Tracker and TWP 2.x

[Gilly]

I like the sound of that - anyone prepared to 'promise'? Or at least offer a teaser as to when these patches may be included in an over the air download for us unexperienced (but easily impressed) people?

[mrtickle]

Bugfix version. v3.20-rc6

# Jun 29, 2011
# mrtickle, 3.2.0-rc6
# code to remove an episode from a block file if the deleted/watched status has changed. Eg a change from unwatched to watched. Otherwise it stays stuck as Unwatched forever.
# changed messages about ServerTmsIds being "unique to this TiVo" - they aren't, the serverId is just as constant across TiVos - and tidied the ServerTmsId series titles.

NB: From now on, Tracker also requires the support file zz_mrt_utils which is included and should be uploaded to the same directory (for tivowebplus 2.1b3 it might need to go in the libs directory instead if it doesn't work in modules). This uses a slightly different version of spitfire's expand_epnum routine which pads single-digit season/episode strings with leading zeros (ie sNeN becomes s0Ne0N). It's in a different namespace to avoid clashes.

Note: For series being tracked using the ServerTmsIds, as a substitute for real TmsIds, previously these were flagged as "<series> (AltEpg without Tms Ids)". In this version this is changed to "<series> (Server-Tms Ids)". This is only ever done once, when a new series is first spotted and tracked. So, if you would like the series list to show all the old series with the new style of title, you can edit the titles in the file called "series" on your tivo in the tracker directory. If you have any doubts I would recommend you don't do this.

Attachment removed: please see this thread for updated version.

[asfafa]

Hi mrtickle

Can you clarify the last paragraph please? I'm confused by this, plus also by the recent update in the TMSids in the TV Guide data.

If I want to use Tracker 3.2.0-rc6 along with the new Programme Guide with TMSids, what exactly do I need to change? Will I lose all my Tracker history?

What if I use Tracker 3.2.0-rc6 and keep Programme Data as 'standard''? Do I need to change/update anything?

TIA

Paul

[mrtickle]

No problem, sorry it was ambiguous. The last paragraph was more to do with the Tribune data vs our "Standard" data (without TmsIds). If you have this (as I do currently, not yet switched to the TMS-ID enhanced slices) then in the absence of TmsIds Tracker uses the ServerId instead to create one. I've started calling these ServerTmsIds in the Tracker update section (with verbose turned on). These are different to the Tribune Ids (obviously) so a series will be recreated in the "series" file, which is later read in when you select one of these options:

• View Tracking List
• View Tracking List (No Generics)
• View Tracking List (Only Generics)

Tribune TmsIds were in this format:
Episodes (10-digit format): EP0000060100
Episodes (12-digit format): EP010616935029 - they ran out of space in the 10-digit format in summer 2008.
One-off specials: as Episodes, but start with "SH"
Generics: as Episodes, but start with "SH"
Movies: MV7186670000

ServerTmsIds (generated by Tracker) are in this format:
Episodic (episode, movie or one-off special): XE328844897
Generic: XG328844897

AltEpg TmsIds (in TMS-ID enhance guide data, if you choose it) are going straight to the 12-digit Tribune format, but starting from "1" as the first digit to avoid clashing with genuine old Tribune TmsIds.
Episodes & one-off specials: EP1<11-digits>
Generics: SH1<11-digits>
Movies: MV1<11-digits>

If you kept your Tribune history, you would have two copies of each series you track, both called the same thing, but with different Ids in the list. You'd have to follow the links to see which was which - confusing. So, I wanted to label them. On my TiVo I have renamed all the Tribune ones with "<series> (Tribune)" by manually editing the series file, as I suspect many people will wipe the history. Tracker itself labels the AltEPG Standard slice series as "<series> (Server-Tms Ids)". It's only this label which has changed in this new version, from what it used to be "<series> (AltEpg without Tms Ids)". But this is only done the very first time a series is Tracked. So if you do nothing and keep Standard slice guide data, over time you'll have some of each label. All I meant was: You may like to(*) edit the series file to change the "<series> (AltEpg without Tms Ids)" ones to match.

Once you switch to TMS-ID guide data, the series should just be called "<series>" in the list, with no suffix. (NB: I would be grateful for someone with that setup to try it out please!)

You can keep the history from all 3 sets of Ids, and refer to it to delete things that appear again in the ToDo list. For instance, I've been doing this with old episodes of QI on Dave. I had a long Tracker history with the Tribune series which now appears in my list as "QI (Tribune)". When I get an episode that's in our AltEpg guide data for the first time, but is old, I read that list to see if I had actually seen it before, then I delete it from my ToDo list and it gets added to the "QI (Server-Tms Ids)" file. When I switch to TMS-ID guide data the same transition will happen again.

So the specifics:

If I want to use Tracker 3.2.0-rc6 along with the new Programme Guide with TMSids, what exactly do I need to change? Will I lose all my Tracker history?

You don't need to change anything. You'll keep your history, labelled as above, for reference. However when something that's in your block list with a Server-Tms Ids is shown again, Tracker won't block it automatically - as only the XE... entries are in your block_WU (or the other 3) file(s).

What if I use Tracker 3.2.0-rc6 and keep Programme Data as 'standard''? Do I need to change/update anything?

No you don't strictly need to change anything, other than of course uploading the new module file and new mrtutils file to your tivo and do a full restart of Tivoweb (or Quit then restart from the commandline). But if you want to, edit /var/hack/tracker/series as mentioned above (*).

If you keep Standard data the biggest thing you'll currently lose out on is the long (not truncated) descriptions. I'm expecting over time people will move to the Enhanced data. If we get the ability to add Original Air Dates in future they will only go into the Enhanced data for example.

HTH

[asfafa]

Hi mrtickle

Thanks very much for your explanation. I think I almost understand

I've copied over the new rc6 scripts and switched my TiVo to use the enhanced data.

Does that mean that all the XS* files that have been generated since AltEPG started cannot be used anymore, except for manual reference for the ToDo List when building up the new lists of TMSid data?

Is there any point to editing the series file, to remove the '(AltEpg without Tms Ids)' suffix?

Sorry, if I am being thick here...

Paul

[mrtickle]

I've copied over the new rc6 scripts and switched my TiVo to use the enhanced data.

Great, please let us know if it works!

Does that mean that all the XS* files that have been generated since AltEPG started cannot be used anymore, except for manual reference for the ToDo List when building up the new lists of TMSid data?

Your current recordings, deleted items and probably a bit of future data in your tivo will still use the XS* Ids. It took me MONTHS to watch all of my Tribune recordings, and of course when they were tracked later, it was adding their old Ids to my block lists. The same will happen for this transition now.

As time goes on, Tracker will add fewer of the old sort to the block files add more of our new TmsIds and create lots of SH files in that directory. The simplest answer in all this is "wipe the directory and start again" but (a) that loses history and (b) there is not a big-bang changeover to TmsId data, it depends on how long the records hang around in your TiVo.

Another option is to use the new "Clear Download Logs" entry in the AltEPG control panel - this is a bit like repeating Guided Setup but without the hassle. The server will send ALL the guide data to your TiVo all over again and your tivo will have the big long indexing task. But this might give you full TmsId data in one hit. If it doesn't, then doing "Clear all programme Guide data and todo list" on your tivo will, except for the entries in your Now Playing / deleted recordings. Would be nice if a few people could test these options

The old XS files can be used for manual references, but won't be used when blocking as tracker will start blocking by TmsId if there is a TmsId in the data. In all cases it tries for TmsIds first, and drops back to ServerIds if it can't find them. So If you do delete the files, make sure to remove the corresponding entries from the "series" file too.

Is there any point to editing the series file, to remove the '(AltEpg without Tms Ids)' suffix?

You could do that, but I wouldn't do that if I were you, as then you'd have two entries both the same with different Ids and it may be confusing. Up to you really! Personally I'd prefer to see two separate entries

QI (AltEpg without Tms Ids) [or QI (ServerTmsIds)]
QI

so when you're doing your manual lookups you know which is which. If you rename the first one to QI you'll have to click on (or hover over) each one to see which is the old one and which is the current one.

[mrtickle]

I'm testing an updated version which has a much clearer output when doing an update (verbose mode). Hope to upload it soon.

[mrtickle]

version 3.2.0-rc7

# Jul 14, 2012
# mrtickle, 3.2.0-rc7
# rewrote verbose update display to use a formatted table, much nicer
# needs zz_mrt_utils_rc07.itcl or later

Instructions - unzip and upload both files. Delete the old zz_mrt_utils and tracker version. Do a full Quit of tivoweb and restart it from the command line. Turn on "Verbose Update Procedure" in the Setup screen.

Attachment removed: please see this thread for updated version.

[millsb]

I've just installed this on an altepg tivo that previously had Tracker 317a installed (that's what you get with altepg1.0d).
Some observations (this applies to TWP 21b3):

1. zz_mrt_utils_rc07.itcl goes into the libs/ directory
2. tracker320_rc7.itcl goes into the modules/ directory
3. you need to remove the existing tracker317a.itcl module from the modules/ directory
4. you need to remove the module.cache file from the config/ directory
5. Having restarted TWP I clicked on "Create/Update Tracking List". I got a pretty display but it says "colspan=8" repeatedly which I don't think is intentional:

[mrtickle]

Thanks - that colspan isn't intentional and doesn't appear in nonTWP. I'll try and work out what's going on there. I've switched my TiVo to TMSid slices now so will be able to test both types of data for a while.

[mrtickle]

Thanks - that colspan isn't intentional and doesn't appear in nonTWP. I'll try and work out what's going on there. I've switched my TiVo to TMSid slices now so will be able to test both types of data for a while.

Pretty strange bug/feature in twp's proc td in html.itcl for a TD, as opposed to a TH. TiVoweb allows you to pass an empty "" which it'll change to &nbsp; in the cell, but this doesn't work with a colspan in TWP for some reason.

This attached version rc-8 should look better, I've also centred the help text while I was at it (was relying on the technophobe css to do it). Shows a mix of ServerTmsIds and real TmsIds too

Attachment removed: please see this thread for updated version.

tivoweb:

tivoweb tracker

Tracker320-rc8-tw.PNG (76.47 KiB) Viewed 6117 times

tivowebplus:

tivowebplus tracker

Tracker320-rc8-twp.PNG (58.93 KiB) Viewed 6117 times

EDIT: Your "adds" in the WT column show another bug, I will have to look at that later .

[mrtickle]

EDIT: Your "adds" in the WT column show another bug, I will have to look at that later .

Ok, new rc-9 should fix that bug. For the last few versions if you had set the option "watched means watched" (which prevents something being re-recorded/deleted from ToDo, then expiring in an Unwatched state and then resetting your record of it to Unwatched, meaning it wouldn't be blocked the 3rd time it was shown) it was previously overriding the watched status in too many cases. Eg Millsb's screenshot showed Unwatched items being added for the first time to the WT file, instead of their place in the UT file.

Sorry there's no easier way of explaining that

# Jul 17, 2012
# mrtickle, 3.2.0-rc9
# bugfix: Verbose display reported added to the wrong watched files.
[removed - see next post]

[mrtickle]

Ok, here's the real rc-9 version. Unfortunately for all of the (54!) downloads of the above zip, no-one spotted that the zip file contained version rc-8

Attachment removed: please see this thread for updated version.

[mrtickle]

There is a new revamped version 3.3 of Tracker by Spitfires over on tivocommunity here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/sh ... p?t=502768

Key changes:
# - rewrote some code for better performance and data integrity
# - use caching to reduce disc thrashing
# - improved the compatibility with TWP 2.1
# - manual / delayed rebuilding is no longer required - all changes are immediate
# - slightly revised file formats; files converted automatically on first run

Please post to that thread for support, I will not support my older versions any longer. Thanks