webgrabplusplus

*** WebGrab+Plus Setup - Windows ***

Some Info:
 - There is a pre-made docker image which you can use if you are on Linux.
 - Many Many providers DO NOT WORK, or need a cookie to work. Expect many sources to fail ya. For example, for the Chinese ones, I wanted Asian Food Network (16 sources) and only 4 worked.
 - The program is VERY SLOW! I only grab 1 channel, and grab 4 days for that channel. It takes about 3 mins for that. So if you wanna grab 100 channels, it'll be like 5h updates each night.
 - For the reasons above, I think WebGrab+Plus is only useful for a few hard to get channels (like AFC). I'm not too sure if it's useful as a "large EPG database". I do use it as my NHL Center Ice EPG as well.
 - If things go wrong, you do have to edit the provider.ini file. So some coding is nessasary. I needed to do this to make the EP numbering work on AFC.


1) Download the Base Install from: http://webgrabplus.com/download
http://webgrabplus.com/sites/default/files/download/SW/V2.1.0/WebGrabPlus_V2.1_install.exe

2) Download the Beta Insatll from: http://webgrabplus.com/download/sw
http://webgrabplus.com/sites/default/files/download/SW/V2.1.11/WebGrabPlus_V2.1.11_beta_install.exe


Install the base (v2.1.0), then install the (v2.1.11) overtop. The beta just modifies the base install (at least on Windows), so you need to install the beta overtop of the base.


3) After install it'll automatically get the lastest sitepack (verify the date). To manually get the new sitepack, either run:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\WebGrab+Plus\bin\SiteIni.Pack.Update.exe
or you can manually download it and copy the files into your config folder:
   https://github.com/SilentButeo2/webgrabplus-siteinipack/releases


Installation is complete, now you just have to configure the channels you want:

4) First find the list of channels you would like from:
   http://webgrabplus.com/epg-channels

   I for example wanted "Asian Food Network (AFC)" (not on m3u4u.com), and I see there are about 16 of them at the URL above. I make a note of which countries and providers they are in, then go to that folder in your config/sitepack/. Lets use AFC as an example in Hong Kong:
      C:\Users\***USERNAME***\AppData\Local\WebGrab+Plus\siteini.pack\Hong Kong\nowtv.now.com.channels.xml

5) Open that file, and grab the line with the channel and put it in your config.xml file:

So put this line:       <channel update="i" site="nowtv.now.com" site_id="527" xmltv_id="Asian Food Channel">Asian Food Channel</channel>
into: C:\Users\***USERNAME***\AppData\Local\WebGrab+Plus\WebGrab++.config.xml


6) Now if its working, edit your .confg to provide more than 1 day of listings. The url above with the channel list, says the max days each provider provides. You can edit the top of the .config. I only edited two values:
  <timespan>3</timespan>
  <update>s</update>
timespan being the # of days (0 counts, so 3 = 4 days of listings). And "update" I changed from "f" (force), to "s" (smart).

  You may also edit the xmltv_id & the name in the <channel> tag, if you want a new tvg-id or tvg-name.

7) Add the program to run in Windows Task Scheduler once a day at whatever time you like.





NOTES:
1) I didn't play with the MDB/REX stuff, which grabs info from IMDB to give more info in the XMLTV.xml.
2) There were 16 versions of AFC. I put all 16 from different providers in to the .config, and ran it. Only about 4 of the 16 worked. The rest needed cookies, or didn't work at all.
3) The provider I liked (nowtv.hk), had the wrong timezone, I had to copy the provider.ini (in the sitepack) and past it into: sitepack.user. Then I edited it (include ep info, and change timezone), and it'll automatically use that edited version over the normal one.
4) Many providers need "cookies" to work (register for site). The list of which providers need cookies is at the URL with all the channels. If you need to do that, the documentation is online below to enable cookies:
   http://webgrabplus.com/documentation/configuration/cookie