Solutions to loss of RSS feed

[Rob Dixon]

I apologise if this covers old ground. I have read most, but not all of
the mail that has arisen from this situation.

Three solutions to this situastion come to mind. From least to most
attractive:

- Scrape the BBC web site directly for the information that used to come
from the RSS feeds. Apart from being a very clumsy approach, this is
almost certainly against the terms of service for the web site.

- Apply for a licence to use the Nitro API directly from get_iplayer,
and write a new interface to collect the necessary information from
there. This is by far the nicest of all options, but I doubt very much
whether the BCC would grant such a licence. At the moment, though, I
can't see any reason not to at least make the application. At least it
would demonstrate our willingess to be opend and cooperative.

- Write a new application that uses the Nitro API, ostensibly to provide
a different and more flexible way of viewing the BBC schedule, but
capable of exporting the information for use in get_iplayer. This could
even reconstruct the old XML RSS feeds, but I don't see a reason to add
such an awkward intermediate format.

This last option seems to me to be the most likely to succeed. I have
applied for a licence for my own use and I shall be experimenting with
what is possible. After some experimentation I will be glad to add an
export along the lines I have described, to be specified by those
responsible for get_iplayer.

What does the team think?

Rob

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