Tutorial: Development of a TvDataService

The TV listings in TV-Browsers are loaded by special plugins we call DataServices. This allows us to add new channels to TV-Browser arbitrarily (). Die TV-Daten werden in TV-Browser über spezielle Plugins - wir nennen sie DataServices - geladen. Auf diese Weise läßt sich TV-Browser beliebig um weitere Sender erweitern (provided that someone has access to the listings and writes a corresponding DataService).

This tutorial describes the basic steps for developing a DataService. For further help we recommend the TvDataStarterKit and looking at the JavaDoc documentation of TV-Browser as well as the source code of the existing DataServices.

Setting up the development environment

Add the Jar file tvbrowser.jar (this can be found in the TV-Browser installation directory) to the Java class path.

Implementing

Develop a class that implements the tvdataservice.TvDataService interface.

Notes:

• To continue using TvDataServices of TV-Browser version 0.9.7 they have to inherit the abstract class AbstractOldTvDataServiceBridge (or implement the new interface).
• Instead of implementing the TvDataService interface directly you can also use the class util.tvdataservice.AbstractTvDataService.
• All methods of this class are called by the host application (i.e., TV-Browser) and thus constitute entry points of the plugin.
• The class has to be contained in a package of the same name as the class in lowercase.

Creating the Jar file

Next, you need to pack the DataService into a single file, to make installing and providing it to other people simpler.

The following command creates the Jar file:

jar cvf MyTVDataService.jar mytvdataservice

Important: The name of the Jar file has to be identical to the class name (including the lowercase/uppercase letters).

Installation

Copy the newly created Jar file into the dataservice directory of your TV-Browser installation. Finally, restart TV-Browser and use your DataService by clicking Update... in the menu TV listings.