Only Showing Online Streams?

[FunRoomSite]

Hello everyone, I run a gaming website for League of Legends called DominateDominion.com and some people stream their gameplay. I was wondering how I go about having a section on my website or forum that only shows streams that are online broadcasting? Here is an example. http://solomid.net/streams.php It's only showing streams that are currently online and also has featured ones. I am trying to get the same thing with a randomly rotating featured one but don't know where to begin. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

[ShMaunder]

Are you aware of the JTV gaming category API (AKA Twitch.tv) available as an XML here http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.xml?category=gaming

For League of Legends specific games this should suffice http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.xml?category=gaming&meta_game=League%20of%20Legends

Parse that XML using PHP's simplexml or whatever you want to use. You can check for featured in the XML schema and using PHP's rand() will get you a random number for use with random streams.

[FunRoomSite]

Are you aware of the JTV gaming category API (AKA Twitch.tv) available as an XML here http://api.justin.tv...category=gaming

For League of Legends specific games this should suffice http://api.justin.tv...%20of%20Legends

Parse that XML using PHP's simplexml or whatever you want to use. You can check for featured in the XML schema and using PHP's rand() will get you a random number for use with random streams.

So i'm not really sure what XML is or parsing. Know of any guides that would tell me how to do what you're saying?

[ShMaunder]

If you have never used XML parsing then maybe the json API would be easier?

I quickly came up with this:

<?php

$json = file_get_contents("http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.json?category=gaming&meta_game=League%20of%20Legends");

$elements = json_decode($json);

foreach ($elements as $element) {

	    /*$channel = get_object_vars($element->channel);
	    print_r(array_keys($channel)); // Use this to print out all available keys for the channel array
	   */
	    echo '<strong>', $element->title, '</strong> | '; // Prints out stream title
	    echo $element->stream_count, '<br />'; // Prints out stream viewer count

	    echo '<a href="', $element->channel->channel_url, '">'; // Enables hyperlink to channel
	    echo '<img src="', $element->channel->screen_cap_url_large, '" />'; // Prints out an image
	    echo '</a>';

	    //$element->channel->embed_code; // Prints out a embedded flash video

	    echo '<br /><br />';
}

Try run that on your web server. It requires error trapping and file caching from that URL for a better experience. But basically it prints out the title of the stream, stream viewer numbers and an image of the channel with a hyperlink back to twitch.

[FunRoomSite]

If you have never used XML parsing then maybe the json API would be easier?

Probably not, because I have never used json API either. :p

So I just paste that code on a page?

[ShMaunder]

Its PHP. So you need to save this as a .php file then upload to your web server.

Then you can direct your web browser to open the .php file from the webserver then it should load.

Edit: you can't just pasted it into WordPress or something. It has to run long side WordPress unless you want to try to create a WordPress plug-in which will complicate things.

Or you could use this for WordPress instead http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php/ (I've never used WordPress, so I can't really help on that).

[FunRoomSite]

Its PHP. So you need to save this as a .php file then upload to your web server.

Then you can direct your web browser to open the .php file from the webserver then it should load.

Edit: you can't just pasted it into WordPress or something. It has to run long side WordPress unless you want to try to create a WordPress plug-in which will complicate things.

Or you could use this for WordPress instead http://wordpress.org...ugins/exec-php/ (I've never used WordPress, so I can't really help on that).

I tried that plug-in you linked me, but it didn't work. Nothing showed up when I pasted the code. So I guess i'll try to do the first way you mentioned. So I just go to my server, create a new page title whatever.php with the code you gave me? Then If i go to that page it will show live streams?

[ShMaunder]

Yes. Play around. Obviously, make sure you take backups before you commit anything live.

The best way to develop these things is by using a local PHP web server so if you mess anything up, then it doesn't matter. Though if that isn't possible, then make sure you don't overwrite anything you currently have on your web server.

BTW this is the output of the script:

As you can see, you'll need to style it up somewhat using HTML & CSS. Other users here could implement this for you for a little fee if you are not confident enough to undertake it.

[FunRoomSite]

I see, thanks a lot! Do you know if there is anyway I could have it just show streams I put it to? Like, i don't want random people's streams on there, just ones that are playing the game "Dominion" and are streamers for my site, DominateDominion.com

[ShMaunder]

You can change the game by changing the "game=" URL. Look on twitch.tv for the exact title they use for the game then for example use http://api.justin.tv/api/stream/list.json?category=gaming&meta_game=dominion

If they do not categorise it as a separate game for whatever reason, then you may need to do check the conditions for known users to stream, or check some other element. E.g.

For checking against users:

if ($element->channel->login == 'dominionuser') {

echo $element->channel->embed_code; // This will display the flash video for dominionuser

}

You probably don't want to embed the actual stream from that example, but you may want to display a picture, number of viewers etc.

The code to achieve this is quite simple. I suggest you play around.

Also enabling:

$channel = get_object_vars($element->channel);

print_r(array_keys($channel));

Will print out a list of all the channel information keys. The keys allows you do find the correct key names to allow you to get the language with $element->channel->language or if they are featured using $element->channel->featured for example. Though there's a lot of them you can use.