About Guide Database Loaders

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

A Guide database loader accesses available Program Guide sources, receives new data, maps data to tables and fields in the Guide database, and then loads the new data into the Guide database. Such a loader may process multiple tuning spaces. For example, a database loader for analog networks may process data for both cable and over-the-air broadcasts.

The following illustration shows the relationship between a database loader and the Guide database.

Any loader DLL that runs in the context of Broadcast Architecture should implement the following functionality:

In addition to the preceding, it is recommended that loader DLLs, if appropriate, support the /I:data_location command-line parameter that Loadstub passes to the loader. The recomended behavior for this argument is to override the default location of Program Guide data for testing or other purposes. For more information on /I:data_location, see Using Loadstub.