antp.be forum

I just fixed the original title (to avoid a very long text causing the issues)
At least if people get that version (4.031) that will avoid corrupting their catalog if they run it, even if it won't import much data (so it is still useless).
A lot of changes are needed in the script to get it working again.

antp wrote: 2025-06-11 18:04:58 I just fixed the original title (to avoid a very long text causing the issues)
At least if people get that version (4.031) that will avoid corrupting their catalog if they run it, even if it won't import much data (so it is still useless).
A lot of changes are needed in the script to get it working again.

Thank you so much for your hard work!

antp wrote: 2025-06-11 18:04:58 I just fixed the original title (to avoid a very long text causing the issues)
At least if people get that version (4.031) that will avoid corrupting their catalog if they run it, even if it won't import much data (so it is still useless).
A lot of changes are needed in the script to get it working again.

Thank you very much, Antoine. The fixes can come later but I'm sure many would be grateful that their catalogues did not get corrupted.

Dorohedoro wrote: 2025-06-11 18:38:19 My catalog has over 17000 entries, imagine losing that.

You shoud make backups of that catalog ;-)

Losing a catalogue with 17000 entires would be two-and-a-half times worse than losing one with 7000.

I'm glad that yours is safe and Antoine's suggestion has saved mine as well.

antp wrote: 2025-06-11 18:04:58 That's what I was going to say: make backups from time to time!

I'll try to check the script in the next days, if someone else has time to do it before any contribution is welcome

Antoine, you are the one to blame for my not doing regular backups . I started using the AMC probably around 2002 or 2003 and this is only the second time in over twenty years that I have run into a situation in which the catalogue as a whole has threatened to become corrupted. You have built a programme that is so stable that one falls out of the habit of doing backups.

On a serious note, though, here is one more suggestion among the many others that have accumulated with you over the years since you wrote a major update for AMC: please provide an option to do automatic weekly or fortnightly or monthly backups so that even in the case of a malfunctioning website/script, one doesn't lose all of one's work. The default automatic backup file helps only if one hasn't hit the 'save' button without realising that the catalogue has become corrupted. Optional automatic backups can potentially save years and years of work.

I know that you no longer work actively on the catalogue, but mine is only one voice among the many urging you to please consider one major update that incorporates some of the many, many vital features that have become essential since you wrote the last major update.

As always, thank you very, very much for all that work you have put in to gift us the wonderful programme that AMC is.

There is already a backup of the previous catalog, as a .bak file in the same folder as the .amc file (I think the option is enabled by default).
Of course it is only the previous state, so it can be not enough.
But you have other data to backup too, I suppose? AMC is not your only program
A local backup is not really enough anyway. There can be so many things that happen to such file.
The minimal would be a monthly backup to an external device.
And then you can always improve (more backups, rotation between several devices, storing at another place, etc.)
Or simply online backup solutions, now with the cloud there are more possibilities

antp wrote: 2025-06-12 09:01:04 A local backup is not really enough anyway. There can be so many things that happen to such file.
. . .
Or simply online backup solutions, now with the cloud there are more possibilities

And Antoine yet again cleanly sidesteps a request to consider a long-overdue update.

But yes, thank you Antoine, those are all good suggestions and I shall implement them right away. The only trouble, though, with manual backups is that the more trouble-free a programme is, the more relaxed and casual one becomes about backups. And AMC is completely trouble-free, except on occasions when IMDB decides to play spoilsport, as in the present instance.

Many thanks!

Lemaireus wrote: 2025-06-12 08:11:00

Dorohedoro wrote: 2025-06-11 18:38:19 My catalog has over 17000 entries, imagine losing that.

You shoud make backups of that catalog ;-)

Losing a catalogue with 17000 entires would be two-and-a-half times worse than losing one with 7000.

I'm glad that yours is safe and Antoine's suggestion has saved mine as well.

If I lose that list it will be like losing a close-knit relative.

Yeah, it's safe, and I have it backed up on several hard drives and also in the cloud.

I am also working on the iMDB fix. If the current version of the script has already corrupted some entries, in theory it is possible to delete the single entry, simply by selecting it and pressing DELETE on the keyboard, then you just need to recreate it and wait for the updated version of the script before populating it

Dorohedoro wrote: 2025-06-12 18:24:14 If I lose that list it will be like losing a close-knit relative.

Aptly put. I couldn't agree more. Thanks to Antoine, at least the possibility of anyone's catalogue getting irretrievably corrupted are taken care of.

MrObama2022 wrote: 2025-06-12 18:49:54 I am also working on the iMDB fix. If the current version of the script has already corrupted some entries, in theory it is possible to delete the single entry, simply by selecting it and pressing DELETE on the keyboard, then you just need to recreate it and wait for the updated version of the script before populating it

Thank you for working on the script. One of the problems, before Antoine fixed it, was that, after one had saved it, the corrupt entry was un-delete-able. If one tried to delete the corrupt entry, AMC would hang and the only way out was to terminate the programme through the task manager. That corrupt entry would still be there when one restarted AMC.