Atlas 4 reaches beta

[Chris Jackson]

We're pleased to announce that Atlas 4 (aka Atlas Deer) has finally reached beta. The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/atlasdeer

As part of this announcement we're also confirming plans for API keys, and deprecating the old versions of Atlas. We hope you love the new Atlas as much as we do, and look forward to hearing your comments, once you have given it a spin.

Thanks,

Chris

[gordon...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, May 13, 2014 7:11:12 PM UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

We're pleased to announce that Atlas 4 (aka Atlas Deer) has finally reached beta. The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/atlasdeer

Is there  a link to the API documentation anywhere?

[Ben]

Cheers for the beta!

It is a shame about the sudden requirement for an API Key. I suspect that this will be quite a hurdle for the more casual users - is there a way to get a key without a Twitter, Github, or Google account? It's a pity people can't just play nice.

The data being returned currently looks the same as the alpha version, using annotations=channel_summary,content_detail, I'm still missing the following items:

· for type episode the series_number is always null
· for type film the year is always null
· the people container is always empty
· the certificates container is always empty

There also seems to be some debug(?) information in the subtitle which variously shows an episode number or a date.

The basic schedules are looking good.

Ben.

[Gareth]

Sorry but having one of those three accounts is not a massive hurdle. There is a choice of 3 services with different demographics. 

As Chris mentioned before you don't have to use that twitter account or google account.

https://accounts.google.com/signupwithoutgmail lets you sign up with your existing email address

I applaud anyone using other accounts to auth: it's one less heartbleed password to reset

G

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[Ben]

I'm seeing the occasional gremlin on the schedules. Take for example:

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkwn.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=2014-05-15T22:00:00.000Z&to=2014-05-16T03:00:00.000Z&annotations=channel_summary,content_summary

This has:

Firefox appearing twice, both from 21:35 to 00:20
River Monsters, from 00:20 to 01:25
Motorway Patrol starting before the previous program ends, from 01:20 to 01:45
ITV4 Nightscreen, from 01:45 to 02:00
Teleshopping, from 02:00 to 02:30
The Store, from 02:30 to 04:00

Besides the Firefox duplicate, I think something odd is happening with River Monsters - I think it should end at 01:20 with a duration of 3600 and not 3900.

Ben.

[Fred van den Driessche]

Thanks for the report, Ben. We're looking into this to see what's up.

Fred

--

[Fred van den Driessche]

The duplication issue is now fixed, as is the broadcast overlap. Thanks again for the report.

Fred

[Chris Jackson]

On 14 May 2014 10:38, Ben <benjamin...@gmail.com> wrote:

The data being returned currently looks the same as the alpha version, using annotations=channel_summary,content_detail, I'm still missing the following items:

· for type episode the series_number is always null
· for type film the year is always null
· the people container is always empty
· the certificates container is always empty

We'll look to correct these shortly.

There also seems to be some debug(?) information in the subtitle which variously shows an episode number or a date.

Could you give us an example?

 

The basic schedules are looking good.

Glad you like. We've changed a lot of stuff under the hood. The exciting bit is that a change is processed in near realtime, then written to a denormalised datastore which the API queries directly. There's no caching, so updates will come through in seconds without any compromise on speed of response.

This means that apps will get schedule changes quickly, and data corrections will flow through immediately.

[Chris Jackson]

Not yet. We hope it's pretty self-explanatory, with much clearer outputs and error messages compared to 3.0, but let us know any big questions here.

In time we'll be doing a new API explorer, and we also hope to produce a meta endpoint that describes the endpoints and options, so that docs and clients can be auto-generated.

[EMJB]

Are you expecting changes due to overrunning sports events etc to be incorporated? If so will there be a simple mechanism to look for such changes, or will one have to download the schedule every few minutes to check for such overruns? 

[Chris Jackson]

On 15 May 2014 18:22, EMJB <emj...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thursday, 15 May 2014 18:09:09 UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

On 14 May 2014 10:38, Ben <benjamin...@gmail.com> wrote:

 The exciting bit is that a change is processed in near realtime, then written to a denormalised datastore which the API queries directly. There's no caching, so updates will come through in seconds without any compromise on speed of response.

This means that apps will get schedule changes quickly, and data corrections will flow through immediately.

Are you expecting changes due to overrunning sports events etc to be incorporated?

It's down to the data provider, but PA does currently provide such updates. We pass on what we are given rapidly.

 

If so will there be a simple mechanism to look for such changes, or will one have to download the schedule every few minutes to check for such overruns? 

Clients should access the data direct from Atlas, and respect the cache headers, which will shortly be set to cache for only a few mins during the current period. This means you won't need to check for changes, just display the latest data.

[Ben]

On Thursday, May 15, 2014 6:09:09 PM UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

On 14 May 2014 10:38, Ben <benjamin...@gmail.com> wrote:

There also seems to be some debug(?) information in the subtitle which variously shows an episode number or a date.

Could you give us an example?

 

Using my earlier example:

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkwn.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=2014-05-15T22:00:00.000Z&to=2014-05-16T03:00:00.000Z&annotations=channel_summary,content_summary

... and looking at: display_title.title + display_title.subtitle, we have:

Firefox + null [fair enough for type film]
River Monsters + Episode 4: Alligator Gar
Motorway Patrol + 16/05/2014
ITV4 Nightscreen + 16/05/2014
Teleshopping + 16/05/2014
The Store + 16/05/2014

It seems that if episode_number != null then it shows 'Episode n:', otherwise it shows the date.

Ben.

[Chris Jackson]

Yes — and a few more cases besides. This is the expected behaviour. Note that the date is the episode title as supplied by the data provider.

This is the logic that many users of Atlas implement, so we thought we'd roll it back into the API

[Ben]

 Okay, thanks for that, Chris. My solution is to use item.title which appears to be an unmodified version of the sub title (when it's not the same as the item.display_title.title).

Ben.

[gordon...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, May 15, 2014 6:11:49 PM UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

On 13 May 2014 23:52, <gordon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is there  a link to the API documentation anywhere? 

Not yet. We hope it's pretty self-explanatory, with much clearer outputs and error messages compared to 3.0, but let us know any big questions here. 

So how is anyone supposed to know which URIs to call?  Given that they have changed?

e.g. 

   http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/3.0/schedule.json?channel_id=hlwn&publisher=pressassociation.com...

becomes

   http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkwn.json?source=pressassociation.com.....

Difficult to test things without knowing what to call.  (Looking at the results is the easy bit).

[Chris Jackson]

We put the main examples in the blog post, including the above. What else would you like?

[gordon...@gmail.com]

On Friday, May 16, 2014 1:32:07 AM UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

We put the main examples in the blog post, including the above. What else would you like?

Well, there is no example to indicate how you get the channel identifier - the "hkwn" part for the above call.

And there is no way to find out all of the options that may be given on a call.  Given that the "publisher" option in v3 is now the "source" option in v4, what else has changed, been added, been removed?

So there seems to be a large amount missing.

[Ben]

Starting today, I'm seeing several 'phantom' programmes appearing in the schedules. As an example, Channel 5:

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkvh.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=2014-05-24T09:00:00Z&to=2014-05-24T22:00:00Z&annotations=channel_summary,content_detail

Has these two programmes appearing:

The Dog Rescuers -  09:10 to 09:45
TV's Nastiest Villains - 20:00 to 22:55

I don't think either of these should be there.

Ben.

[Tom McAdam]

On 24 May 2014 at 09:20:02, Ben (benjamin...@gmail.com) wrote:
> Starting today, I'm seeing several 'phantom' programmes appearing in the
> schedules.

Thanks very much for the report, Ben. We’ll take a look into it.

Tom

—-
Tom McAdam

[Ben]

Here's a weird example for you. Take these two requests for 5USA:

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkvn.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=2014-06-03T21:00:00Z&to=2014-06-03T23:59:59Z&annotations=channel_summary,content_detail

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkvn.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=2014-06-04T00:00:00Z&to=2014-06-04T03:00:00Z&annotations=channel_summary,content_detail

...now, notice what happens to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Adam Raised a Cain) ...entries[2] vs entries[0].

In the first request the broadcast timings are: 2014-06-03T23:50:00.000Z to 2014-06-04T00:50:00.000Z
But in the second request they become: 2014-06-04T00:00:00.000Z to 2014-06-04T01:00:00.000Z

I think the first request is incorrect.

Ben.

[Ben]

I think someone needs to look at the posting rules/filters for this group. I just tried to post a bug example for the Atlas 4 API but it has immediately gone to: This message has been deleted.

It included a pair of atlas 4 schedules urls.

Cheers,
Ben.

[Ben]

Channel 5 seems to have gone AWOL. So,

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkvh.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=now&to=now.plus.24h&annotations=channel_summary,content_summary

is returning: "entries":[]

Ben.

[Chris Jackson]

Thanks, we'll take a look.

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[Mirona Iliescu]

Ben,

I believe this has now been fixed, and your query returns a nice plump
JSON. Can you confirm?

Thanks again,
Mirona

[Ben]

On Thursday, July 10, 2014 8:09:59 PM UTC+1, gorgeoux wrote:

Ben,

I believe this has now been fixed, and your query returns a nice plump
JSON. Can you confirm?

 
Yay, I can confirm that Channel 5 has returned from its sojourns. Having said that, I do have a small confession to make - having retrofitted my Firefox add-on to use the v3 data, for the time being, I've stopped using the v4 data.

When you do more regular development on v4, and if you need some 'outside' eyeballs on the data, then it would be great to see an announcement along with some release notes.

Cheers,
Ben.

[James Doherty]

Hi,

Just a couple of queries regarding the beta release. What is the full list of potential entries for "annotations"? Also, where can I find genre information, is this only returned with a specific annotation?

Thanks, J

[Mirona Iliescu]

Hi James,

what annotations are you looking for, what are you building?

For genres you can use
http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/content/cv6ccf.json?annotations=description,extended_description&key=YOUR_KEY_HERE
and the genre mappings here:
https://docs.metabroadcast.com/display/ATLAS/PA+Genres.

Thanks,
Mirona

[James Doherty]

Hi Mirona,

Thanks for that. I am currently just interested in seeing what's available, what data I can have returned. If someone could supply that, that would be great.

Unfortunately the two annotations supplied is returning an error. The statement I'm using is:

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/4/schedules/hkvh.json?source=pressassociation.com&from=now&to=now.plus.24h&annotations=description,extended_description&key=[MyAPIKey]

I see that the genre data is still be handled as it was in Owl (Atlas 3.0). Was this not to change for Deer (Atlas 4) or will it be implemented at a later date?

I'm also guessing that not all the data has been updated as I don't seem to be able to get anything for the Irish/Saorview channels, i.e. cbfk, cbfn, cbFr, cbjW, cbfp, cbTv, cbTb, cbCF.

Thanks again

[Mirona Iliescu]

Hi James,

it'd still be good to learn what you're building, so do share.

Plans are pretty much per our initial blog post on the beta:
http://bit.ly/atlasdeer. When we're ready to say more, it will be on
the blog and copied here, as usual :)

Thanks,
Mirona

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 4:21 PM, James Doherty <j...@unforgettable.com> wrote:
> Hi Mirona,
>

> Thanks for that. I am just interested in what's available and what data I

> can have returned. If someone could supply that, that would be great.
>

> I also see that the genre data is still be handled as it was in Owl (Atlas

> 3.0). Was this not to change for Deer (Atlas 4) or will it be implemented at
> a later date?
>

> Thanks again
>
>
> On Tuesday, 13 May 2014 19:11:12 UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:
>>
>> We're pleased to announce that Atlas 4 (aka Atlas Deer) has finally
>> reached beta. The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/atlasdeer
>>
>> As part of this announcement we're also confirming plans for API keys, and
>> deprecating the old versions of Atlas. We hope you love the new Atlas as
>> much as we do, and look forward to hearing your comments, once you have
>> given it a spin.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Chris
>

[gordon...@gmail.com]

On Friday, August 8, 2014 4:27:26 PM UTC+1, James Doherty wrote:

Thanks for that. I am currently just interested in seeing what's available, what data I can have returned. If someone could supply that, that would be great.

I'vre asked for that in the past.  Namely a description of the v4 API.  But apparently there isn't one.

At least with v3 you could run some experimental (partly documented) queries on the Web site to give you some clue.

[Chris Jackson]

On 9 August 2014 01:34, <gordon...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Friday, August 8, 2014 4:27:26 PM UTC+1, James Doherty wrote:

Thanks for that. I am currently just interested in seeing what's available, what data I can have returned. If someone could supply that, that would be great.

I'vre asked for that in the past.  Namely a description of the v4 API.  But apparently there isn't one.

There are many, many blog posts to read, covering many of the topics people ask about.

 

At least with v3 you could run some experimental (partly documented) queries on the Web site to give you some clue.

Well, the code is free and open source, so if people feel there is a gap, they should feel free to fill it. Naturally, MetaBroadcast also plans to work on this before the end of the beta period.

[James Doherty]

Hi Mirona,

Thanks for the reply. I am looking at using the MetaBroadcast Atlas API to fill an EPG for Irish DTT/ Saorview which currently broadcasts DVB EPG data which doesn't contain genre data. This genre data is particularly useful if one wishes to search for movies or sport as well as EPG colouring. Anyway, looking at it at the moment and hopefully will get around to actually doing something about it soon too!

The API documentation would be useful especially as I would like to see what is available, the best way to get the data and maybe see how it's structured. I think I'm right about the current way in which genre data is presented but would be good to have it confirmed. 

I know that Atlas 4 (Deer) is still in beta and I think the end product will be great. Thanks again for all the help. J 

[gordon...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, August 9, 2014 12:02:03 PM UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

Well, the code is free and open source, so if people feel there is a gap, they should feel free to fill it.

That's sort of doing it all backwards.  I'd need to know which URI to call to map to each part of your handling code - just reading your code isn't likely to tell me that.
 

Naturally, MetaBroadcast also plans to work on this before the end of the beta period.

If it were available now it would be easier to test things.  (In the way that it is available for the v3 interface).

I'd assumed that it would already exists, as it would form the basis of working out what code actually needs to be written, and what it needs to do.  But that may just reflect the way I develop software (which may well be idiosyncratic.)

[Chris Jackson]

On 10 August 2014 03:23, <gordon...@gmail.com> wrote:od.

If it were available now it would be easier to test things.  (In the way that it is available for the v3 interface).

It also came later for the v3 interface, too. We understand your frustration, but please do keep our position in mind.

We are trying our best to provide a free service, alongside our commercial offer. With very few contributions received we're not in a position to prioritise community requests, and they will be met when it makes sense for our commercial roadmap.

Let's please keep this discussion to things we can do together to make Atlas better.

[steamydave]

Hi Chris,

Please can you contact me regarding the Terms and Conditions of use for version 4. I posted a note on the board, but have not had a response as yet. Many thanks, David

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Dave,

The terms for Atlas are the best we can negotiate. Unfortunately we're unable to change them beyond those published.

Calling data directly from Atlas has the advantage that it is always up to date, and it is possible to build most applications in this way. T&Cs have been unchanged for around a year now, We will shortly be updating them to clarify that data can be cached according to the cache headers, ie up to an hour (obviously much shorter for current broadcasts and especially live shows!) which adds some extra flexibility.

Thanks for asking,

Chris

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[steamydave]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for getting back to me. Maybe the term cached is getting a bit mixed up here.

Each night, my system collects the EPG data for about 250 channels (mostly freeview or Sky). It collects roughly 7 days worth per channel. (we reduced the request load from all 14 days to reduce the data grab). It collects day 13 and 14 to get a heads-up advanced warning, day 7 to update any changes, and days 1 to 3 to keep on top of any late changes in schedule.

This data is what I call "cached" into a database on my server. Each night my system goes through a selection of wish-lists whereby keywords (or titles or actor names) are searched for throughout the database (titles, descriptions, cast lists) as wild searches. Matches to any of these wishlists coming up tomorrow or the next day are emailed out so I have a chance of being reminded about the program. Viewing the wishlist online will show any matches for the 14 days.

So for example, a wish-list of "guy martin" will look through all the data (title, description, cast) so see if Guy Martin appears anywhere. (he might appear on a chat show as well as being on his own programs). Or you might be interested in "oxford street" and want to know whenever it is mentioned. 

Is the download still possible for all this to happen, or are there wild-card searches that can be made over such content within Atlas?

Another search is for all "Films" - so there is a page where all items marked as films are displayed.

Sorry to ask such questions and I appreciate I'm a very small fish in a giant pool.

Regards,

Dave

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[paul...@netmadeira.com]

Chris,

I would like to start using Atlas but cannot get an Atlas API key as the Atlas website displays the Terms and Conditions for a brief second then just hangs. An email to hello@metabroadcast did not elicit a reply thus this email using the Discussion Group.

I am using a Win7 PC with IE11 and Safari as well as an iPad - both give the same result.

Many thanks in advance

Paul

Madeira

On Tuesday, December 2, 2014 12:13:24 AM UTC, Chris Jackson wrote:

[steamydave]

I had trouble getting a new key. It took about 4 goes (hanging or crashing out) but in the end it sort of worked. PA seems to be listed twice in the list of sources, and I couldn't change the priority of the order of the publishers though.

Dave

On Tuesday, 13 May 2014 19:11:12 UTC+1, Chris Jackson wrote:

[Chris Jackson]

If you have issues with atlas admin UI, pls send browser version and a screen shot of where you see the issue. We appreciate your help. 

C

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[Chris Jackson]

Paul,

This is the correct place for questions. Is it better now? 

Thanks for the browser details. Could you send us a screenshot of what it looks like when it hangs, and any errors from the console or list of network connections.

Thanks,

Chris

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[steamydave]

Hi Chris,

Changing priorities...
Attached screen print of the souses, maybe I misunderstood the selection. PA appears twice- not sure that is correct, but if I drag BBC to the top, then save the screen spears correct after the saved confirmation. However, going back into that screen, the sequence is back to how it started. This was on my touch-screen laptop running windows 8,1, Internet Explorer 11

 

Dave

On Monday, 22 December 2014 19:36:24 UTC, Chris Jackson wrote:

Paul,

This is the correct place for questions. Is it better now? 

Thanks for the browser details. Could you send us a screenshot of what it looks like when it hangs, and any errors from the console or list of network connections.

Thanks,

Chris

On 10 December 2014 at 15:21, <paul...@netmadeira.com> wrote:

Chris,

I would like to start using Atlas but cannot get an Atlas API key as the Atlas website displays the Terms and Conditions for a brief second then just hangs. An email to he...@metabroadcast did not elicit a reply thus this email using the Discussion Group.

I am using a Win7 PC with IE11 and Safari as well as an iPad - both give the same result.

Many thanks in advance

Paul

Madeira

On Tuesday, December 2, 2014 12:13:24 AM UTC, Chris Jackson wrote:

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[Chris Jackson]

Thanks, Dave. We'll take a look in the NY, and hope to get to other unanswered emails meanwhile.