SlingBox Channel-Changer TvGuide

Web app with a TV Guide and means to change the channels in your SlingBox™ devices.

It can work as a TV Guide, as a channel changer or as both, integrated with the Slinger Player or independently of it.

TvGuide integrated with Slinger Player for Android and for Windows

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • TV Guide
  • SlingBox channel changer
• Configuration
• Functionality
  • TV Guide functionality
  • SlingBox channel changer functionality
• Getting Started
• Obtaining TV Guide data
• Contributing
• License
• Credits
• Disclaimer

Overview

This app offers a convenient way to view programs info and select channels on your SlingBox™ devices.
Such functionality, also referred as interactive electronic program guide (IPG) was originally provided by the SlingPlayer™ app (only for digital channels in USA and Canada) but the service has been discontinued as of 9 Nov.2022.

It started as a TV Guide in 2020, and then, in 2023, it was extended to include the channel changer functionality.

The channel changer functionality is possible due to Gerry Dazoo's open source project Slinger Server which currently is the most complete and robust solution to use SlingBoxes, and provides complex remote controls.
Therefore this app is not meant to replace but to complement these remote controls with IPG capability.

Requirements:

• a data source that provides information about TV channels and programs
• a Slinger Server Wrapper that controls the SlingBoxes.

These three components (TvGuide Web App, TvGuide Data Source and the SlingBox Server) can be located in the same machine or in different machines: in the same network or across the Internet.

System Architecture - TvGuide Web App, TvGuide Data Source and SlingBox Server

TV Guide

As a TV Guide, the app requires a data source that provides information about channels and programs.
Such data source can be a WebAPI service (not provided here)

In this app, the TV Guide and the SlingBoxes channel changer functionalities are independent of each other, but when provided with channel numbers the TV Guide will display them as inactive/disabled buttons.

SlingBox channel changer

As a channel changer, the data source can be:

• a WebAPI service with channels and programs data,
• static JSON files with channels data and (empty) programs data.

In order to work:

• It must have access my Slinger Server Wrapper which, in turn, talks to Slinger Server which controls the SlingBoxes.
  
• It can be integrated with the Slinger Player app that is used to display the video stream.
  
• It can be launched independently of Slinger Player, directly in a browser, usually when being used as a remote control for Smart TVs which stream from SlingBoxes via VLC. (Please see the images below)
  

TV Guide and channel changer used as a standalone webpage for remote controlling Smart TVs

Utilizing QR Codes: Extracting TV Guide URL for Seamless Remote Control of Smart TVs with VLC Player

Configuration

Configure the app by modifying the files in the config\ sub-directory.

• Indicate the environment type (development, production, etc.) in the file config\environment.json.
  
• As a result the app will set its data source for that environment type.
  For example, here is how we set the environment type as mockdata_1_sling:

 {
   "environment": "mockdata_1_sling",
   "_suggested_values": "development, mockdata_3_slings, mockdata_2_slings, mockdata_1_sling, mockdata_0_slings, mock_CA_BC_TLS, staging, production"
  }

In the example above where the environment is mockdata_1_slings, the webpage will first read the default settings from file config\appsettings.json, and then the URLs to the data source from file config\appsettings.mockdata_1_slings.json.

(See the explanations in the Configuration file.)

The app comes pre-loaded with a few mock data sources that can be used for testing purposes or instead of a real data source.

• mockdata_0_slings: 0 SlingBoxes, 6 channels, 3 programs
• mockdata_1_sling: 1 SlingBox, 6 channels, 3 programs
• mockdata_2_slings: 2 SlingBoxes, 6 channels, 3 programs
• mockdata_3_slings: 3 SlingBoxes, 6 channels, 3 programs
• mock_CA_BC_TLS: 1 SlingBox, 10 channels, 0 programs (simulates a cable provider in British Columbia, Canada)

IMPORTANT: To use these mock data sources to change channels, you have to modify the SlingBox names in the file data\tvchannel_[...].json to match the names of your SlingBoxes declared in the Slinger project on your computer, in the file config.ini or unified_config.ini.
(The SlingBox names in the config.ini can be different from the names of the SlingBox devices).

Using static data to enable channel changing (channels are hard-coded)

Therefore, by using mock data instead of a real-time data source, you can still use the app as a channel changer.

See more details in the Configuration file.

Note: when changing the configuration files, you need to restart the app from the menu in order to apply the changes:

"Refresh page" is restarting the app to apply the changes

Functionality

The app reads TV Guide info from data source via the URLs indicated in the configuration file.
When its URL contains certain parameters which indicate the presence of Slinger Server Wrapper, the app will use them to change the channels in the SlingBox(es).

TV Guide functionality

The app, upon launch, will read TV info from its data source and will cache some of it.
The TV Guide data source must provide the following information:

• 1.1. Local Date & Time of the TV Station
  Utilized to display the TV programs adjusted to the local time of the device which browse the TV Guide.
  

• 1.2. TV Channels
  Utilized to display the TV channels and, optionally, the channel numbers of the slingBoxes that stream them
  Important: the name of the slingBox is provided by the data source, and should be the same as the name of the slingBox in the Slinger Server.
  

• 1.3. TV Programs
  The date-time of the TV programs corresponds to the local time of the TV Station.
  The app will adjust the date-time of the TV programs to the local time of the device which browses the TV Guide.
  

See more details in the DataSource file.

SlingBox channel changer functionality

Channel changer functionality is provided by the Slinger Server Wrapper:

1. The Server pushes notifications to this app about the following streaming events of the SlingBoxes
   • streaming in progress
   • streaming stopped
   • channel changed
   • slingbox bricked
   • remote locked
     
2. The app reacts to these notifications by updating the UI accordingly.
   
3. The app queries periodically the Server to receive an updated Server Status.
   

To use the app as a channel changer, its URL needs two additional parameters:

1. the Slinger Server URL.
2. the Slinger Server Wrapper URL.

What are the Slinger Server and the Slinger Server Wrapper?

• The Slinger Server, as mentioned already, is the server that controls the SlingBoxes. It is created by Gerry Dazoo and is available on GitHub at the address indicated above.
  
• The Slinger Server Wrapper is a bridge between the Slinger Server and the web page of the TvGuide app.
  It "wraps" the Slinger Server and provides
  • a REST API to it:
    • to send to the Slinger Server the channel change commands received from TV Guide app
    • to send to the app information about the SlingBoxes status
  • a SignalR connection to the web page of the TvGuide app, which notifies the web page
    about changes in SlingBoxes' status.
    

See more details in the SignalR_Data_Notifications file.

Reminder: You need to ensure exact match between the slingBox name in the data source and the slingBox name in the Slinger Server.

2.1. How does the app work as a channel changer?

The Wrapper server notifies the web page whenever a SlingBox status changes.

• If the SlingBox is streaming, the web page will display:
  • the channel numbers as selectable/clickable buttons,
  • the selected channel highlighted.

• If the SlingBox stops streaming, the Wrapper server should send a streaming stopped notification to the web page, which, in turn, will display the channel numbers as inactive buttons.
  

When the user clicks on a channel number, the web page will send a channel change command to the Slinger Server Wrapper.

Getting Started

1. Create a website (IIS, Apache, etc.) on a web server and copy there the files from this GitHub repo.
   (As web server you may use the same machine as the SlingBox Server or a different one.)
   When the website is located on the Internet, make sure that the SlingBox server can be accessed via an IPV4 address or a DNS.
   

2. Configure the app by modifying the files in the config\ sub-directory.
   See more details above in the Configuration paragraph.

3. Configure the Slinger Server Wrapper.
   See more details in its GitHub repo Slinger Server Wrapper.

4. Launch the app:

   • directly in a browser by using its URL.
     
   • from a Slinger Player app, after its modifying remote control web page to reference the URL of the app.
     

Obtaining TV Guide data

Without a TV data source, the app isn't as enjoyable to use.

There are mainly two options to obtain TV data:

• Using a WebAPI service that provides TV data
• Scraping TV providers' websites

Using a WebAPI service that provides TV data

Issue: Only a very few free TV data sources are available.
One option is TVmaze, but you will need to adapt its data format to match this app.
Keep in mind that some paid APIs can be expensive for home users.

Scraping a TV data website

Issue: Most, if not all, TV data websites explicitly forbid scraping.
For example, SlingPlayer used TV Guide data from Zap2it, which, until a few years ago, provided an API but currently forbids scraping.

However, there are some TV data websites that don't seem to forbid scraping, such as TV Passport

Tv Guide data format

The TV Guide data source adheres to an open-source, community-driven standard known as XMLTV, widely utilized by various tools and scrapers.

According to the XMLTV website:

An XMLTV file has 2 types of records:
• 'channel' records, store information about channels
• 'program' records, store information about individual episodes

Likewise, this app's TV Guide incorporates the same two types of records. Therefore, XMLTV may be adapted to this app.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

If you want to contribute, please contact me first to discuss the changes.

I prefer to keep this code as simple as possible, JavaScript only (no transpilers - React, Angular, etc.) so that it can be easily understood and modified.

BTW: I am not a JavaScript developer, so I am open to suggestions on how to improve the code.

This is a personal project, and I don't have a lot of time to work on it.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details

Credits

• Slingbox by Sling Media - the device that streams TV channels over the Internet
  "Slingbox" is a trademarked term associated with products and services provided by Sling Media, a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation.
  The Slingbox is a line of devices that allow users to remotely view and control their cable or satellite television.
  

• Slinger Server - open source server that controls the SlingBoxes, created by Gerry Dazoo

• Slinger Player - video player that streams from the Slinger, created by Gerry Dazoo

• ChatGPT3 by OpenAI - used to generate code, documentation and proofreading.

• CloudConvert - used to create animated GIFs from videos.

• Online video cutter - used to crop videos

• Draw.io - used to create diagrams

Disclaimer

All trademarks, logos and brand names are the property of their respective owners.
All company, product and service names used in this app and documentation are for identification purposes only.