Sorry for the downtime (again!) – the changes the BBC have been making lately aren’t huge, but thanks to their obfuscation of the iPlayer’s Javascript files, the simple job of maintaining PS3 iPlayer becomes horrendously complicated.
Not only does the obfuscation make it difficult to write the required regular expressions (a way for programs to look through text and pick out and modify specific sections), it also makes finding and understanding any changes needlessly time-consuming.
Now, I’m all for companies protecting their IP by taking measures to protect any source code that has to run client-side (i.e. Javascript), but in the BBC’s case I don’t see why they do this with iPlayer. The iPlayer uses a few BBC specific libraries for handling the UI elements (e.g. the carousel), but nothing that couldn’t be replaced with a number freely available open-source libraries.
The BBC is also a public body that really should be keeping these things open for people to look at and learn from and it’s not as if javascript obfuscation is any real protection against any commercial organisation that’s intent on saving a time and money by stealing the BBC’s code. I can understand that when it comes to the content, they have to be careful to respect the rights-holders’ wishes, but as far as I can tell, the iPlayer’s javascript is entirely the BBC’s own IP.
Just want to say thanks for your continuing work on the ps3iplayer. I still prefer it to the bbc big screen version. Your efforts to keep it maintained are very much appreciated by those that use it (I’m sure I’m not alone)
I have been using ps3iplayer for a while now and love it but I have been having trouble for a few days. When I try to watch a programme it bring ups the window but nothing happens. Is there a problem with ps3iplayer?
Hi Michael – thanks bringing it to my attention. The likely cause is a change to the BBC’s Javascript so I’ll get it fixed this evening.
dropping in to say thanks really on behalf of myself and all the other ps3 users out there that have used and enjoyed ps3iplayer for the last year or so.
i know we have the bigscreen official version now, had it for a long time on beta myself, but yours gives the full iplayer to our consoles.
thanks again, the world needs more people like you.