were extracted from a S1 SA cause a crash:

 " can't read "stationpath": no such variable "

Here is a snippet of the xml:

  <Object type="Station" id="Station">
    <Affiliation>Satellite</Affiliation>
    <CallSign>COMEDYP</CallSign>
    <Name>Comedy Central (Pacific)</Name>
    <ServerVersion>76</ServerVersion>
    <TmsId>10150</TmsId>
  </Object>

It looks like the Station object doesn't contain a ServerId tag which is causing the code in setrecinfo that initializes stationpath to be skipped. This same show imports successfully using mfs_ftp with Jamie's mods.

I'll continue testing.

I've posted Beta 1.1 http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showpost.php?p=196853

That should fix the error.

I'd like to fix the station linking for SA tivos. To do so, I need someone to send me an objdump of a station (the xml above has some properties removed that I need to see).

[rc3105]

OK, Riley has spoken. Apparently I'm a moron for posting the entire modified mfs_ftp.tcl file. I've decided further comments on the matter won't serve any purpose, so I'll hold my tongue (keyboard in this case).

lot of threads lately that touch on respecting dev's wishes, especially when they're spelled out in a license...

Looks like I have two choices. Post a diff patch (painful to me and the users to apply), or implement a plug-in module/patch.

posting alpha/beta stuff as diff patches isn't really a bad thing, it tends to prevent the truly clueless from hurting themselves

I've opted for the plugin patch (I am pleasantly surprised how easy that is to do)

that's what the module sourcing scheme's there for. look how well it's worked for tivoweb

Its always nice spending 20+ hours developing something someone else has already done. Or has it been done? I don't see it publicly available.

there was a tivoweb module to change/manage grouping on tcf back when 4.x was first released. it ocassionally bjorked the scheduler & season passes. by the time the was an s2 with a folder capable sw version here I'd lost site of it (pun intended)

Enough people are asking for it. I privately asked for it, and got nothing.

other things on the todo list besides tutor MFS 101 - see alphawolf's sig re public / private discussion

*no you don't need to establish links while creating objects, it's perfectly feasable to sync them up later

Riley's messages (that I've found) never indicated having a version that did this during the inserts. All I could find was reference to a utility to fix them "Afterwards". And that utility is also not being shared.

lotta toys in that category for various reasons - in this case mostly lack of time to test all the possible permutations and side effects

I needed this now. And I decided I would share it with the group as a contribution for all the neat stuff I've been using. Thats supposed to be the idea here, right?

very cool. nice to see another person on the dev side of the producer/consumer fence

[Jamie]

I'd like to fix the station linking for SA tivos. To do so, I need someone to send me an objdump of a station (the xml above has some properties removed that I need to see).

Here's a dump of one station from 4.0.1b and 5.1.1b, both S2SA's. The only difference between the two is the FSID and the path in /StationTms (since it includes the hex encoded FSID).

[jbuehl]

What I did was 'hijack' seriesIDs of series I would never record for non-series stuff.

I had thought of doing that too. Presumably you change the Title of the series object to be something else. Does the title stay changed, or does the Tivo software periodically refresh it
with the real title?

[alldeadhomiez]

I had thought of doing that too. Presumably you change the Title of the series object to be something else. Does the title stay changed, or does the Tivo software periodically refresh it
with the real title?

If it comes from a slice (as SA guide data does), the object will be overwritten when the ServerVersion increments. Since the ServerVersion starts at 1, you can tell how many times a given object has changed at the headend by looking at the current value. You can also look at the Version attribute to see how many times it has been changed on the local machine.

I'm not sure how versioning of APG objects works, but I would expect it to be similar so as to reduce load on the IRDs.