[REL] IMDB ( via API )

[Munkey]

But I suspect this is a Windows issue, I see also the UI of AMC with some wrong character.

So the locales of Windows 10 for "non unicode programs" is set to English (USA). This may be the root issue.

I have same in my Win10, it's set to English (USA). At the same place, there is "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" box - it's not selected.
Post what you are doing, so I can try to reproduce it.
Did you tested "Les Misérables"?

[antp]

I don't think that it affects anything. I created new catalog with that encoding, it shows those names properly there.

Indeed the encoding in catalog properties has no effect on the program, it is used only if you store the catalog in XML and want to re-used the file elsewhere.

At the same place, there is "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" box - it's not selected.

Indeed, that option must not be checked:



Accent problems are often due to that option being enabled, or by incoherent setting between the locale for non-unicode programs and the generale locale of Windows.
Some else recently had the same issue (bad decode in script, and some wrong ones in UI), and it was solved by putting the same region for both settings, see screenshot here:
viewtopic.php?p=93797#p93797

[EricTraveling]

thanks for the link!
Same cause, same consequences: as duncan, I am in Switzerland with Windows in English.
I had "English (Switzerland)" as region.
I set "English (United Kingdom)" in admin part 30 min, nothing changed. But now set "English (United Kingdom)" as region, and this is fixing the issue!

It seems the region "English (Switzerland)" is half broken at Microsoft...

[EricTraveling]

now that my "out of topic" issue is fixed, I have another one, actually 2.
Exactly on "Les Misérables", the script does not find anything because of the ''é". If I look for "miserables", the movie is found on IMDB.

Which brings me to the 2nd point: the script can search either per name or per url.
since the search by url is much more reliable, I would suggest to adjust the script to FIRST search by url (if set) and then by name.

I.e. when I start the script AND the web address is already set, I wish the script will read that url (and then start the search) instead of taking the name.

What do you think about this improvement?

[Munkey]

Exactly on "Les Misérables", the script does not find anything because of the ''é". If I look for "miserables", the movie is found on IMDB.

Strange, for me "Les Misérables" works without problem:

since the search by url is much more reliable, I would suggest to adjust the script to FIRST search by url (if set) and then by name.

But the script is already doing that.

[humungus]

Hi, Munkey!

First, thank you for this script. I love its speed.

I was wondering, however, if there's any chance it could do the following:

- retain actor tags like 'voice' and 'uncredited' (providing they're included in the API response, obviously);
- allow the user to use '/' as a delimiter in Country and Category;
- retrieve Trivia.

Thank you for your answer.

[Munkey]

What PostPage3() does with unicode characters in query?

[EricTraveling]

Strange, for me "Les Misérables" works without problem:

The script is calling some API on IMDB. Could it be that the script response differs depending on which country we send the request from?

since the search by url is much more reliable, I would suggest to adjust the script to FIRST search by url (if set) and then by name.

But the script is already doing that.

Not on my side apparently, from Switzerland.
Let's keep on our example "Les Misérables".
the related link is https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386
I create a new entry with only 2 fields set:
- title: Les Misérables
- web address: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386
I call the script IMDB (API). It is opening a text box filled with "Les Misérables", and find nothing!
with my proposition, I would expect to see the text box filled with https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386 and therefore receive the respective results.

[Munkey]

The script is calling some API on IMDB. Could it be that the script response differs depending on which country we send the request from?

I don't think so. I switched VPN to Switzerland - got same response.
I think the issue is in how PostPage3() sends requests with unicode in query, maybe antp will tell us how it works.

Not on my side apparently... It is opening a text box filled with...

That functionality is in BatchMode 3.

[Munkey]

the script does not find anything because of the ''é".

I reproduced the issue with "ö" (I didn't have any problems with ''é"). The issue should be fixed in v1.4.0:

Code: Select all

1.4.0 - (2026/01/25) - Fixed: Issues passing unicode chars in query with PostPage3() [returns nothing in normal search]
                              Solution: Fix the titles with UTF8EncodeToUnicodeEscapes()
                              The title examples to test:
                              "Schönberg" (www.imdb.com/title/tt0100560)
                              "Les Misérables" (www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386) [user report, but worked for me]

[Munkey]

Hi, Munkey!

First, thank you for this script. I love its speed.

I was wondering, however, if there's any chance it could do the following:

- retain actor tags like 'voice' and 'uncredited' (providing they're included in the API response, obviously);
- allow the user to use '/' as a delimiter in Country and Category;
- retrieve Trivia.

Hi, you're welcome!

1) I'll check.
2) What's wrong with a comma?
3) There is no field for Trivia, where it should be placed?

[antp]

What PostPage3() does with unicode characters in query?

Good question... As AMC does not support unicode, technically for it there is no unicode character in the query, just ANSI (locale codepage). But the server is expecting unicode.
The only way to handle unicode is using UTF8, as long as the server accepts it (which is the most common encoding nowadays, I assume).
So like using UTF8Decode to process retrieved data, I assume that UTF8Encode may be needed to make a post with a accentuated parameter string.

I see that you fixed it by "manually" encoding and escaping the characters, I suppose it is good too if it works Thanks for the update.

[Munkey]

I assume that UTF8Encode may be needed to make a post with a accentuated parameter string.

I don't know what form UTF8Encode converts to, but it didn't work for requests. I had to write my own utf8 encoder to unicode escapes.

[humungus]

Hi, Munkey!

First, thank you for this script. I love its speed.

I was wondering, however, if there's any chance it could do the following:

- retain actor tags like 'voice' and 'uncredited' (providing they're included in the API response, obviously);
- allow the user to use '/' as a delimiter in Country and Category;
- retrieve Trivia.

Hi, you're welcome!

1) I'll check.
2) What's wrong with a comma?
3) There is no field for Trivia, where it should be placed?

There's nothing wrong with a comma, it's just that I've been using '/' as a delimiter for so long (the main IMDb script has always had that option) I can't even remember why I liked it better than the comma, and I have way too many movies with it to switch to a comma. Of course, I can always replace it manually (it's really a bother only when IMDb decides to list umpteen genres), but I suppose you can tell the main script spoiled me.

As for Trivia, the main script offers options to import or append it to either "Description" or "Comments" field. The option to append is obviously there to accommodate users who use the fields for their original purposes. I'm not one of those users, however, as I have no interest in IMDb descriptions and comments and don't import them at all, but I do like the Trivia and I use the "Comments" field for it. I find it a good fit.

[Dorohedoro]

Hi, Munkey!

First, thank you for this script. I love its speed.

I was wondering, however, if there's any chance it could do the following:

- retain actor tags like 'voice' and 'uncredited' (providing they're included in the API response, obviously);
- allow the user to use '/' as a delimiter in Country and Category;
- retrieve Trivia.

Hi, you're welcome!

1) I'll check.
2) What's wrong with a comma?
3) There is no field for Trivia, where it should be placed?

There's nothing wrong with a comma, it's just that I've been using '/' as a delimiter for so long (the main IMDb script has always had that option) I can't even remember why I liked it better than the comma, and I have way too many movies with it to switch to a comma. Of course, I can always replace it manually (it's really a bother only when IMDb decides to list umpteen genres), but I suppose you can tell the main script spoiled me.

As for Trivia, the main script offers options to import or append it to either "Description" or "Comments" field. The option to append is obviously there to accommodate users who use the fields for their original purposes. I'm not one of those users, however, as I have no interest in IMDb descriptions and comments and don't import them at all, but I do like the Trivia and I use the "Comments" field for it. I find it a good fit.

Adapt the script to your needs, it is not that difficult. I scrape information from imdb that may not be of interest to most people and map it to existing fields for my own convenience. Aspect ratios, runtimes, awards, release dates and distributors, vote counts for ratings... the only limit is your imagination (and imdb fucking up scrapers lol...)

Look:

[Munkey]

- retain actor tags like 'voice' and 'uncredited' (providing they're included in the API response, obviously);
- allow the user to use '/' as a delimiter in Country and Category;
- retrieve Trivia..

The last two I already implemented, please test them [download the script from GitHub]. You can set delimiter in the parameters.

[humungus]

Thank you kindly, Munkey!

I did a quick test on a couple of movies. The delimiter seems to be working like a charm.

For Trivia, I observed the following:

1. If the movie has no Trivia, the script will instead import IMDb comments. I figure this is because the script will automatically import comments if the "Comments" field is marked as editable. A simple workaround for me was to remove/comment the "Comments" section in the script (as this is about the extent of my scripting abilities, I'm afraid), so you needn't do anything here unless you want to.
Sample movie should you wish to check this: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7969836

2. If the movie Trivia includes spoilers, these are not imported. Sample movie (with one Spoiler): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101252
I obviously have no clue here.

I have some more movies to update, and I will report any issues I spot.

[antp]

The last two I already implemented, please test them [download the script from GitHub]. You can set delimiter in the parameters.

Thanks. For publishing it on my server, do you plan to change the version to 1.4.1? Or are you still doing changes before finishing the new version?

[Munkey]

For publishing it on my server, do you plan to change the version to 1.4.1? Or are you still doing changes before finishing the new version?

There was no version bump because the new commits/features are still in testing phase.

For Trivia, I observed the following:

Thanks for the report, I'll investigate those cases.

[Munkey]

1. If the movie has no Trivia, the script will instead import IMDb comments.

2. If the movie Trivia includes spoilers, these are not imported. Sample movie (with one Spoiler): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101252

1) It was a bug, fixed.
2) I can't reproduce, that trivia with spoiler is imported [it's at the very top]

Bumped the version:

Code: Select all

1.5.0 - (2026/01/27) - New feature: Added Replace_delimiter parameter
                       New feature: Added Trivia importing

- retain actor tags like 'voice' and 'uncredited' (providing they're included in the API response, obviously);

Good news: I found those tags in API.
Bad news [for me]: those come in 4 different types:

Code: Select all

MiscellaneousCreditAttribute
CreditedAsCreditAttribute
JobCreditAttribute
SeriesCreditAttribute

1 - Contains things that you asked and other.
2 - If name is different in credits - contains that name
3 - This probably is not for actors.
4 - This probably is not for actors.