Lancaster

Yes indeed. Nice work Ian - much appreciated.

Martin

vinnielo

First impressions.. very VERY slow at converting from XML to database.
It's taken me around 15 minutes, running at 624MHz for the 14 days, and it's still not finished.
I'll give more feedback once it's actually finished what it's doing!! :)
I think this process ought to be on the PC side without doubt.

vinnielo

OK, the time taken to load the info for a channel has significantly been reduced to just under 3 seconds. Well done!
I also see the XML file is around 2Mb, rather than the previous 6. Another improvement there. Is it a deliberate thing to keep the XML file on the PPC, as I *think* you said it was to be deleted after the conversion.

IanB

Vinnielo - how many channels? And yes, I did plan to delete it, but have renamed to .old instead (in case it was of use).

vinnielo

15 channels.
My data.xml file has been left unrenamed. Not that it's a problem at this stage, but I thought you might want to know.

I'm glad you decided to give more space for the programme name.
What would be a nice idea is to repeat the pogramme name in the synopsis box, just so all of it can be seen somewhere in the prog.

IanB

The xml file should have been renamed as <data>.xml.old - because file explorer doesn't show extensions it will still look like an xml file.

15 minutes for 15 channels seems too long... On my device, 416MHz, it takes just under 5 minutes to import 14 channels (5250 programmes). That's with the viewer installed on an SD card - it's faster if it's installed in RAM.

vinnielo

Originally Posted by IanB

The xml file should have been renamed as <data>.xml.old - because file explorer doesn't show extensions it will still look like an xml file.

Yes, I agree.
XMLTV Viewer couldn't find the data.xml file, so I'm guessing it's been renamed.

Quote:

15 minutes for 15 channels seems too long... On my device, 416MHz, it takes just under 5 minutes to import 14 channels (5250 programmes). That's with the viewer installed on an SD card - it's faster if it's installed in RAM.

Aha, I've installed the program in my Built-in storage. The data.xml file also sits there! I'll have to get a compact flash card.

So how does XMLTV Viewer decide when to recompile the database?
When there's a NEW xml file, or whenever there just IS one?
Does it recreate a database from scratch, or simply adjust to the changes found?

IanB

The viewer recreates the database when it finds a new xml file of the same name and in the same location as the previous one it imported. It doesn't do an incremental import, it recreates the whole database again. I don't think an incremental import would be too much faster, as there would still be a lot of looping around the xml file, which as I said before, is very inefficiently structured. Plus, it would be a bit of a nightmare to not miss or duplicate any channels. Well, on the face of it it would... but I'll look into it.

It would be a lot faster to process the import on the PC, but it won't be possible to update a PPC SQL CE database on a PC until the next version of .NET comes out (November/December). When it does, I'll try that too.

Thanks again for the feedback and criticism (which I don't mind if it's constructive...) ;)

vinnielo

Originally Posted by IanB

The viewer recreates the database when it finds a new xml file of the same name and in the same location as the previous one it imported. It doesn't do an incremental import, it recreates the whole database again. I don't think an incremental import would be too much faster, as there would still be a lot of looping around the xml file, which as I said before, is very inefficiently structured. Plus, it would be a bit of a nightmare to not miss or duplicate any channels. Well, on the face of it it would... but I'll look into it.

Wouldn't there be a flaw here?
Wouldn't that freeware syncer (can't remember the name) just dump a copy of data.xml on my PPC everytime I accessed ActiveSync?
If it were to do that, the viewer would take another xx minutes to do what it needed to do each time it opened after the sync.
To have to go through that every few days would be undesirable, when I just want to take a quick look at tonight's telly.
What you COULD do is request for a manual conversion:
"A data.xml file has been found on your PPC.. would you like to update your database? Warning: this many take a few minutes."

IanB

Originally Posted by vinnielo

Wouldn't that freeware syncer (can't remember the name) just dump a copy of data.xml on my PPC everytime I accessed ActiveSync? If it were to do that, the viewer would take another xx minutes to do what it needed to do each time it opened after the sync. To have to go through that every few days would be undesirable, when I just want to take a quick look at tonight's telly.

Why would it do that...? If the data.xml file (originally in the My PPC Documents on the PC) was renamed AND moved, surely WhateverSync would just delete the data.xml from My PPC documents on the next sync. There would be no data.xml file there for the viewer to import until the user downloaded a fresh copy.

Quote:

What you COULD do is request for a manual conversion: "A data.xml file has been found on your PPC.. would you like to update your database? Warning: this many take a few minutes."

Are you saying that there should be an option for delaying the import even though a new data.xml file is detected...?

vinnielo

Originally Posted by IanB

Why would it do that...? If the data.xml file (originally in the My PPC Documents on the PC) was renamed AND moved, surely WhateverSync would just delete the data.xml from My PPC documents on the next sync. There would be no data.xml file there for the viewer to import until the user downloaded a fresh copy.

Why would it delete the data.xml file?
I thought this WhateverSync simply updated the data.xml on your PPC with whatever was on your PC. (I don't actually understand the behaviour of this program, and am still trying to figure out how to get it to work reliably).

Quote:

Are you saying that there should be an option for delaying the import even though a new data.xml file is detected...?

Yes, just so you're not always committed to having to have it imported when you're wanting a quick peek in the listings.

vinnielo

BTW, what should I have installed in my RAM for faster performance?
1) Viewer?
2) SQL thing?
3) data.xml
4) a combination of the above?

vinnielo

Ignore my previous post.
I moved 1) to RAM, and the job is complete within 2 minutes, so a great improvement there. Thanks for finding the cause.

IanB

Originally Posted by vinnielo

Why would it delete the data.xml file? I thought this WhateverSync simply updated the data.xml on your PPC with whatever was on your PC. (I don't actually understand the behaviour of this program, and am still trying to figure out how to get it to work reliably).

Well, as far as ActiveSync goes, it mirrors the files on the PC MyDocs with the files in the PPC MyDocs. So if you add, delete, or rename a file in one folder it will do the same in the other folder. But if a file is moved from the PPC MyDocs, when it syncs it will just see that file as having been deleted and delete it from the PC MyDocs. AFAIK it won't try and trace what the file was renamed to or where it was moved.

The import option is a fair point and I'll add that.

Glad it's working faster for you

vinnielo

Originally Posted by IanB

Well, as far as ActiveSync goes, it mirrors the files on the PC MyDocs with the files in the PPC MyDocs. So if you add, delete, or rename a file in one folder it will do the same in the other folder. But if a file is moved from the PPC MyDocs, when it syncs it will just see that file as having been deleted and delete it from the PC MyDocs. AFAIK it won't try and trace what the file was renamed to or where it was moved.

I've never quite understood mirroring.
One device must be master, with the other being slave.
So if the data.xml file on the PPC gets deleted, surely the mirroring will replace the file, as the data.xml file still exists on the PC.

Anyway, I think having the option to sync or not will solve this problem and provides greater ease and flexibility.