How do I use metatags for collecting Etivo XML data?

[gamejester]

Hello,

I am new to Xlobby but it looks like I will be able to create the kind of frontend I need in it.

First off I wanted to hook it into my Etivo app and use its xml output for input into a xlobby database.

Background: Etivo is an asp.net application that takes shows from Tivo via ftp and then converts them to wmv files on a hosting server. It stores the show info in an xml file and then uses this to create a dynamic now showing page. Example of the type of information it stores in show.xml are:
<Title>Alias</Title>
<EpisodeNum>301</EpisodeNum>
<EpisodeTitle>The Two</EpisodeTitle>
<CallSign>BRAVOD</CallSign>
etc...........

The directory structure used takes the form:
\Data
\{Alias}{2004-03-14}{The Two}{BRAVOD}.show
\{Alias}{2004-03-14}{The Two}{BRAVOD}_WmvLow.wmv
\ShowInfo.xml

so as you can see a lot of the useful information is also stored in the directory name and show name.

So what i want to do is create a metatag import database template that will gather the infomation and populate a xlobby database.

The eventual screens I wish to create is a root screen showing all the categories of shows available grouped via Title with a picture for each, then when you click a show it takes you to a text list with maybe 4 colums that displays Episode number, episode title, air date and channel; clicking on a show will then play it.

It looks like this is possible, but so far I have only been able to create a text list of all shows using the directory name which when you click on it plays the show.

[jowaldo]

woah do you have a link for that app? I'd really like to take a look at that

[lar282]

is it this one maybe

http://prish.com/EtiVo/downloads.htm

[gamejester]

That's the one, for more info about it + everything else Tivo you can find info here

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showt ... ge=1&pp=15

So anyone got any info on this meta stuff?

[gamejester]

OK, think I have constructed a meta tag now, once I realised it was regular expression code that made things a lot simpler. The expression is:

{(?<show>[^}]+)}{(?<showDate>[^}]+)}{(?<showTitle>[^}]+)}{(?<showChannel>[^}]+)}.show

This will take the information stored in the directory structure and capture to the corresponding variables.

My question now is, how do I use this in a template for xlobby to create the required type of database? Do I alter one of the existing templates, and if so which one?

I presume option type does something special?

How can I create a screen that groups items in the database I created by <show> on the start screen, then just list the shows related to it on the next screen?

[gamejester]

Ammendment to that syntax:

{(?<show>[^}]*)}{(?<showDate>[^}]*)}{(?<showTitle>[^}]*)}{(?<showChannel>[^}]*)}.show

I have changed the + to a * to handle cases when a program element is missing,

+ Matches the preceding element one or more times
* Matches the preceding element zero or more times

whith the + symbol if any of the show details are missing from the directory name, then all variables are set to NULL for that show.