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TV EPG generator

This EPG generator comes from the need to produce a EPG file for a channels' list, where each of channels' EPG can come from different EPG providers. We always see EPG generators that grab all the channels from a provider and produce its own list, but I failed to find one that allows to chose which provider to use for a specific channel.

This script is written in Python3 and produces a XMLTV compatible xml file, with all the channels and programmes selected.

Installing

First git clone the repository and cd into it.

Optionally, you can create a python virtual environment where the libraries will be installed:

  • python3 -m venv .
  • Start the venv by running source bin/activate

Some providers depend on external libraries, so you'll need to run the following to install required libraries:

pip3 install -f requirements.txt

You're set to go, check the Usage section below on how to run the code

Example: channelList.xml

The channel list input file is a simple XML, as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<channelList>
    <channel>
        <tvg-id name="Channel 1 HD" icon="https://icon_url.png">channel_id</tvg-id>
        <provider code="PC001">PROVIDER</provider>
    </channel>
    ...
</channelList>
  • tvg-id name: M3U display name
  • tvg-id icon: URL to the icon for this channel
  • tvg-id: channel_id, which will identify the channel and its programmes in the XMLTV file.
  • provider code: Code for which this channels is identified by by the EPG provider
  • provider PROVIDER: Provider tag, which identified the provider module that will be handling fetching the EPG for this channel.

Usage

Once the channel list xml is created just run the script:

usage: tvEPG.py [-h] [-i INPUT] [-o OUTPUT] [-d DAYS] [-p PROVIDER] [-c CHANNEL] [--debug]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        Specify the input channel list file
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Specify the output XMLTV filename
  -d DAYS, --days DAYS  Specify the number of days to process
  -p PROVIDER, --provider PROVIDER
                        Filter on provider
  -c CHANNEL, --channel CHANNEL
                        Filter on channel (name)
  --debug               Turn debug on

A xml file will be generated with the channels and programmes contents if no errors occur.

Adding a new provider

Providers are stored in providers module, add one and add it to the if condition of providers in the tvEPG.py.

Providers get a list of ChannelInfo objects and the number of days of programmes to look at. The ChannelInfo is basically the <channel> information. The provider should produce and return two lists, one for channels containing Channel objects and another for programmes containing Programme objects.

Dates produces by the providers need to be in the following format:

%Y%m%d%H%M%S +DST_OFFSET - Example: 20181022190000 +0100

Known issues

This is very poorly tested and it works for the providers I include, there's no guarantees this will work without changes for new EPG providers, nor that this produces a EPG file compatible with your system. Please provide me with examples and I'll try to improve it, or simply submit a PR.

I used this project to learn Python, so please bear with me if things are poorly done and/or designed. Many things might be improved which I'll do as soon as I'm aware of them.

Feedback, improvements or suggestions are always welcome.

Roadmap

In no specific order:

  • Find a way to dynamically register providers without the need to change tvEPG.py
  • Move all the date format and handling outside of the providers, or pass the format to the providers.
  • Be more resilient, in case any provider breaks, we don't stop the EPG generation.
  • Support for more than one provider for each channel, so that if one provider fails we can fall back to another.
  • More providers, including a generic provider to fetch channels and programmes from another xmltv file.
  • Register hooks to perform certain operations at the end, i.e. Dropbox uploader, FTP file, zip/rar/compress output file, etc..
  • Provide utilities for provider classes to make https requests
  • Add (more) logging
  • Make use of the xmltv episode-num tag DONE
  • ...

Credits

This was heavily inspired from an EPG script from warlockPT, which only supported MEO. I decided to pick up his channel list definition on XML idea and took it from there.

License

GPL3