[plugin] Comics (Jan 3 Update)

[rkuo]

You can scroll zoomed comics by using the number keys, last I checked. It assumes the pad configuration on the Firefly remote.

[mickwall]

Originally Posted by MazzoTech

Any way to add Get Fuzy?

Do they have a website?, if so possible.

Mick

[MazzoTech]

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._umedia/latest

[jbarsoum]

While you're at it, I'd love to see Overboard ( http://www.ucomics.com/overboard/ ) , Pooch Cafe (http://www.ucomics.com/poochcafe/ ), Speed bump (http://www.ucomics.com/speedbump/ ), and Calvin and Hobbes (I know they're repeats, but they're still funny! -- http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/ )

thanks

[emg178]

I'm assuming that you are using some html parsers. I tried some web scraping a while back using perl. What are people using for web scraping w/ these plugins? Are there tools built into .net?

[mickwall]

Originally Posted by MazzoTech

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._umedia/latest

Enjoy...


Just copy the attached availablecomics.xml over the existing one and you should get getfuzzy.

You will need to reset your selections.

Mick

[mickwall]

Originally Posted by emg178

I'm assuming that you are using some html parsers. I tried some web scraping a while back using perl. What are people using for web scraping w/ these plugins? Are there tools built into .net?

The code just does searching within the html of the page. The availablecomics.xml defines for each comic where to start searching and what to look for.

Mick

[merrypig]

Originally Posted by MazzoTech

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/

Happy place, happy place!

*sigh* I love that comic strip

[dchallis]

Comics is a great plugin! But, my wife can't live without Cathy. Can you add that strip or explain how we can do it ourselves. You can find hundreds of strips, including Cathy at

http://www.ucomics.com

I have another program that gets all of these and as far as I know they are all the same page layout, so it could be a great way to add content for relatively little development effort.

Thanks, Dan

[mickwall]

Originally Posted by dchallis

Comics is a great plugin! But, my wife can't live without Cathy. Can you add that strip or explain how we can do it ourselves. You can find hundreds of strips, including Cathy at

http://www.ucomics.com

I have another program that gets all of these and as far as I know they are all the same page layout, so it could be a great way to add content for relatively little development effort.

Thanks, Dan

Dan

Check out the availablecomics.xml, you will see the definitions for each comic, the url, what to search for etc. Have a go and see how far you get.

Cheers


Mick

[emg178]

Mick, Thanks very much for the description. I successfully added Mutts.
I didn't get Sunday's getfuzzy, so I checked the url, and Sunday's version is a .jpg, while the daily ones are .gifs.
I'm going to try modifying that entry to gif,jpg to see if it fixes the problem.
I added some instructions for others to try defining their own comics. You shouldn't have to do it all. Let me know if these are incorrect.

Here is the additional code for definition of Mutts.
The propterty bag name seems to be a number in sequence. Put in the appropriate # here.
As far as I could tell, the image page is the page that has the html w/ the code for the image (i.e. the page w/ the image embedded). Other important entries are:
(1) Image prefix : This is the code in the <img source="... tag, cutting before the image name. So, looking at the source for mutts... <p><img src="/art/images/daily/012305.gif"></p></td>, just put in the /art/images/daily/ as the image prefix
(2) ImageSearchStart: This is a unique piece of text that appears in the page prior to but close to the comic. It has to be the same each day the program checks the web page.
(3) ImageLastUpdated & ImageLastChecked: I just copied values from another comic.
(4) Logo properties: I just used another comic. I don't know where these come into play.
(5) Image path: Make a folder w/ the new comics title on it, and then put that path (as well as a sample image name (i.e. use the numbers from todays comic in the html source).
(6) ImageSuffix: Enter the extension (gif or jpg) If it changes on sunday, you may be able to enter gif,jpg
<PropertyBag>
<Name>9</Name>
<Property>
<Name>Homepage</Name>
<Value>http://muttscomics.com/index.asp</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageLastUpdated</Name>
<Value>632433137799712500</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePage</Name>
<Value>http://muttscomics.com/index.asp</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePath</Name>
<Value>Mutts\012305.gif</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePrefix</Name>
<Value>/art/images/daily/</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageSearchStart</Name>
<Value>/art/email.asp</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageSuffix</Name>
<Value>gif</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>LastChecked</Name>
<Value>632433137792837500</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Logo</Name>
<Value>http://www.penny-arcade.com/tpl/palogo.jpg</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>LogoPath</Name>
<Value>C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond Media\Plugins\Comics\Logos\PennyArcade.jpg</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Name</Name>
<Value>Mutts</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Subscribed</Name>
<Value>True</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyBag>

[jbarsoum]

Thanks for the decription... But I'm having some trouble getting this to work -- most likely because I don't know what I'm doing. Here is my shot at getting Overboard on, from ucomics.com. (I imagine all the others on that site are similar, so the solution would apply to all the others, too) Does anyone have an idea what I'm missing here? Any help would be appreciated

<Name>12</Name>
<Property>
<Name>Homepage</Name>
<Value>http://www.ucomics.com/overboard</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageLastUpdated</Name>
<Value>632433137799712500</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePage</Name>
<Value>http://www.ucomics.com/overboard<</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePath</Name>
<Value>Overboard\ob050206.gif</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePrefix</Name>
<Value>http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ob/2005/</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageSearchStart</Name>
<Value>by Chip Dunham</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageSuffix</Name>
<Value>gif</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>LastChecked</Name>
<Value>632433137792837500</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Logo</Name>
<Value></Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>LogoPath</Name>
<Value></Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Name</Name>
<Value>Overboard</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Subscribed</Name>
<Value>True</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyBag>

[emg178]

I don't know why it wouldn't work. Two possible ideas are that you don't have anything for the LogoPath, and that it will only work with relative paths for ImagePrefix. I don't know if either of these apply, so hopefully, Mick will reply.

[mickwall]

Well its strange, when I copied and pasted from the webboard to my xml file things really got screwed up and no comics got loaded, however when I have typed it it worked.

Here is my xml file

The fields you NEED to add are

<PropertyBag>
<Name>9</Name>
<Property>
<Name>Homepage</Name>
<Value>http://www.ucomics.com/overboard</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePage</Name>
<Value>http://www.ucomics.com/overboard</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImagePrefix</Name>
<Value>http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ob/</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageSearchStart</Name>
<Value>by Chip Dunham</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>ImageSuffix</Name>
<Value>gif</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Name</Name>
<Value>Overboard</Value>
</Property>
<Property>
<Name>Subscribed</Name>
<Value>True</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyBag>


The Logo and logopath are not used at the moment, however I guess Brett was going to add the images to the settings screen. So where these are avaiilable keep adding them!

Cheers


Mick

[Brett]

Originally Posted by mickwall

The Logo and logopath are not used at the moment, however I guess Brett was going to add the images to the settings screen. So where these are avaiilable keep adding them!

Uhh I didn't make the original comics plugin, I just posted it .

-Brett