Platform SDK: Broadcast Architecture

Guide Database Schema Reference

The Guide database schema contains the following tables.

Table	Description
AdTrack	Stores information about rotating advertisements, such as the name of the file containing the ads and how often to display them.
Broadcast Property	Provides information such as name and identifier for a specific property of a broadcast, such as closed captioning.
Channel	Contains information describing channels that can be tuned to, such as a text description of a channel and the name of the station mapped to a channel.
Channel Enhancements	Links channel entries in the Channel table with entires for those channels' enhancements in the Enhancement table.
Channel Property	Specifies properties associated with individual channels.
Enhancement	Contains information used by Microsoft® WebTV for Windows to link shows to their enhancements.
Episode	Provides information describing show episodes for which the database has information..
Episode Enhancements	Links episode entries in the Episode table with entries for those episodes' enhancements in the Enhancement table.
Episode Property	Specifies properties associated with individual show episodes.
Genre	Provides names for categories of show episodes, for example movies, television series, and so on.
Network	Defines the broadcast networks in use, such as ABC, CBS, NBC, and so on.
Rating	Defines names for individual ratings used in the various rating systems in use.
Rating System	Identifies the rating systems in use, such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) system.
Station	Defines the current set of broadcast content providers.
Sub-Genre	Provides names for subcategories within a genre.
Theme	Defines unique pairs of genres and subgenres to help classify show episodes.
Theme ID Mapping	Maps the genre and subgenre information in data sent by content providers to the genre-subgenre pairs in the Theme table.
Time Slot	Provides time slot and channel information for show episodes.
TimeSlot Enhancements	Links time slot entries in the Time Slot table with entries for those time slots' enhancements in the Enhancement table.

Note that the Guide database schema includes several reserved tables. For more information on these, see Reserved Tables in the Guide Database Schema. For information on how to examine the Guide database schema, see Using the Guide Database Schema.

The following sections describe the tables and fields within the Guide database schema, providing the following entries for each field:

Key. If the field in question is a key field, this entry indicates the type of key. The possible values for key are primary, foreign, and not applicable. A primary key is a field or set of fields that uniquely identifies a record stored in a table. A foreign key is a key that refers to the primary key in another table.
Index. This entry indicates whether the field can be indexed and whether the resulting index can contain duplicate values.
Data type, which indicates the data type for information for the field. The data types specified are those used in Microsoft® Access.
Field size, which indicates the size of the field.
Default value, which indicates the default value for the field.
Required, which indicates whether applications are required to enter data for the field.

For information on data types and definitions of database terms used in the following sections, see the Access documentation.