Temporary patch GIP

[Andy Wedge]

Thanks to DP for making a quick patch to GIP and providing some notes for downloading that from GitHub. If, like me, you use Windows then those notes may not be fully understood. I have worked out a simple process to get the latest version of the get_iplayer.pl code and save it so it can be used with the --pid option as DP indicated.  I offer these notes ‘as is’ and do not propose to respond to questions. These are the steps I went through and if someone has a simpler way of doing the same then feel free to say so. I refer to Notepad as the text editor as most people will have that. If you decide to use another editor then you may have to modify these steps. Before you start, understand where get_iplayer is installed on your system. On my Windows 7 64-bit system it’s in c:\program files (x86)\get_iplayer  and the file that will be changed is the main get_iplayer script called get_iplayer.pl.

Here are the steps I went through:

1 – Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the get_iplayer installation folder (c:\program files (x86)\get_iplayer on my system)
2 – Rename file get_iplayer.pl to get_iplayer.pl.keep  (so you can back to it later if needed)
3 – Open your web browser and go to https://raw.githubusercontent.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/develop/get_iplayer   (this displays the patched version of the get_iplayer script)
4 – Click any line of code to ensure you activate the correct area of the browser window
5 – Use CTRL+A to select all the lines of code (look for the colour change)
6 – Use CTRL+C to copy the selected lines to the clipboard
7 – Open Notepad (by clicking start and typing Notepad to locate it or by using the Windows Key+R and typing Notepad in the Run command window)
8 – Use CTRL+V to paste the get_iplayer script on the clipboard into Notepad
9 – Click File > Save As to open the Save As dialog window
10 – Navigate to the get_iplayer installation folder so it shows in the address bar at the top (or just type in the location and press enter)
11 – Type ‘get_iplayer.pl’ in the filename box (without the quotes)
12 – In Save As Filetype select All Files (*.*)  (to prevent notepad adding .txt extension after the .pl)
--
13 – If you have missed step 12 – just rename file get_iplayer.pl.txt to get_iplayer.pl   ☺

That’s it. Job done.

Now you can run get_iplayer as DP described.  I’ve run it from a command line using the following example for David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef program:

get_iplayer --modes better --pid b06whkdf

Note that the filename format may be slightly different in regards to episodes and series numbering.  Don’t forget you can list multiple PIDs to download more than one program at a time e.g.:

get_iplayer --modes better --pid b06wj608,b06w0gn7

will get the latest episodes of Dickensian and Empire of the Tsars.


If this helps, great.  If not then I am sure you know where the delete button is ☺

Cheers,
Andy