moontan:

anyone figure out how to get it to install SQL? it just gives that failed to create SQL database error even though it hasnt even tried to install sql.

Try running the other installer in the zip, this should install SQL and then move to the myTV install.  This worked for me when I was experiencing what you are.

ahelseth:

Uhm... Where?

I don't want to publically post examples using the interfaces in question (as they're not supposed to be public and all that), but doing a "GetSeries?seriesname=CSI NY" (or in fact, any combination, CSI+NY, CSINY, CSI-NY, CSI; NY, CSI:NY (missing the space)) brings back nothing.

Whoops, spoke too soon since I was apparently just seeing the same data from my "CSI" folder but if you use "seriesname=csi%3A%20ny" you will get a response. The key is to urlencode your query. Of course, in my case I would still have a problem since my folder is labeled "CSI NY" and "seriesname=csi%20ny" doesn't return any results. I would say your choices are to either catch the null and allow the user to enter a show name or catch the null and retry the search as "seriesname=csi%25ny" since %25 is the % symbol urlencoded and that symbol is a wildcard for sql. I tested the "seriesname=csi%25ny" and the xml returned was correct.


Edit: If you add a reference in your project to the System.Web.dll, you can use:
System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(YOUR_STRING_HERE)
for the encode.

I am unable to reproduce the SQL error mentioned at the top of page 6, so without more detail there's not very much I can do at this point. Could you perhaps dig out the install log and email it to me, or post snippets here? I've googled the error code, but didn't really come up with anything that seems relevant to this application. If you already had SQLE installed that might be an issue, however, as the setup file should elevate you to admin whilst running the script... well, I dunno.

TracerX: So we are back to square one :) Already URLEncoding the path, but as the backend does not respond to CSI NY - without the : - we're no further forward. I am already Replacing ; for : in my code, but personally I've kept the folder named CSI NY. The funny thing is that it returns CSI Miami no problem, even though in the database that is stored as CSI: Miami.. Anyhoo.. Giving the user a chance to enter a name may be the best way forward.

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dvdmonster: I'm not gonna be able to get a 64b installer put together right now, but you could try to install the 64bit SQLE from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=31711d5d-725c-4afa-9d65-e4465cdff1e7&DisplayLang=en - go about three quarters of the way down on the page and select SQLEXPR.EXE (54MB) or so.. Once this has been completely installed run the setup.msi file from my package and it should work.

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ahelseth:

I am unable to reproduce the SQL error mentioned at the top of page 6, so without more detail there's not very much I can do at this point....

I'll try to gather more info when I get home tonight and post it. Thanks!

What is the disadvantage to replacing non-alphanumerics with % then resubmitting the query? For Example (in cruddy vb.net):

If IsNull(Object) Then
    strShowName = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(strShowName, "[^A-Za-z0-9]", "%")
    Object = AddShow(strShowName)
End If
If IsNull(Object) Then
    Response.Write("This show was not found")
End If

Well, apart from possibly grabbing more results from the database, leading to higher bandwidth usage, nothing

No, seriously, you may be onto something here. I've done a number of tests using the wildcard now and it seems to always get a better match than using the correct characters.

The only negative I've found is that the matchvalue returned seems to always be 0.. But then again, getting ONE result with a matchvalue of 0 is better than getting 20 with a value of 8.

Thanks for the input, this will likely make it into code very soon :)

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As I was saying before, I get "New Show!" in the popup box.  Then, after I hit yes, the error "Invalid Application - Unable to launch "myTV" comes up, and it returns me to Media Center upon hitting okay.

As I said before though, I get a "Program not responding" message from MyMovies within 30 seconds of launching Media Center (without even running MyMovies) so I'd be willing to guess my install has much bigger issues.

What show is it trying to add when you start up? If you haven't added any shows yet it should be the first one in the folder alphabetically.

ahelseth:

Well, apart from possibly grabbing more results from the database, leading to higher bandwidth usage, nothing

No, seriously, you may be onto something here. I've done a number of tests using the wildcard now and it seems to always get a better match than using the correct characters.

The only negative I've found is that the matchvalue returned seems to always be 0.. But then again, getting ONE result with a matchvalue of 0 is better than getting 20 with a value of 8.

Thanks for the input, this will likely make it into code very soon :)

Ahh, bandwidth-smandwidth! I do see your point though, since you will only be making the call when you receive no results the first time, it shouldn't be too bad... It is a shame that they don't add something like:
"?seriesname=drew%20carey%20show&resultstart=1&resultend=3"

That way you could request a subset of the total results and, if the correct wasn't in the original query, then make another query. True there would be additional overhead in the multiple requests but more bandwidth would probably be saved since most show names will be found in the first 10 results (in my experience).

Yep, personally I don't see an issue with bandwidth in this day and age, but it's what the guys are complaining about so...

Anyhoo, what I did in the last build (internal only) was to .Replace(" ","%") on the searchstring, and whaddayaknow. All the shows (so far at least) comes up with a lot less possible matches. Seems by adding the wildcard the string is processed on their SQL server as one rather than several keywords (which does make sense when you think about it).

The last build now is fairly stable (knock on wood). It does crash now and then complaining about needing to use the new keyword to start an instance, but this is somewhat a MediaCenter issue with background threads (afaik anyway). Will see what I can figure out - one possibility would be to do most of the processing on the UI thread (as now thumbs are generated superquick and matching is quick a bit quicker also).

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Alright, slowly but surely I'm making progress.  So far the new build will recognize my episodes, but it only gets 8-12 episodes into adding a show, then it crashes out, saying the application is not responding.  When I go into the show after this, I get the title and a white line along the left side of the screen (I'll post a screen shot if it doesn't get resolved).  I'm going to remove the DB and start with a fresh one that hasn't been cluttered with failed attemptes from earlier.

Also, another bug was when I added the show "Family Ties", it recognized the show, but it repeatedly gave me a notice that the show info could not be located online and that I could go to a certain URL to add the info.  The notice came up many times, no matter how many times I pressed "OK".  I'm not sure if it was coming up once for every episode or if it was just stuck in a loop, but that may be something you need to look at (handling a show that is not present in the online DB).

I'll have a lot more time to play with this over the weekend, but at least there's progress.  Thanks!

It's adding 24.  I decided to reformat anyway because my PC has been a little weird (first reformat since Vista's release), I'll let everyone know if that fixes it or not.

It looks like it is possible to pick multiple matches for a single show.

ahelseth:

Yep, personally I don't see an issue with bandwidth in this day and age, but it's what the guys are complaining about so...

Anyhoo, what I did in the last build (internal only) was to .Replace(" ","%") on the searchstring, and whaddayaknow. All the shows (so far at least) comes up with a lot less possible matches. Seems by adding the wildcard the string is processed on their SQL server as one rather than several keywords (which does make sense when you think about it).

The last build now is fairly stable (knock on wood). It does crash now and then complaining about needing to use the new keyword to start an instance, but this is somewhat a MediaCenter issue with background threads (afaik anyway). Will see what I can figure out - one possibility would be to do most of the processing on the UI thread (as now thumbs are generated superquick and matching is quick a bit quicker also).

Wow, that was a huge difference! I tried "seriesname=American%20Dad" and "seriesname=American%25Dad". The speed increase was great and it actually managed to only return one record, the right one!