Appendix D: Mitigating Issues with RadioTime

The complexity caused by all the combinations of playlists, protocols, containers, and codecs can create considerable difficulties for stream players. Stations flip formats, shows go off the air, and stream URLs light up or go dark – every day people find something a little different. RadioTime provides a couple of features to ease these difficulties. First, you can filter out streams from the guide that your player cannot play. This can be done with both the OPML and OpenMedia APIs. In OPML, you would do something such as:

GET http://opml.radiotime.com/Browse.ashx?c=talk&formats=wma,mp3

RadioTime invests significant resources in keeping things up to date, but users will often spot problems before we do. As a result, it is strongly recommended that all partners use the RadioTime reporting API methods to convey these issues at the time they occur. This information flows into our moderation system, where it is routed to appropriate administrators and quickly resolved. There are three types of problems you can report through the API.

When you encounter stream problem, such as the stream not being able to be played, you can automatically report it through the OPML API. RadioTime will then review, replace, or remove the bad URL. For example:

GET http://opml.radiotime.com/Report.ashx?c=stream&id=s32500&error=404&message=File+Not+Found

You may also let your users report problems through a problem reporting wizard. Browse to the following URL and your users will be provided an easy and quick series of menus allowing them to report the specific problem. The final option sends a ticket into our CRM for moderator review.

GET http://opml.radiotime.com/Report.ashx?c=wizard&id=s32500

You can also send general feedback like comments, concerns, or complaints, about a specific show or station with the following.

GET http://opml.radiotime.com/Report.ashx?c=feedback&id=s32500&email=user@username.org&text=Station+call+sign+changed