IMDB PlugIn

[mike1961]

Hello - a while back I had the IMDB plugin and it has not worked for a long time. I just upgraded to version 9 and I was wondering if there is a way to get this working again. Also, as a related note, In Setup, SageTV Plugins, does the available list of plugins update automatically when there is a new plugin available?

Thanks,

[JREkiwi]

The functionality of the IMDB plugin is included in the Complementary Metadata Tools (CMT) plugin.

Yes the list of plugins is regularly updated automatically.

John

[mike1961]

Beautiful! Thanks so much - I really missed this plug in for a long time. It's great to have it working again.

[phelme]

Not sure where this should be posted because of all the differing versions and such so I'll just tag on to this thread.

Apparently the IMDB plugin (Nielm's IMDb plugin as part of Complimentary Metadata tools?) is broken again no doubt due to IMDb's meddling. This time episodes are no longer showing up in TV shows.

Also I've noticed for quite a while now that searching on an episode title name will no longer find a match.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by phelme

Apparently the IMDB plugin (Nielm's IMDb plugin as part of Complimentary Metadata tools?) is broken again no doubt due to IMDb's meddling. This time episodes are no longer showing up in TV shows.

Also I've noticed for quite a while now that searching on an episode title name will no longer find a match.

I've noticed that too, and it's starting to irritate me, so I hope to look at fixing it over the weekend.

John

[phelme]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

I've noticed that too, and it's starting to irritate me, so I hope to look at fixing it over the weekend.

John

thanks!

[phelme]

JREkiwi: assume you haven't had any time to look at this?

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by phelme

JREkiwi: assume you haven't had any time to look at this?

Unfortunately I have had a look at it and it's a major change which I've been chipping away at. The pages that previously contained the episode information are completely gone and the information is now spread over multiple pages.

John

[JREkiwi]

Looks like IMDB have made a major change which has removed most of the pages that were being used for look-ups. I'm not sure when or if there will be anything functional again.

John

[Shield]

Yep, I noticed a few weeks ago that the episodes were gone; now IMDB is completely broken.
I would pay $$ for this to be fixed...

[Tiki]

I know IMDB doesn't offer a public API, but they do make their databases available for downloading. There are a few sites that download this data and make their own API available. I see there is one called omdb (open movie database) www.omdbapi.com. They offer free or paid API keys. And provide results in either xml or json.

Has anyone looked into using one of these services instead of trying to scrape the website?

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I know IMDB doesn't offer a public API, but they do make their databases available for downloading. There are a few sites that download this data and make their own API available. I see there is one called omdb (open movie database) www.omdbapi.com. They offer free or paid API keys. And provide results in either xml or json.

Has anyone looked into using one of these services instead of trying to scrape the website?

Omdb looks rather promising, have to figure out how to handle their API keys per user.

JREkiwi: Are CMT and nielms imdb plug in code open source in case someone wants to look into this (if you don't have the time)?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by phelme

Omdb looks rather promising, have to figure out how to handle their API keys per user.

JREkiwi: Are CMT and nielms imdb plug in code open source in case someone wants to look into this (if you don't have the time)?

I would make the key something each user has to enter as a setup parameter (they would go to the Omdb site and could choose either the free or donator version). It would be kind of like how the Schedules Direct EPG licensing is handled.

[JREkiwi]

I'm just hanging off doing anything at the moment as IMDB have said that they will be reinstating some of the removed pages, they just don't say which ones, or when.

John

[michaeldjcox]

Is there a good alternative to provide meta data for movies?

I always got mixed results with IMDB within SageMC anyway but I used to use it to build meta data for DVDs.

I'm just in the process of re-adding movies and IMDB is not working but
it looks like some of my meta data is coming from Phoenix but I'm not sure how and if I can give it a kick to re-scan.

Properties files and jpg seem to be appearing

[michaeldjcox]

Found BMT - seems to be able to get it from themoviedb but no longer imdb

[spencerw]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

I'm just hanging off doing anything at the moment as IMDB have said that they will be reinstating some of the removed pages, they just don't say which ones, or when.

John

I went through the pain of parsing the new pages. I'll send you latest code in a PM so you can get this to the community as an official plugin update.

If anybody is interested in trying the latest plugin until John makes an official release, please PM me and I'll send you the updated nielm_sageimdb.jar file. Thanks.

-Bill

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by spencerw

I went through the pain of parsing the new pages. I'll send you latest code in a PM so you can get this to the community as an official plugin update.

If anybody is interested in trying the latest plugin until John makes an official release, please PM me and I'll send you the updated nielm_sageimdb.jar file. Thanks.

-Bill

Thanks Bill, I looked at it a number of times, but just couldn't find them time/enthusiasm to work on it. I'm looking forward to getting this posted. Did you fix up the actor filmography too?

John

[spencerw]

Yes, actor filmography is working. I initially added a new Filmography instance per TV series rather than combining them "TV Episodes" but the list on the left could get pretty long. I liked it because the list on the right became more focused having only the episodes the actor/actress was in for that series. The disadvantage was that it would force you to have to page down to get to trivia, quotes and goofs on the left if the actor/actress has been very busy over the years. I didn't want to change the look and feel of the current interface so I restored the "TV Episodes" item. Perhaps this can be controlled in the future via a configurable setting either in Sage.properties or through the GUI.

I think a better approach might be to change the list of episodes (Roles) on the right to a list of TV series names. When you drill in further you could then see the episodes for that actor and series. Currently each series for which the actor has more than 5 episodes needs an ajax request to get the additional episodes so doing this on-demand rather than upfront would save quite a few requests. The reason I'm concerned about this is that I noticed there was throttling logic to limit title and person queries to 1 per 10 seconds. Did IMDB start slowing your access or blocking you at some point? I found 10 seconds to be painfully long during my development so I disabled it locally. If IMDB didn't restrict my access with all the testing I did then my guess is that we could remove the 10 second throttling or greatly reduce it.

[belleaudb]

I have been using the updated plugin supplied by Bill.

I am happy to say it is working great.

Thumbs up to Bill and great work!