Using XMLRPC to remotely retrieve programming information

Hey, BWGames.

This may be similar to something we are now getting into with Drewish. We use NextGen (a program developed by ClearChannel, I believe >shudder<) that churns out a selectively randomized playlist, which the WKZE DJs then modify. As they do, they key in the "Song Now Playing".

Below is our current job description. Andrew is adding some timestamp fields to the TRACKS table to help this go on.

We'll start coding after we've installed PHP 5.0 on our system, which will make extra functionality [ActiveCollab] and cleaner code [Simple XML] possible.  We hope to have that completed by the end of the upcoming week.
1) Install PHP 5.0 (Drupal will still run on PHP 4, but we will reference PHP 5.0 pages.)
2) Explore the capacities of NextGen's AutoFTP output.
3) Once these two steps are done, we'll create a "Now Playing" Module, as follows:
   a) Create a block (which can be positioned anywhere on the site)
   b) The Block will contain an iframe that loads a PHP 5.0 page, refreshing every 30 seconds via Javascript.
   c) The PHP 5 page will use "simple XML" to create an object (Track>Artist, Track>Title) and format it for "Now Playing" .
4) Once the "Now Playing" Module is working, we will create the "Auto Playlist" Module, as follows:
   a) We will write a PHP 5.0 page that calculates an MD5 Hash of http://wkze.com/static/wkze/songlist.txt and saves that value.   
b) If the Hash is different than the previous value, it will save the current song data to the (checksum) and saves it to the Station Playlist Track table. 

Would you like to co-develop with us?

Bram Moreinis, webmaster
WKZE - http://wkze.com

bwgames, it's already in there. Have you looked at station_schedule_xmlrpc()? There's a method called station_schedule_program_get_at() that does exactly what you want. See station_get_program_at() to see how to call it from Drupal.