Part 2 of the 2 part series from RETN integrating cm_airing and tv schedules display has been released at https://drupal.org/project/cm_tv_schedules. The first part/screencast can be found at https://groups.drupal.org/node/411178.
Community Media TV Schedules provides an easy way to display TV schedules like you see on RETN.org and MNN.org websites. This module integrates with Community Media Airings, Community Media Show, and Community Media Project to display airing entities and provide click-through links to shows and projects.
This was delayed because originally the plan was just to release the views and css file, but after some initial testing it didn't seem easy enough for smaller stations to be able to integrate without a laundry list of problems. We decided to turn it into a module with a CSS configuration page and most of the features integrated directly, and that development completed this week. There is still work to do on this, but it's a start in helping other stations being able to configure and display tv schedules like RETN and MNN. As always, please post issues you find in the issue queue directly and not to this post.
Comments
Node Reference vs. Entity Reference
This schedule looks fantastic and I am very excited to try and implement it at my organization. However, there seems to be a stumbling block that I will bring up even if I cannot fully articulate the issue. If there is an easy explanation feel free to chime in. I am just a farmer when it comes to some things Drupal.
Do the DSK use entity reference while the module above uses Node Reference? Is this an important distinction to make? Once a site uses one they cannot switch over to the other? Do the kits have requirements that demand entity reference exclusively?
@jdcreativity - This is
@jdcreativity - This is certainly a valid question. While running both of these modules on the same site has not caused any issue so far, it's definitely ideal to move to entity reference. However, the source of node_reference dependency is in cm_show_airings and cm_project_airings, which cm_tv_schedules depends on.
CM TV Schedules itself does not create any node_reference dependencies. It was built to be able to be used easily with existing CM Drupal modules, which is why it is dependent on cm_airings.
If the cm_airings module were to change its dependency to entity reference instead of references, then CM TV Schedules would not longer require that. What we could actually do (and likely will to reduce confusion) is remove that dependency from CM TV Schedules module since it really is a sub module that requires it.
To follow the issue related to your question, you can view it in the cm_airings issue queue at: https://drupal.org/node/2265581
@jdcreativity - yesterday
@jdcreativity - yesterday kreynen updated cm_airings features to support using entity reference fields instead of node_reference fields. So we will be updating the views in cm tv schedules as well and rolling out new releases. The documentation will also be updated to explain the differences. I'm traveling today and tomorrow but hope to have everything updated by Monday at the latest.
A new branch has been added
A new branch has been added (7.x-2.x branch) and just rolled a release to allow for CM TV Schedules to support legacy versions of CM Airing as well as the new version that now supports entity reference.
In addition, documentation has been updated with info on how to upgrade, and I also added a page that walks you through how to upgrade your CM Airings structure here: https://drupal.org/node/2270357.
MNN's Schedule plans
@emilyf Glad to hear about all this development, the RETN site looks great.
Even though RETN was partially built on existing MNN code, we're taking a slightly different direction now.
The schedule on MNN.org is currently generated via a D6 reporting site that harvests information from our CM_Drupal site, used to schedule our 4 channels.
We are currently updating both MNN.org (to D7) and our Master Control (to a Pebble Beach system), and as part of the process will be pulling the schedule directly from our CMD site.
The code for this will be contributed back to Drupal.org when this process is finished.