[mythtv-users] Myth Viewing Habits Databasae

[zaphod at comcast.net]

Ben, 

Agree with you that eventually this should be completely integrated into Myth so that I can access the information it provides me with my remote.  There is a lot more to that than PHP and database development.  I think the underlying framework can be worked out successfully and a more flexible PHP/web environment.  Once the foundation is in place someone can help integrate it into Myth GUI system.

When you say "from my actual myth box", remember that many people have no keyboard, no mouse.  My master backend doesn't even have a monitor of any type.   Preferably the script should run from your master backend (or mysql server if separate) without human interaction.

Client Side:
1) Output Title list to file:
mysql> select distinct title from . . .
2)  Upload file to centralized database, this looks promising: http://itooktheredpill.dyndns.org/wput/ 
3)  Still need a way to identify uploads . . . .
4)  Download requested info

Server side:
1) Check anonymous FTP directory for submissions (cron)
2) Error check, parse, add to database (or update old submission)
3) Provide requested info

Oversimplified, yes, but should demonstrate solid proof of concept before integration with MythFrontEnd.

-Eric

> A couple of issues I thought about.
> 
> Let me preface this by saying I don't really do any PHP development.  
> All of my development is ASP and VBScript.  If some of the problems are 
> already taken care of by PHP functions just let me know.
> 
> First, I'd like to be able to use this from my actual myth box not from 
> a browser on another box.  if it's integrated into mythweb, then that 
> would not be very easy to do.  We could use mythbrowse(?), but then why 
> would it need to integrate to mythweb. 
> 
> Second, If you use a browser and cookies, you have to consider how you 
> would make the submission of data in the first place. I guess mythweb 
> could pull the data out and submit the data for you, but how would you 
> handle keeping the cookie persistent since the browser was doing the 
> submission the script was. You could catch the cookie data and store it 
> in a local file, but that is really more than I think we need.  I think 
> an easier way may be to just generate a unique ID and return that the 
> first time someone makes a submission.  Your local client could then 
> store that and use it for future submissions. 
> 
> Another suggestion would be to not make a submission valid until the 
> user has made X number of submissions.  This may cut down on bad data.
> 
> Ben
> 
> 
> 
> zaphod at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> >Ben - 
> >
> >I think your right, this should be fairly easy to handle on a database.  I see 
> it being an add-on module to Mythweb to begin with.  I've been thinking about 
> setting up a database on one of my web hosts for this very idea.  
> >
> >I was leaning toward using a non-expiring cookie to identify returning users, 
> you would expire non-returning user entires from the database after some period 
> of time.  Now that I am writing this it has its own set of issues . . .
> >
> >Wasn't sure how to handle a global user base, it may not matter as the shows 
> watched will naturally sort them into different demographics I think.
> >
> >Eventually it would be nice to integrate a nightly upload to the database into 
> myth's cronjob, this will generate a larger, more accurate database to score 
> from.
> >
> >-Eric
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> >>The database thing doesn't really seem that hard to me. Are there 
> >>specific concerns you see or problems that I might be missing?
> >>
> >>Ben
> >>
> >>    
> >>
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