dagwieers / service.iptv.manager

Integrate TV/radio channels and EPG data from other add-ons in Kodi PVR

IPTV Manager

This Service Add-on integrates Live TV and Radio Channels from supported Add-ons in the Kodi PVR. It will periodically poll those IPTV Add-ons for Channels and EPG data.

The principle is based on the IPTV Merge addon from Matt Huisman, but with this integration, the Add-ons don't have to generate an m3u file or XMLTV file themselves, but can work with structured JSON data.

Supported Add-ons:

• VTM GO (plugin.video.vtm.go)

Integration

To make an IPTV Add-on compatible with IPTV Manager, a few things needs to be done.

IPTV JSON

Place the following file as iptv.json in the root of the Add-on. This allows IPTV Manager to detect the Add-on and know the endpoints for the Channel and EPG data.

{
    "version": 1,
    "channels": "plugin://plugin.video.example/iptv/channels?output=$FILE",
    "epg": "plugin://plugin.video.example/iptv/epg?output=$FILE"
}

Attribute	Required	Description
version	Yes	Always 1.
channels	Yes	Endpoint for Channel data.
epg	No	Endpoint for EPG data.

There are 3 possible method to provide the data for channels and EPG:

• A local file (example: iptv.channels.json) This is the preferred method if the list of channels are statically defined. The file path is relative to the root of the Add-on.

  There is not really a use-case to use this for epg data, since that's by nature dynamic data.

• A dynamic endpoint (example: plugin://plugin.video.example/iptv/channels?output=$FILE) This is the preferred method if you want to generate the list of channels automatically.

  IPTV Manager will make a call to this endpoint, provide a temporary file in $FILE, and wait until that file contains the result. In case of an error, the Add-on should remove the $FILE, so IPTV Manager can continue.

  Due to limitations of Kodi, an Add-on can't just return data, so it needs to write the data to a temporary file that is passed as the $FILE parameter.

• A web endpoint (example: https://www.example.com/channels.json) You can also point to an online URL that contains the data.

Channel JSON

IPTV Manager will periodically use the channels endpoint defined in the iptv.json file to know about the channels that the addon provides.

[
  {
    "id": "channel-one.be",
    "name": "Channel One",
    "logo": "resources/logos/channel-one.png",
    "stream": "plugin://plugin.video.example/stream/channel-one"
  },
  {
    "id": "channel-two.be",
    "name": "Channel Two",
    "logo": "https://www.example.com/logos/channel-two.png",
    "stream": "https://www.example.com/steams/channel-two.m3u8"
  },
  {
    "id": "radio-one.be",
    "name": "Radio One",
    "logo": "resources/logos/radio-one.png",
    "stream": "plugin://plugin.video.example/stream/radio-one",
    "radio": true
  }
]

Attribute	Required	Description
id	Yes	An unique identifier for the channel. This will be used to link with the EPG data.
name	Yes	The name of the channel.
logo	Yes	A logo for the channel. This can be an URL or a local file relative to the Add-on root.
stream	Yes	The endpoint for the Live stream. This can be an online HLS stream or a plugin:// endpoint.
radio	No	Indicates if this channel is a Radio channel. (default false)

EPG JSON

IPTV Manager will periodically use the epg endpoint defined in the iptv.json file to update the EPG of the channels. The key must match the id of the channel from the Channel JSON.

In case the constructing of this file takes a long time, it might be beneficial to create this in a background service and cache the results. This cached result can then be passed when IPTV Manager asks for an update.

{
  "channel-one.be": [
    {
      "start": "2020-04-01T12:45:00",
      "stop": "2020-04-01T12:50:00",
      "title": "My Show",
      "description": "Description of My Show",
      "subtitle": "Episode name for My Show",
      "episode": "S01E05",
      "image": "https://www.example.com/shows/my-show/s01e05.png",
      "date": "2018-04-01"
    },
    {...}
  ],
  "channel-two.be": [
    {...}
  ]
}

Attribute	Required	Description
start	Yes	The start time of the program in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS format.
stop	Yes	The end time of the program in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS format.
title	Yes	The title of the program.
description	No	The description of the program.
subtitle	No	The subtitle of the program. This can be the Episode name.
episode	No	The episode number in case of a show in the S01E01 format.
image	No	A URL to an image for this program.
date	No	The original air date for this program.