[plugin] NHLScores (October 30 Update)

[Kilrsat]

Author: geoffstewart

Short Description: See real-time NHL scores.

Long Description: Get the latest scores from around the NHL! See previews, recaps and scoring summaries of all games. View past and future schedules. See how your team ranks in the standings.

Version Number: 1.6
Status: Stable
Last Updated: October 30, 2007
Installation Instructions: Double-click on NHLScores-1.6.bmplugin

Release Notes:
Version 1.6:

-I'm getting the information about the current scoring for a game from a different source that is more up to date than the current source. You should now be able to see updates of who scored during the game in near real time.

Version 1.5:
- fix for ESPN change of URLs - Handle new format for pre-season games

Version 1.4:
- fix for "No Games" bug

Version 1.3:
- fix for New Year bug where URL was not properly formed for ESPN wml site
- added a bit of error handling so future snafus on the HTTP get will not bring down all of BM.
- added a break in the Standings to denote teams currently in the playoffs.

Version 1.2:
-Fixed bug with seeing future games.

License: Free

Requirements: Internet Access


Download NHLScores-1.6.bmplugin

[HIT-Rascal]

Sounds great! I'll check it out later. What would make it even better if you added realtime NFL scores and MLB for next year.

[dequire]

Thanks for making this plugin! I was happy enough that the NHL is back...This just makes it all the sweeter. Thanks!

[geoffstewart]

HIT-Rascal,
Well, this can be extended to support other sports, but I'm not too interested in pursuing those. The source of the data is the espn wml site which of course has all the NFL and MLB stuff available. I was planning on posting the source code because I figured that people would want to extend or duplicate this plugin for other sports.

dequire,
No problem. I'm completely pumped up about hockey being back, too... which is part of the reason why I did this plugin. I tried other widgets to get this information, but none are designed for the typical HTPC...

Geoff

[dlandrum]

Looks awesome. I too would love a NFL version

[bshinkle]

I'd be interested in tackling an NFL/MLB version if you posted the source..

[geoffstewart]

bshinkle,

Sure, I'll just post the source here rather than try to get it to the source repository. That way, you can get into an NFL version quickly.

Some notes...

1) I didn't do any exception handling... lazy more than anything else. So, when you get a page you can't parse, BM just shows a black screen but it lets you back out to the main screen. That was one area where I was going to make changes.

2) I found using Firefox with the WMLBrowser plugin to be a required tool for parsing the pages since I was using the ESPN wml site as a source.

3) This plugin does not use an offline scraper. In other words, when you select anything in this plugin, it goes to the wml site at that moment to retreive the information to display.. nothing is persisted. For this reason, I would stick with the wml site since its response times are excellent. Should you have to go to another site for information, you may want to revamp the plugin for offline data retrieval.

OK, enough caveats... here's the code as is. Let me know if you have any questions.

Geoff

[dequire]

I just wanted to send some propos out for this plugin... been using it since it's release and I have to say that it's great. Thanks again.

[geoffstewart]

Thanks, dequire.

At one point, I'm going to update the standings screen to make it a bit more readable... especially as we get to closer to the playoffs.

Cheers.

Geoff

[RiderFan]

This plugin has been broken for me for the last 2 days on BOTH of my computers.
The screen is just black.

[geoffstewart]

Right! Found the bug... i'll post a fix shortly.

[geoffstewart]

OK,

I've updated the plugin. Version 1.3 has the fix for the New Year bug.

Version 1.3:
----------------
- fix for New Year bug where URL was not properly formed for ESPN wml site
- added a bit of error handling so future snafus on the HTTP get will not bring down all of BM.
- added a break in the Standings to denote teams currently in the playoffs.

I'll post through the admin page to get the first post updated, but in the meantime, here's the new version.

NOTE: For whatever reason, the forum will not let me post *.bmplugin files, so I had to append a .zip to the filename. Simply remove the .zip from the name and double-click to install. It will upgrade properly from the previous version.

Enjoy.

Geoff

[SSDNAdmin]

Updated

[werb]

Anyone else getting no information? Just started two days ago. did something change?

[Mamba]

Yah, mine quit working a couple weeks ago....