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diff --git a/doc/en/epgsearch.1.txt b/doc/en/epgsearch.1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d4b9d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/en/epgsearch.1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,999 @@ +epgsearch(5) Epgsearch Version 0.9.24.beta9 epgsearch(5) + + + +NAME + epgsearch - Searchtimer and replacement of the VDR program menu + +OVERVIEW + EPG-Search can be used as a replacement for the default schedules menu + entry. It looks like the standard schedules menu, but adds some addi‐ + tional functions: + + - Commands for EPG entries with 5 built-in commands like ’show repeats’, + ’create search’. One can add own commands for other needs, like adding a + VDRAdmin auto-timer. + + - Add up to 4 user-defined times to ’now’ and ’next’ and an optional + favorites menu + + - Searching the EPG: Create reusable queries, which can also be used + as ’search timers’. + + - Search timers: Search for broadcasts in the background and add a + timer if one matches (similar to VDRAdmin’s auto-timers) or simply + make an announcement about it via OSD + + - Avoid double recordings of the same event + * timer preview + * recognition of broken recordings + * fuzzy event comparison + + - Progress bar in ’What’s on now’ and ’What’s on next’ + + - Shift the time displayed by key press, e.g. ’What’s on now’ + 30 minutes + + - Start menu can be setup between ’Schedule’ or ’What’s on now’ + + - background check for timer conflicts with a timer conflict manager + + - detailed EPG menu (summary) allows jumping to the next/previous + event + + - support for extended EPG info for search timers + + - extension of the timer edit menu with a directory item, user + defined weekday selection and a subtitle completion. + + - Timer conflict check, informs you over the OSD about conflicts + + - Timer conflict menu, show detailed information about the conflicts + and let you resolve them + + - Email notifications about search timer updates and timer conflicts + + Works only with >= vdr-1.3.46 or newer. + + Parts of the sources are based on the repeating-ECG patch from Gerhard + Steiner, who gave me the permission to use them. Thanks for his work! + +OPTIONS + -f file, --svdrpsendcmd=file + the path to svdrpsend.pl for external SVDRP communication (default + is internal communication, so this is usually not needed anymore) + + -c path, --config=path + to specify a specific config directory for all epgsearch config + files, default is ’<plugins configuration directory>/epgsearch’ + + -l file, --logfile=file + to specify a specific log file for epgsearch (default log file is + epgsearch.log in the epgsearchs config directory) + + -v n, --verbose=n + verbose level for log file. Value 0 means no logging. Other values + are 1 (general messages), 2 (detailed messages), 3 (planned for + extra detailed info for debugging purposes) + + -r, --reloadmenuconf + reload epgsearchmenu.conf with plugin call. This can be useful when + testing customized menu layouts. + + -m file, --mailcmd=file + the external command to be used for mail delivery. The default uses + ’sendEmail.pl’. If you are using a different command or script make + sure that it has the same parameter interface as sendEmail.pl. + +CONTENT + 1. Description + 1.1 Menu commands + 1.2 Menu search + 1.2.1 Menu edit search + 1.2.2 Menu search results + 1.3 Extended ’now’ and ’next’ + 1.4 Menu setup + 2. Search timers + 2.1 ’Avoid repeats’ - internals + 2.2 How do we compare two events? + 2.3 How and when do we compare? + 3. Usage from other plugins or scripts + 4. Using extended EPG info + 5. Replacing the standard schedule menu + 6. Add-ons + +1. Description + At first glance EPG-Search looks like the schedules menu entry of VDR. + By pressing the key ’0’, one can toggle the bottom color keys to access + additional functions (the default assignment of the color keys can be + adjusted by setup): + + 1.1 Menu Commands + + This menu displays commands that can be executed on the current item. + There are 8 built-in commands: + + - Repeats: Searches for repeats + + - Record + + - Switch + + - Create search + Switches to search menu and adds a new search with the name of the current + item (to avoid editing the name manually) + + - Search in recordings: + Search the recordings for a broadcast with the same name + + - Mark as ’already recorded’: + This puts the selected event in the file epgsearchdone.data and instructs + epgsearch to avoid recording this event if an according search timer is set + to "avoid repeats". An already created timer will be automatically removed + with the next search timer update. + + - Add/Remove to/from switch list?: + Controls the switch list. If there is an event in the switch list, epgsearch + will announce it and switch to the event before it starts. To access the + complete switch list, call ’Search/Actions/Switch list’. + + - Create blacklist: + A blacklist is used to ignore events when using search timers. A search + timer can be setup to ignore events from arbitrary blacklists. + + You can add your own commands to this menu by editing the file + epgsearchcmds.conf in epgsearchs config directory. There’s a sample + conf file with some sample commands (see directory ’scripts’, taken + from vdr-wiki.de, thanks to the authors). + + The format of the file is the same as VDR’s commands.conf or rec‐ + cmds.conf. When a command is executed the following parameters are + passed to it: + + $1: the title of the EPG entry + $2: the start time of the EPG entry as time_t value (like in the + shutdown script) + $3: the end time + $4: the channel number of the EPG entry + $5: the long channel name of the EPG entry + $6: the subtitle of the EPG entry, "" if not present + + To execute a command from the main menu you can also press its associ‐ + ated number without opening the commands menu. + + 1.2 Menu search + + Here you can add, edit, delete and execute your own queries on the EPG. + The usage and behavior of this menu is similar to VDR’s timer menu. + + 1.2.1 Menu edit search + + Most things in this menu are quite clear, so only some notes on: + + - Search term: + The term to search for. If you like to search for more words, sepa‐ + rate them by blanks. Leaving this empty (combined with search mode + ’Phrase’) will match anything. This is useful, if you search e.g. + for anything that starts between some times on a specific channel. + + With ’blue’ you can also select a template for the new search. If + one of the templates is set to default, new searches will automati‐ + cally get the settings of the default template. + + Note: fuzzy searching is limited to 32 chars! + + - Search mode: + ’Phrase’ searches for the expression within the EPG. ’All words’ + requires, that each word of the expression occurs in the EPG item. + ’at least one word’ requires, that only one word occurs in the EPG + item. ’Match exactly’ requires, that your search term matches + exactly the found title, subtitle or description. + + With ’Regular expression’ you can setup a regular expression as + search term. You don’t need a leading and trailing ’/’ in the + expression. By default these are POSIX extended regular expres‐ + sions. If you like to have Herl compatible regular expression, + simply edit the plugins Makefile and uncomment #HAVE_PCREPOSIX=1 to + HAVE_PCREPOSIX=1 (you will need pcreposix installed, comes with + libpcre from www.pcre.org, but it’s already part of most distribu‐ + tions). + + See also epgsearch(4) ’Description of the search process’. + + - Use extended EPG info: + Only available if configured, see below ’Using extended EPG info’. + + - Ignore missing categories: + If set to ’Yes’ this tells epgsearch that a missing EPG category + should not exclude an event from the results. Caution: Using this + without any other criterions could flood your timers. + + - Use channel: + Search only for events in the given channels interval, channel + groups or FTA channels only. + + Channel groups (e.g. sport channels or Pay-TV channels) can be man‐ + aged with a sub-menu called with ’blue’. + + ATTENTION: After changing the channels order please check the set‐ + tings of your search timers! + + - Use day of week: + Besides the weekdays you can also set up a user-defined selection, + e.g. search only on Monday and Friday. + + You’ll find the user-defined selection in the list after Friday. + + - Use blacklists: + You can select one or more or all blacklists here. If any search + result is also contained in one of the selected blacklists it will + be skipped. + + - Use in favorites menu: + Only available if turned on in setup. With this option you can mark + a search to be used in the favorites menu. The search results of + all these searches are listed in the favorites menu. + + - Result menu layout: + Only available if you have defined more than one menu template for + search results in epgsearchmenu.conf. This option is used to assign + a different menu layout for the search results of this search. + + - Use as Search Timer: + If set to yes, the plugin will do a background scan of the EPG in + certain intervals and add a timer, if there is a match. You have to + activate the ’search timers’ in the setup. If set to "user defined" + one can specify time margins with key ’blue’ where the search timer + is active or not. + + - Action: + Default action is creating a timer for the search results. But you + can also choose to simply announce the found event via OSD or to + switch to the event one minute before it starts. + + - Serial recording: + If set to yes, the recordings will be stored in a folder with the + name of the broadcasting and the recordings itself will have the + name of the episode. If there is no episode name, the date and time + of the recording will be used. + + - Directory: + Here you can assign a directory, where the recording should be + stored, e.g. ’SciFi’. Use the key ’blue’ to select directory + entries already used in other search entries or given by entries in + the file epgsearchdirs.conf (simply place your directories here one + at each line without the leading video directory, also see MANUAL). + If your provider delivers extended EPG infos you can also use vari‐ + ables like "%Genre%" or "%Category%" in your directory entry. These + are replaced with the current EPG info, when a timer is created. + + See also epgsearch(4) ’Using variables in the directory entry of a + search timer’. + + - Delete recordings after ... days: + Some recordings should only be kept for a few days, like news. With + this feature you can tell epgsearch to delete them automatically + after ... days. + + - Pause if ... recordings exist: + If the given numbers of recordings currently exists, then epgsearch + will not create further timers. After deleting one or more record‐ + ings it will go on generating new timers. + + - Avoid repeats: + If you don’t want to record repeats, this feature tries to check if + an event was already recorded/programmed and skips it. Please refer + to the section ’Avoid repeats - internals’ below before using it. + + - Allowed repeats: + If you like to accept a certain amount of repeats you can give here + their number. + + - Only repeats within ... days: + Give here the number of days a repeat has to follow its first + broadcast. 0 is equal to no restriction. + + - Compare title: + When comparing to events then specify here if the title should be + compared. + + - Compare subtitle: + When comparing to events then specify here if the subtitle should + be compared. If there is no subtitle than this event is always dif‐ + ferent to an event with/without a subtitle. + + - Compare description: + When comparing to events then specify here if the description + should be compared. + + For comparison all parts of the description, that look like a cate‐ + gory value, are removed first. The remaining text will be compared. + If this is similar at 90% (regarding the Levinshtein-Distance algo‐ + rithm) then it will be accepted as equal. + + - Compare categories: + With the button ’setup’ you can also specify which categories + should be compared. As with subtitles an event is different if it + has no according category value. + + - Priority, lifetime, margins for start and stop: + Each search timer can have its own settings for these parameters. + Defaults can be adjusted in the plugins setup. + + - VPS: + If set to yes, VPS is used, but only, if activated in VDR’s setup + menu and if the broadcasting has VPS information. + + - Auto delete: + to automatically delete a search timer if the following is true: + + * after x recordings, or + * after x days after the first recording + + Only complete recordings are counted. The deletion is executed + directly after the correspondig recording + + To toggle the flag ’Use as search timer’ without editing the search + entry you can use the key ’2’. This will call directly the second com‐ + mand of the command menu. + + 1.2.2 Menu search results + + This menu displays the search results. A ’T’ lets you know, that there + is already a timer for the event. A ’t’ means that there’s only a par‐ + tial timer for it, as in standard schedules menu. + + 1.3 Extended ’now’ and ’next’ and favorites + + By setup, one can add up to 4 additional times to extend the green but‐ + ton, e.g. ’afternoon’, ’prime time’, ’late night’. Times, that are + already passed, are skipped (you will not get ’afternoon’ at evening) + with the exception that a time will be displayed for the next day, if + it is less then 20h in the future. In these menus you can shift the + currently displayed time by pressing FastRew or FastFwd to move back + and forward in time. If you don’t have these keys on your remote, you + can access this function by pressing ’0’ to toggle the green and yellow + button to ’<<’ and ’>>’. This toggling can be adjusted by setup. + + You can display a progress bar in ’now’ and ’next’. When using + text2skin you should use the setup option "text2skin" in the setup + option "Show progress in ’Now’"/Show progress in ’Next’" (the setting + ’graphical’ may also work with text2skin, but this depends on the + selected skin). + + Furthermore you can enable in the setup an favorites list. You can con‐ + figure your searchtimers ("Use in favorite list") to display their + results in you favorite list. This list display event in the next 24 + hours ordered by time. + + 1.4 Menu setup + + 1.4.1 General + + - Hide main menu entry: + This hides the main menu entry ’search’. Attention: when the plugin + is assigned to key ’green’ then hiding the plugin will give you + VDR’s standard schedule menu (see below to avoid this). + + - Main menu entry: + If not hidden, the name of main menu entry can be set here. Default + is ’Program guide’. Note: If you set it to something different from + the default then the main menu entry is no longer dependent on the + OSD language. Setting it back to default or empty restores this + behavior again. + + - Start menu: + Select the starting menu ’Schedules’ or ’Now’ + + 1.4.2 EPG menus + + - Ok key: + Choose here the behavior of key ’Ok’. You can use it to display the + summary or to switch to the corresponding channel. Note: the func‐ + tionality of key ’blue’ (Switch/Info/Search) depends on this set‐ + ting. + + - Red key: + Select if you like to have Standard (’Record’) or ’Commands’ as + assignment for key ’red’. + + - Blue key: + select if you like to have Standard (’Switch’) or ’Search’ as + assignment for key ’blue’. + + - Show progress in ’Now’: + In the menu ’what’s on now’ you can display a progress bar, that + displays the progress of the current item. When using text2skin you + should use the setup option "text2skin" (the setting ’graphical’ + may also work with text2skin, but this depends on the selected + skin). + + - Show channel numbers: + Select this if you like to have a leading channel number before + each item in the EPG menus. + + - Show channel separators: + Display channel group separators between channel in the menus + ’Overview now’,... + + - Show day separators: + Display a day separator between events on different days in the + schedule menu. + + - Show radio channels: + Also list radio channels. + + - Limit channels from 1 to: + If you have a large channel set you can speed up things when you + limit the displayed channels with this setting. Use ’0’ to disable + the limit. If the current channel is above the limit, the limit is + ignored and all channels will be displayed again. + + - ’One press’ timer creation: + If set to ’yes’ a timer is immediately created when pressing + ’Record’ as introduced in vdr-1.3.38, else the timer edit menu is + displayed. + + - Show channels without EPG: + Display channels without EPG to allow switching or create a timer. + + - Time interval for FR/FF [min]: + In the menus ’now’, ’next’, ’user def 1’, ... you can shift the + displayed time by pressing FastRew, FastFwd on your remote control. + Adjust the amount of minutes to jump here. + + - Toggle Green/Yellow: + If you don’t have FastRew, FastFwd on your remote control, set this + to yes. When pressing ’0’ in the menus, this toggles the assignment + of the color keys and assigns e.g. ’<<’ and ’>>’ to ’green’ and + ’yellow’. + + - Show favorites menu: + A favorites menu can display a list of your favorite broadcasts. + Enable this if you want an additional menu besides ’Now’ and + ’Next’. You can choose between displaying this menu before or after + the menus with user-defined times. Any search can be used as a + favorite. You only have to set the option ’Use in favorites menu’ + when editing a search. + + - for the next ... hours: + This value lets you adjust the timespan used to display the + favorites. + + 1.4.3 User-defined EPG times + + - Use user time 1..4: + Add up to 4 user-defined times besides ’now’ and ’next’. + + - Description: + Name of the user-defined time, e.g. ’Afternoon’, ’Prime time’, + ’Late night’. + + - Time: + The associated time of the user-defined time. + + 1.4.4 Timer programming + + - Use VDR’s timer edit menu: + When programming a standard timer epgsearch uses an extended menu, + that also supports a directory item, user defined weekday selection + and subtitle completion. If you are using a patched version of VDR, + that also has an extended timer edit menu and like to use this menu + rather than epgsearch’s then set this option to ’Yes’. + + - Default recording directory: + This entry will be used in standard timer programming as default + directory. You can also use EPG category variables (e.g. ’My + Movies~%Category%~%Genre%’). When the timer edit menu is launched + epgsearch tries to replace all variables with the values found in + the description of the event. If not all variables could be + replaced then the directory item is left blank. + + - Add episode to manual timers: + When manually adding a timer epgsearch can automatically add the + episode name to the timer file resulting in a sub-folder for the + later recording, that is named with the episode name. Choose here + how this should be done. ’smart’ tries to recognize if this makes + sense. Therefore it checks the length of the event and skips the + subtitle if the event has more than 80min. + + - Default timer check method: + Manual timers can be checked for EPG changes. Here you can setup + the default check method for each channel. The following methods + exist: + * no check + * by event ID: checks by an event ID supplied by the channel + provider. + * by channel and time: check by the duration match. + + Not all channels provide a proper event ID, so you can setup the + default for each channel here. When programming a manual timer, + this default use used in epgsearch’s own timer edit menu. + + 1.4.5 Search and search timers + + - Use search timers: + If yes, the plugin makes a background scan of the EPG and adds + timers if it finds matching entries. This applies only to searches + that are marked with ’use as search timer’. + + - Update interval: + The update interval of the background scan for search timers in + minutes. + + - SVDRP port: + If you are using a SVDRP port other than 2001 then enter this here + to get the search timers working. + + - Default Priority: + Default priority of generated timers. + + - Default Lifetime: + Default lifetime of generated timers. + + - Margin at start/stop: + Default margins of generated timers. + + - No announcements when replaying: + suppress event announcements while any replay is active. + + - Recreate timers after deletion: + epgsearch remembers by default which timers where already created + by search timers and will not recreate them if they were removed. + To disable this behaviour set this to ’Yes’. + + Default margins of generated timers. + + - Ignore Pay-TV channels: + Set this to ’Yes’ if you don’t want to have events from Pay-TV + channels when searching for a repeat. + + - Search templates: + Here you can manage search templates which can be used when creat‐ + ing a search. + + - Blacklists: + Here you can manage blacklists which can be used to suppress + unwanted events within a search. + + - Channel groups: + Here you can setup channel groups (e.g. Sport channels, Pay-TV + channels) that can be used as criterion in searches. The same can + be done in the search edit menu. + + Important: if you get your EPG from external sources make sure that + search timer updates are disabled while your EPG is updated. The reason + for this is that epgsearch will remove timers without events assigned + to them. This situation can exist while the new EPG is feeded to VDR. A + simple way to disable search timer updates is to use the SVDRP command + SETS in your EPG update script: + + svdrpsend.pl plug epgsearch SETS off + + <your EPG update script> + + svdrpsend.pl plug epgsearch SETS on + + 1.4.6 Timer conflict checking + + - Ignore below priority: + If a timer will fail with a priority below the given value, you + won’t get an OSD message about this and the conflict will be clas‐ + sified as ’not relevant’ in the conflicts overview. + + - Ignore conflict duration less ... min.: + If a conflict will last only the given minutes it will not produce + an OSD message and the conflict will be classified as ’not rele‐ + vant’ in the conflicts overview. + + - Only check within next ... days: + Here you can specify the day range that should be used for the con‐ + flict check. + + - After each timer programming: + This performs a conflict check after each manual timer programming + and - if the new/modified timer is involved in a conflict - pops up + an OSD message about it. + + - "When a recording starts: + Set this to ’yes’ if the conflict check should be performed when a + recording starts. In the case of a conlfict you get immediately a + message that informs you about it. The message is only displayed + if the conflict is within the next 2 hours. + + - After each search timer update: + Specify here if you want to have a conflict check after each search + timer update. If set to ’No’: + + - every ... minutes: + performs a conflict check in the background every ... minutes and + informs about relevant conflicts via OSD. Set this to ’0’ to + disable this feature. + + - if conflicts within next ... minutes: + - every ... minutes: + if you like to have a more frequent check and OSD notification + when a conflict appears within the given time, use this fea‐ + ture. + + - Avoid notification when replaying: + Set this to ’yes’ if the don’t want to get OSD messages about con‐ + flicts if you currently replay something. Nevertheless messages + will be displayed if + the first upcoming conflict is within the next 2 hours. + + Also have a look at epgsearch(4), section ’Working with the timer con‐ + flict menu’. + + 1.4.7 Email notification + + Please make sure, that ’sendEmail.pl’ is in the path of your executa‐ + bles and that the ’epgsearchupdmail.templ’ and ’epgsearchcon‐ + flmail.templ’ exists in epgsearch’s configurations directory! + + - Search timer notification: + Enable this, if you want to get an email notification, when the + search timer background thread has + + - created a new timer + - modified an existing timer + - deleted a timer, that was void because of EPG changes or other user + actions. + + (Also requires ’Use search timers’ in the search timer setup to be + activated.) + + - Timer conflict notification: + Enable this, if you want to get an email notification about timer + conflicts. The notification will only include ’relevant’ conflicts + as specified in the timer conflict setup. epgsearch will always + send a new notification if there is any change in the current con‐ + flicts. + + (Also requires ’After each search timer update’ or ’every ... min‐ + utes’ in the conflict check setup to be activated.) + + - Send to: + The mail adress of the recipient. Note: Some providers (like Arcor) + don’t allow the same adresse for sender and recipient. + + - Mail method: + You can choose between: + + - sendEmail.pl: this is a simply script shipped with epgsearch, that allows + mail delivery also on systems without a configured mail server. Please + copy it to your $PATH + - sendmail: requires a properly configured mail system + + - Email address: + Your full(!) email account address to be used for sending the mail. + + - SMTP server: + The name of your SMTP server to be used for sending the mails. + + - Use SMTP authentication: + Select ’yes’ if your account needs authentication to send mails. + + - AUTH user: + Specify the accounts username if your account needs authentication. + + - AUTH password: + Specify the accounts password if your account needs authentication. + Note: The password is saved as plain text. You have to make sure on + your own that your system is safe and no VDR configurations files + are visible to non authorized persons. + + After the account setup, check if it works with ’Test’. If you are + using ’sendEmail.pl’ for mail delivery, there should be something like + ’Email sent successfully’ at the end of the test output. The test func‐ + tion is not available for method ’sendmail’. + + Also have a look at epgsearch(4), section ’Email notifications’. + +2. Search timers + This is quite the same as VDRAdmin’s auto-timers, but needs no external + software. When you create a search, you can give it an option to use it + as search timer. Now the plugin scans EPG entries in certain update + intervals (->setup) in the background and creates timers if there are + matching entries. If you don’t like to get a new timer, but only want + to be informed about the event set ’Announce only (no timer)’ to yes. + Since these search timers are quite useful for serials, you can set the + option ’serial recording’ in a search, which creates timers whose + recordings are stored in a folder with the serials name and whose + entries are named with the episode name. If there is no episode name, + the plugin names the recording with a date/time string. + + To use search timers, you also have to activate them in the plugins + setup. Also edit the SVDRP port, if you are not using the default + 2001. + + If you want to trigger a background scan manually simply + + touch /etc/vdr/plugins/epgsearch/.epgsearchupdate + + This can also be part of your shutdown script. (Add here a sleep after‐ + wards to give the plugin the time to finish the scan.) + + For more info about searchtimers please refer to epgsearch(4), + ’Description of the search process’ and ’How do Search Timers work?’ + + 2.1 ’Avoid repeats’ - internals + + This section explains the feature ’Avoid repeats’ for a search timer. + Sometimes one cannot avoid double recordings of an event only by set‐ + ting the corresponding search criterions. + + Therefore the feature ’avoid repeats’ tries to check before creating a + timer, if the same event was already recorded in the past or if there + is a timer that records the same event. If so, there will be no new + timer for the event. + + 2.2 How do we compare two events? + + To check if two events are the same there are many possible settings + for a search timer. You can choose the title, subtitle, description or + extended EPG categories within the description of an event to be com‐ + pared with the elements of another event. + + This comparison is always done case-sensitive and for the whole term. + But the description of an event makes an exception of this. First all + text within the description will be truncated that looks like an + extended category entry, e.g. ’Rating: tip’. An extended category entry + is a line of text beginning with max. 40 signs, followed by ’:’ and + ending with max. 60 further signs. The reason for this cutting is that + some categories like the rating of an event are not part of the + description of the repeat of the same event. + + The remaining text will now be compared by length. If the difference is + bigger then 90%, then we rate the description of the two events as dif‐ + ferent. If not, we apply the Levinsthein-Distance-Algorithm (LD), which + makes a fuzzy text comparison. We accept the description of the events + as equal, if LD returns a match of more then 90%. Since LD is quite + runtime intensive (O(mn)), you should not choose ’compare description’ + as the only comparison criterion, but combine it always with other cri‐ + terions. + + 2.3 How and when do we compare? + + As already mentioned each search timer update checks search timers with + this feature for recordings in the past or an already existing timer + for the same event. + + To remember past recordings epgsearch stores their info in the file + epgsearchdone.data. You can have a look at the contents of this file + calling ’show recordings done’ in the ’actions’ of the searches menu. + This file only stores info about recordings that are complete, i.e. + that started and stopped just in time. So a broken recording will not + be stored in this file and epgsearch will automatically try to record + the next repeat, if there is any. + + How to use it? + + As you see, the whole feature depends on the quality of the EPG. After + creating such a search timer, you should first check if it does what is + intended. Therefore the menu of search results has an additional mode + for the key ’blue’ named ’Timer preview’. Here you can see, what timers + the next update would create. Existing timers are labeled with ’T’, + future timers with ’P’. + + Hint: If the programming results in a conflict simply disable the con‐ + flicting timer in the timers menu. The next search timer update, will + try to program a different timer for the same event, if it exists. + + When it works not correctly :-) + + To get a better control of the programming or not-programming of the + timers when using this feature a log file was introduced. When starting + epgsearch with the command line option ’-v n’ where n is the log level + than you get additional info in the file epgsearch.log. Available log + levels are 0 (no logging) to 3 (extended logging). See also the manual + for the command line options. + +3. Usage from other plugins or scripts + See epgsearch(4). + +4. Using extended EPG info + Some EPG providers deliver additional EPG information like the type of + event, the video and audio format, cast,... + + Using tvm2vdr or epg4vdr you can import this into vdr. To use this + information with search timers one has to configure it with the file + epgsearchcats.conf in epgsearchs config directory. The format of the + file is as follows: + + ID|category name|name in menu|values separated by ’,’(option)|search mode(option) + + - ’ID’ should be a unique positive integer + (changing the id later on will force you to re-edit your search timers!) + - ’category name’ is the name as delivered by the EPG provider, e.g. ’Genre’ + - ’name in menu’ is the name displayed in epgsearch. + - ’values’ is an optional list of possible values + - ’search mode’ specifies the search mode: + text comparison: + 0 - the whole term must appear as substring + 1 - all single terms (delimiters are ’,’, ’;’, ’|’ or ’~’) + must exist as substrings. This is the default search mode. + 2 - at least one term (delimiters are ’,’, ’;’, ’|’ or ’~’) + must exist as substring. + 3 - matches exactly + 4 - regular expression + numerical comparison: + 10 - less + 11 - less or equal + 12 - greater + 13 - greater or equal + 14 - equal + 15 - not equal + + Sample files for epgsearchcats.conf are delivered with the plugin in + the directory ’conf’. + + Simply copy the one that fits for you to epgsearchs configurations + directory filename epgsearchcats.conf and then have a look to the + search timers edit menu (after a restart of VDR). + + Since setting up a new epgsearchcats.conf is a lot of work, I’ve added + a small tool ’createcats’, that makes the biggest part of the job. It + should have been compiled with the plugin and exists in the sources + directory. + + See createcats(1) for information about how to use it. + + Internals: epgsearch scans the summary of an event for the category + name followed by ’: ’ for all categories that have a corresponding + value set in the search timer. The search is case sensitive regarding + the category name as also the value. + +5. Replacing the standard schedule menu + To use this plugin as a replacement for the default green key, simply + put the line + + Green @epgsearch + + in your keymacros.conf. If you don’t like to get another plugin entry + in your main menu, first hide it by setup. Then you could use my + launcher-plugin and put the line + + Green @launcher x + + in your keymacros.conf, where x is the position of the Epgsearch plugin + within launchers menu listing. + + Attention: Hiding the plugin without using the launcher plugin or other + patches that enable calling hidden plugins will show the standard + schedules menu when you press the green key. This is not needed anymore + after VDR >= 1.3.32. + + Another approach is using a patch to VDR that replaces vdr’s standard + schedule menu with epgsearch (vdr-replace-schedulemenu.diff.gz in the + patches subdir, thanks to the author Uwe/egal@vdrportal). When using + this patch the entry should look like + + Gree Schedule + + This patch is already included in some patch collections, like the Big‐ + patch. + +6. Add-ons + epgsearch delivers 2 ’mini’-plugins. Both require an installed + epgsearch (but epgsearch can be hided in the main menu): + + - epgsearchonly: + For those who only want to use the search feature and/or search + timers or simply want to have a separate main menu entry for the + search feature. This plugin creates a main menu entry ’Search’ + which calls epgsearch search menu. Activation in VDR start script + with "-Pepgsearchonly". + + - conflictcheckonly: + The timer conflict check can also have its own main menu entry + which displays epgsearch conflict overview menu. It has a setup + option to display an information about the last check directly in + its main menu entry. Activation in VDR start script with "-Pcon‐ + flictcheckonly". + + Have fun! + + Christian Wieninger + +Advanced description + See epgsearch(4) or read online + + <http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch/README.DE> + + <http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch/README> + + <http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch/MANUAL> + +SEE ALSO + "epgsearch.conf(5)", "epgsearchcats.conf(5)", "epgsearchcmds.conf(5)", + "epgsearchdirs.conf(5)", "epgsearchmenu.conf(5)", "epgsearchuser‐ + vars.conf(5)", "epgsearchdone.data(5)", "epgsearchswitchtimer.conf(5)", + "epgsearchblacklists.conf(5)", "epgsearchchangrps.conf(5)" + +FILES + epgsearch.conf + + Searchtimers. See "epgsearch.conf(5)". + + epgsearchcats.conf + + Categories, advanced epg. See "epgsearchcats.conf(5)". + + epgsearchcmds.conf + + EPG-commands, like the commands in commands.conf. See + "epgsearchcmds.conf(5)". + + epgsearchdirs.conf + + Pre-defined patches which can be selected while editing an searchtimer. + See "epgsearchdirs.conf(5)". + + epgsearchmenu.conf + + Configuration of the OSD menu layout. See "epgsearchmenu.conf(5)". + + epgsearchuservars.conf + + User defined variables. See "epgsearchuservars.conf(5)". + + epgsearchdone.data + + The done-data. See "epgsearchdone.data(5)". + + epgsearchswitchtimers.conf + + The switchtimers. See "epgsearchswitchtimer.conf(5)". + + epgsearchblacklists.conf + + The blacklist. See "epgsearchblacklists.conf(5)". + + epgsearchchangrps.conf + + The channelgroups. See "epgsearchchangrps.conf(5)". + + epgsearchtemplates.conf + + Templates for searchtimers. See "epgsearchtemplates.conf(5)". + +AUTHOR (man pages) + Mike Constabel <epgsearch (at) constabel (dot) net> + +REPORT BUGS + Bugreports (german): + + <http://www.vdr-developer.org/mantisbt/> + + Mailinglist: + + <http://www.vdr-developer.org/mailman/listinfo/epgsearch> + +COPYRIGHT and LICENSE + Copyright (C) 2004-2007 Christian Wieninger + + This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it + under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the + Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your + option) any later version. + + This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but + WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐ + CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General + Public License for more details. + + You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along + with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., + 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA Or, point + your browser to http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html + + The author can be reached at cwieninger@gmx.de + + The project’s page is at http://winni.vdr-developer.org/epgsearch + + The MD5 code is derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message- + Digest Algorithm. + + + +perl v5.8.8 2007-11-04 epgsearch(5) |