No categories in tv.cache file

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Thu Jun 25 08:56:11 BST 2015, Dave Liquorice wrote:

>> Unfortunately category is now gone. This is due to the loss of the ION
>> feeds we were using. The schedule feeds that GiP now uses don't include
>> this information.
> (snip)
> The category field in the cache entry for p02n9vgl is still empty...

Hi Dave...
tellyaddict has posted the right answer; to quote from the 2.93-2.94 Release 
Notes
(https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/release293#read-this-first):

> You can no longer search TV programmes by category.
> That facility is unlikely ever to return.
> Category information will not appear in search results
> (for the present a blank space will be displayed).

Please also read:
https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/release293#notes
to take a glimpse of what is planned with regard to
an eventual re-introduction of both radio & tv category items...

On the iplayer site, you can search both radio & tv by category:
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/programmes/genres
or e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/categories/films )
but this is because they use their Nitro API, which GiP
can't access....

> INFO: Trying pid: b00wlrzx using type: tv
> (snip)
> category:       Factual
> (snip)
> Where has that category information come from?

 When you specify a programme index number/pid to GiP,
in this example pid=b00wlrzx, the script loads the following URL:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlrzx.xml
and then uses the XML::Simple perl module to parse it
in order to retrieve the programme's metadata;
if you load it yourself, it's under:
<category type="genre" id="C00045" key="factual"><title>Factual</title>
But it is only after you've pointed GiP to a specific pid
that this category metadata can be retrieved, since
- as already stated - it is not present in the schedule feeds.
 If GiP was to populate the "category" column in the tv.cache
file, it would have to load and parse 3330+ URLs...

Regards,
Vangelis.