XSLTv

Summary:

XSLTv is a grid viewing program for XMLTV data files. It requires only an xmltv data file and a modern browser. All processing is completely client-side, resulting in a very simple installation, but a performance hit.

Download:

• xsltv.zip version 1.2 - Compressed .zip file (161.84k)

See Changes Old Versions

Features:

Update: XSLTv is an officially approved Schedules Direct application, so you can use this non-profit grabber to feed XSLTv. (The previous North-American grabber which used labs.zap2it.com has been discontinued.)

• No complex installation - it could run off of your windows desktop.
• Everything controlled by stylesheets - css files mimicking seven common web-based tv listings grids are included.
• Configurable DHTML popups show more information about shows (e.g. description, rating, original airdate or release year)
• Supports xmltv channel icons.
• Clicking on a program optionally searches IMDB for the title, or uses a url encoded in the xml file
• Supports dynamic loading of daily xml files, instead of a single master file.
• Preferences allow changing grid width and number of columns.
• (New) Will automatically refresh hourly to keep a current grid showing at all times.
• Works in new versions of both Mozilla and Internet Explorer. It does not (and will not) work in Safari - "XSLT not available via JavaScript for application to arbitrary XML in an HTML page." As of version 1.1, XSLTv works in IE 7.
• Works for North American, French, Spanish, Swedish, and German listings.
• German, English, Spanish (by Raul), French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Swedish translations included.
• This software is published under the U of I/NCSA open source license.

Installation:

1. Get XMLTV installed and working. (This is easy, especially in Windows!)
2. Drop all the files into a directory on your webserver. Note: This software does not require a webserver; it works perfectly from a directory on a windows machine.
3. Put a current xmltv file (which must be either titled tv.xml, or with today's date YYYYMMDD.xml) in the same directory. I use a series of cron jobs to automate this. Note: The smaller the xml file available to the program, the quicker this will run. Sorting seems to help with speed, but is not required.
4. Load tv.html in a webbrowser. Note: This file (and only this file) may be freely renamed (e.g. to index.html).

• Optionally, put your icons directory (which should be called "icons" and should contain the images referenced in the xml tree) in the web tree. In North America, obtain icons with tv_grab_na_icons; subsequent tv_grab_na_dd calls will add the necessary references to your xml file. Note: Where I live, several icons are .gif files with a .jpg extension. Don't correct them. The links in the xml are to the .jpg extension, and the browser will display it anyhow.

Support/Comments

• Please post in the Forum

Problems:

• It's slow. A seven-day file can take forever. Download or split into one- or two-day files to speed things up. Clicking the earlier/later links makes a browser appear to freeze for a moment.
• It doesn't know anything about time zones. Put a time zone correction in your tv_grab_XX.conf file.
• Most translations are bad. Please post in the forum if you can help.

Screenshots (updated for version 0.9):

AOL theme	Excite theme	MeeVee theme	MSN theme	TitanTV theme	TVGuide theme	Yahoo theme

Screenshots of the preferences screen: Page One, Page Two, Page Three, Page Four

Similar Projects

• XMLTV-to-HTML converter, by August Hörandl. This is a perl script to be run server-side. (XSLTv doesn't require perl)
• xmltv2html is a Ruby script that transforms XMLTV into HTML Requires Ruby, generates a grid for all dates and times in the xml file. (XSLTv displays a configurable "window" of current shows.) I got the idea for DHTML popups from this project.
• tv2html converts an XMLTV file into an HTML TV guide. This perl script generates a UK-style grid, with channels across the top and times on the side.
• XMLTVdb is one of the best looking grids I've seen; it loads your tv data into a postgresql database, then renders html with perl, modperl, and several modules. I never got this working.
• XML-XSL TV Guide by Dave Whitehead. Has many of the same features as mine, plus support for "favorite programs. Hasn't been updated in a while, but a new version is promised soon.

Credits

• DynamicDrive provided the Show Hint script used in the preferences screen.
• http://www.shiningstar.net provided the routine which checks that input is numeric.
• BoxOver is the script used to provide the popups descriptions.
• SimplyTheBest.net provided the script for the real-time clock.
• Ivan Georgiev wrote the routine which shows and hides divs.
• FastDatePicker is the script used for the popup calendar.
• The code to find the icon filename came from here.
• The code to escape urls properly came from here.
• The for-loop which is used for star-ratings and other things is from here.

Copyright (c) 2006-2008 Eric Lofgren
All rights reserved.