I am still struggling to figure out the way to get the proper PID for the international links using the XML files provided by the BBC. (Se earlier postings for background.

Right now it looks like this is as close as I can come: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules.xml

Because the play it again links are only good for seven days, this details of this example will soon be stale, but it is better than nothing.

On the web site: http://beebotron.org/public3/radio4extra.html, there is a link to the program "Jenny Stephens' Project Archangel, Episode 4 - The reason for Mike's involvement with the Nablovski colony is revealed. (4/4) [6 days 14 hours]" which is "http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/asx/b00wmzn1/iplayer_intl_stream_wma_lo_concrete"

On the web site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules.xml" there is a reference to the show, but the pid is listed as b00wmznd. Tantalizingly close, but...

More research has revealed some more information. The link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wmznd.xml has an entry that displays the value b00wmzn1 in the tag b00wmzn11800Original version.

I think that this is what I need to be able to design an application that will use the data from the BBC XML files to build a command line string to record a show.

Now, how do I program an application in Squeak?

Ok, here we go again. I have Squeak 4.2 fired up and I am going to try again.

1. find a source of schedule data
2. build an application to find and display program data
3. enable program selection that builds a VLC command to transcribe the program.

Here is where I am starting in Smalltalk: HTTPClient httpGet: 'http://beebotron.org/public3/radio4extra.html'

The big hurdle is (and has been for a long time) building an application GUI. Let's see how it goes.

The developer info page is a bit lean on information, but I have been able to extrapolate a bit and come up with some useful info.

The link http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/genres opens a web page with about the various generes.

The link http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/genres.xml returns an xml data file with the information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/programmes/genres/drama
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/programmes/genres/drama.xml
>> shows all radio station drama programs

It looks like with enough poking around that I will be able to figure out the appropriate urls.

Stay tuned.

The bbc program information extraction process is a moving target. There is a new page for developer information that is different from the last two go-rounds.

BBC Programs is the new place to go to get the tools to design a program to download and convert BBC Radio shows. It replaces the BBC API (glad I didn't code up too much;)

A friend of mine wanted me to download a video clip from ABC15.com.

This is how I did it.

1. Get the embedded link from the player on the website.
2. Create an html page with just the link.
3. open the page.
4. Use firefox and its addins to download the file.

Arrrg!

The last tip was sorta good, but not quite what I need.

The schedule info points to the live feed not the listen again feed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/realplayer/bbc7_hi.asx


Listen again links look like this:
http://wm.bbc.co.uk/wms/bbc7coyopa/bbc7_-_monday_1230.wma

I think it is a big server farm where the links are recycled every seven days. I can't figure out how to get a file list. I can only send a link and it works or not. The interesting thing is that different shows start at different times on different days, so there may be a chance that as show that started at an odd time would still be available for more than 7 days it the slot has not been reused.

I may be able to use the schedule data to derive a listen again link by parsing the schedule and using the schedule info to build a url.

I think I have something figured out.

This link has program listings for BBC content - - http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/feeds/tvradio/

In the files yo can find a reference to a crid: .

This link drills down into examples of how to a retrieve program link using the crid.

http://www0.rdthdo.bbc.co.uk/services/api/bbc.schedule.getProgrammes.html

http://www0.rdthdo.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/api/query.pl?method=bbc.schedule.getProgrammes&channel_id=,BBCSeven&start=2010-04-24T21:42:00Z&end=2010-04-24T23:59:59Z&limit=3

ultimately this is the secret sauce. Plug in the crid: from a look up into the listings files.

http://www0.rdthdo.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/api/query.pl?method=bbc.programme.getLocations&programme_id=crid://bbc.co.uk/1187037780

Getting the BBC schedule data?

I have been getting data from iplayerconverter and beebotron. I am not sure what source they use, but it may be from the bbc backstage.

I continue to poke around trying to figure out where to get data and how to use it.
This link may have what I am looking for.

I got a script running last night that transcoded a stream from the bbc to a .raw on my computer. This is huge for me.

My next task is to figure out how to use parms. Then I will try to figure out an interface to one of the web sites that offer links.

Mac Shell Scripting Primer looks like it is a good beginner reference

IBM bash reference material

make executable scripts - there seems to be some subtlety to figure out
This is a start: To make a file executable and runnable by any user:
chmod a+x myfile




On the mac, you can append .command

Whoo!Hoo! curl is part of the mac osx bash environment. Use it to reterive web pages.

command
vncs:scriptsnips jrmaffeo$ curl http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/asx/b0025zn4/iplayer_intl_stream_wma_lo_concrete
returns
<ASX version="3.0"> <ABSTRACT>http://www.bbc.co.uk/</ABSTRACT> <TITLE>BBC</TITLE> <AUTHOR>BBC</AUTHOR> <COPYRIGHT>(c) British Broadcasting Corporation</COPYRIGHT> <MoreInfo href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/" /> <Entry> <ref href="mms://wm.bbc.co.uk/wms/bbc7coyopa/bbc7_-_tuesday_1800.wma" /><ref href="mms://wm.bbc.co.uk/wms2/bbc7coyopa/bbc7_-_tuesday_1800.wma" /> <MoreInfo href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/" /> <Abstract>BBC </Abstract> </Entry></ASX><br />

There is still a lot more parsing to do, but this is a good way to get the data.

Well there is a lot to learn. I have enabled the web server on my mac. I had to poke around to find the folder at the system level. It is /Library/WebServer. I tried to find it by looking for index.html, but the name in the folder was index.html.en. Go figure.

I may not need to use the server, but I want to know where it is. There is an HTTP interface available with VLC

There is a neat note about creating multisession disks using Leopard.

Ah Ha! If you did not put the scripts directory in your PATH, and . (the current directory) is not in the PATH either, you can activate the script like this: ./script_name.sh

VLC Command Line Help

I have a command running and it will play a stream from the BBC, but it will not yet transcode it to a file.
This comment may help. We will see.
Figured it out:

The main problem being that I needed to specify a suitable interface module: -I dummy

Also, I removed the: file:// from the stream name.

Final syntax:

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -I dummy -vvv "udp://@:41394" --sout='#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=3072,acodec=mpga,ab=192}:standard{mux=ts,dst=/Users/creggchaffer/Desktop/FILE.ts,access=file}':sout-transcode-soverlay=0

There is excellent way to listen to BBC7 listen again programs on the Ipod touch.

One option that works is to copy links from iplayerconverter or beebotron into FStream. The good is that it works (Yay! FStream), the bad is that the required link is hard to find and I get frequent dropouts listening on my home wifi.

The solution I have settled on is to transcode the files using VideoLAN Client (VLC). The good part is that I can transcode the files into mp3s, the bad part is that I have to cut and paste the link into the gui and type in a destination file name while stepping through several dialog boxes.

My current goal is to try and figure out how to write a bash script on my Mac that will let me drop a link and have it spit out an mp3. Should be fun.

Still trying to figure this thing out.

BLOGGER

BBC online

Well, that was, er, uh, satisfying, eh?

It took a while for my blog to get blogified, but now I am blogging with the best of the bloggers (while still trying to out-blog the comeptition).

Have a Blog Day!

In the begining ....