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[Giangal]

Hi there,
I suppose that's it'd be an easy job for some of you guys (Only requires some XML and RegEx notions).

What I'm politely asking for is a thumbnail grabber for this amazing site: "MediaIcons.org" (If anyone knows "f3k", tell him that I'm deeply thankful for his incredible job and devotion -and patience, by the way).

I just need someone to translate this words into XML code (LOL Weird, huh?)

The scraper (Create a new one if it's really hard to include it to the IMDb one). I still dont know the label (*?) of the images, since they're ASHX file from the DB, so just try with:

"http://www.mediaicons.org/Services/GetIcon.ashx?key=53767&format=1&style=3&type=download"

Where the variables are just the Image ID ("53767"), the format ("1": Square; 2:"Wide"; 3:"Tall"). Lets leave the Style and Type as they are, since it's the original format of the icon (Style should always be "3", because not all the icons have more than a style, and thus it'll give us an error). And the Type must be "download" to get the original, full-sized icon. It could also be "small", "med" or "large" (Same as "download" I guess).

But, when we are having to do with Wide or Tall icons, the Style must be set to "0", not "3"!!

So, the image label should be something like this:

CODE

Square: "http://www.mediaicons.org/Services/GetIcon.ashx?key=XXXXX&format=1&style=3&type=download"
Wide: "http://www.mediaicons.org/Services/GetIcon.ashx?key=XXXX&format=2&style=0&type=download"
Tall: "http://www.mediaicons.org/Services/GetIcon.ashx?key=XXXX&format=3&style=0&type=download"

And we could add three different strings to the scraper code:

CODE

    
    XXX
    

    
    XXX
    

    
    XXX
    

Now, the search code. This is a Sample:

"http://www.mediaicons.org/Search.aspx?format=1&term=Fast%20and%20Furious"

The variables are the Format (1:Square, 2:Wide, 3:Tall), and the Term that is the title of the movie/program/music. As you can see the space must be converted into "%20", etc. (Pretty common char encoding)

_____________________
Now, as you can see by yourselves, I dont know anything about this coding thing, but I know that some of you are some kind of geniuses (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) And I'm sure that this must be kinda easy for you. That's why I came here in the first place. This scraper will surely help you make your XBMC look a lot better. I know that you can just do it with the PC - go to that page and download what you need. But why should we waste the power of XBMC? This scraper thing is really amazing, and we could be able to give it another use.

I'll be messing up a bit with the code very soon, trying to add the scraper function to the programs section. But if someone more skillful than me goes on with this project, this game-scraper thing could become reality.  We could be able to choose new thumbnails from that site (and others), and maybe it would even give us some game-info and reviews from sites like IGN, GameSpy.

I dont have enough knowledge to do all of this. I just wanted to give you some new ideas, a little push to take XBMC to its limits -even if they're still far away. So, keep on working for us  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)  XDDDDDD

Thanks, anyway  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
[Gomen for my bad english, it's not my first language, nor my second, not even my third one XDDD But I'm improving  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ]

[Giangal]

Well? Not even a lil comment? ... I'm disappointed in you  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)    (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Anyway, is it possible to make this MediaIcons.org scraper? Anyone??

[Stefan Leroux]

QUOTE(Giangal @ Dec 11 2007, 02:14 PM)

Well? Not even a lil comment? ... I'm disappointed in you  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)    (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Anyway, is it possible to make this MediaIcons.org scraper? Anyone??

First off - give some time before being dissappointed in people.  Not everyone knows everything, you need the right person to come along.

I can't do it myself but the scraper should be quite possibly and maybe even relatively easy.  Your problem would lie atm that XBMC doesnt support scrapers for programs *yet*.  They may add it but who knows when that may be.  It wouldn't be possible to add it to the IMDB scraper because the whole point of each scraper is to search and find the exact page - since mediaicons.org doesnt use the IMDB codes it wouldn't work.   But a scraper may be possible for the films.  I'll have a look and see if I can understand anything (I'm a complete newb to it).

[quote name='Giangal']
[Gomen for my bad english, it's not my first language, nor my second, not even my third one XDDD But I'm improving  ]
Completely off topic - I wouldn't have realised if you hadn't said, and it is my first.  Only query is "Gomen"!

[Giangal]

Well, that was some kind of Up (You know, when you're thread goes down and down on the list, and you try to bring it up to the surface again (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)). In fact, I even placed an emo after the whole thing. I'm not disappointed - and there's no reason to, since this is a forum, and you post if you feel like, you dont have any kind of duty or anything similar.

Anyway, thank you for answering. I didnt know that someone else already thought about this program-scraper thing, that's why I was so gassy about this topic XDDD But, has anyone tried to include the movies-scraper code into the program section? I know that it wouldnt work, since its only for movies, but even if it just tries to get the info from the scraper, it'd be already something - at that point we just have to encode another scraper for the games and programs.

Right now I'm quite busy, but as soon as I get some spare time to spend, I'll do some tests with the XBMC code.

Thanks again  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

P.S: Btw, Gomen stands for Sorry. It's japanese.

This post has been edited by Giangal: Dec 12 2007, 10:32 AM

[Stefan Leroux]

Lol, glad your not actually disappointed.  I know only too well what can happen when you lose your threads, although I'm not sure bumps ever help too much.

I don't know if anyone is trying to actually add the program-scraper support.  I believe its been considered (scraper heirarchy shows they intended more than just video) but where it lies is completely unknown to me.  I think it would be an absolutely brilliant idea to be able to change your Apps thumbnails from an online database, and I've even been looking into hosting a small one off of my site to get it to take off (I'm sick of apps having Lame or no icon), but unfortunately the fact of the matter is - the best we can do is request the feature, and perhaps make some scrapers to help out with it.

As far as I've seen youve said you cant do it, but you've put in some of the research which will hopefully help me to make a scraper.  Best I can offer though is that I'll give it an attempt, as its completely new to me.  I know there are many others who will definitly be capable, just a matter of whether they think it's worth doing if it's not necessarily going to be used.