Welcome developers!

The service is under active development - and we continue to release enhancements every few weeks. Our work is guided by a couple of underlying principles: that of 'linked data' and the BBC's Fifteen Web Principles. And with that in mind please let us know what you think - all suggestions and comments are gratefully received via the Backstage mailing list.

So what have we got to offer currently?

Programmes Ontology

The ontology aims at providing a simple vocabulary for describing programmes. It covers brands, series (seasons), episodes, broadcast events, broadcast services, etc.

The design and layout of the ontology document is based on the Music Ontology and FOAF Vocabulary specification documents.

Alternate serialisations

Our plan is to make all resources available in a variety of formats: XML, Atom, RSS 2, JSON, YAML, RDF, iCal. However, currently we have XML, JSON and YAML views for:

Schedules

/:service/programmes/schedules{/:outlet}
/:service/programmes/schedules{/:outlet}/:year/:month/:day
/:service/programmes/schedules{/:outlet}/:year/:month/:day/ataglance
/:service/programmes/schedules{/:outlet}/yesterday
/:service/programmes/schedules{/:outlet}/today
/:service/programmes/schedules{/:outlet}/tomorrow

Genres

{/:service}/programmes/genres/:genre1{/:genre2{/:genre3}}/schedules
{/:service}/programmes/genres/:genre1{/:genre2{/:genre3}}/schedules/:year/:month/:day
{/:service}/programmes/genres/:genre1{/:genre2{/:genre3}}/schedules/:year/:month/:day/ataglance
{/:service}/programmes/genres/:genre1{/:genre2{/:genre3}}/schedules/upcoming

Programmes

/programmes/:groupPID/episodes/upcoming
/programmes/:groupPID/episodes/upcoming/debut
/programmes/:groupPID/episodes/player

To access these add .xml, .json or .yaml to the end of the url. For example:

The XML serialisation for the Radio 1 schedule is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/programmes/schedules.xml

The JSON serialisation for upcoming Sci Fi programmes on TV is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/programmes/genres/drama/scifiandfantasy/schedules/upcoming.json

The YAML serialisation for upcoming episodes of the Archers is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpgr/episodes/upcoming.yaml

Whilst we have done our best to implement a structure that will always be backwardly compatible, it should be noted that there is a chance the structure of these outputs will change, based on the availability of new data internally and on the feedback we get from the development community - we will announce these changes and availability of other formats via the Backstage mailing list.

See the Radio Labs blog for a post on iCal views into Programmes data

Microformats

With much debate we have taken the decision to remove hCalendar from /programmes. This decision does not affect the use of hCard for cast and crew on episode pages.

Find out more...

Various members of the team blog about our work on Programmes, these posts give you more information about our work:

• Sophie Walpole's post on the background to the project.
• Tom Scott has written a series of posts charting our various releases and developments and has also made public a programmes ontology presentation he gave at XTech 2008.
• Duncan Robertson has written about his work on rQRCode a Ruby library for encoding QR Codes and iCal views into Programmes data.
• Jamie Tetlow's posts on the process behind competitor analysis and visual design decisions.
• Michael Smethurst has posted numerous inspirational insights on the Radio Labs blog: The Simple Joys of Web-Scale Identifiers, In Search of Cultural Identifiers, How we make websites and Designing for your least able user.
• Yves Raimond looks under the bonnet of a major update to /programmes from March 2009 Brands, series, categories and tracklists on the new BBC Programmes.

Crew

Meet the programmes development team.