Enable IMDb plugin to do Advanced Title Search

[Hyomil]

Maybe Advanced Title Search would be a good addition to PVD's IMDb plugin because, in addition to the title, you can search using the year of the movie, among other things.  For example, in searching for the movie Jump, I tried jump, jump 2009, and jump (2009), but an Advanced Title Search returned fewer results.  I would think this would make a significant reduction in the number of times you have to double-click one of the search results to import data, and fewer search results to look through when you did.  The year you typed into PVD based on your source of information might differ from the year that IMDb had on record, but this should be a rare occurrence and you could always cancel the search, delete the year, and try again.

If you were just adding a video manually, you might do as well to search using your web browser and paste the IMDb URL into PVD with a macro program, but a bigger benefit would be had in using the File Scanner and operating like the program Media Center Master, which tries to extract the year from the filename/foldername (and actually runs multiple searches at IMDb and uses the one that returns a result).  "TV Series" could also be added to the search, where appropriate, to narrow it down further (based on PVD's knowledge of the number of files).

BTW, in this case, using "Jump" for Title or Original Title in PVD didn't turn up the right movie in *any* of the search results, so I had to find the IMDb URL in my web browser.

[rick.ca]

I agree. I see no reason why we should not be able to enter whatever information we know about the title, and that information be used in the search. The obvious things to include would be Year and Genre. Title Type would also be very useful, but—despite being available in the advanced search—it's not a "field" at IMBb. It can, however, be determined from the Title format. I already have a custom version (filled by Allmovies), but there should be a standard Type field. As well as providing the means to include the type in an advanced search, it would also be useful for other reasons.

This is interesting...

Search	Hits
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?title=Jump	250
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?title=Jump&title_type=feature	23
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=comedy&release_date=2009,&title=Jump	7
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?release_date=2009,&title=Jump&title_type=feature	5
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=comedy&release_date=2009,&title=Jump&title_type=feature	1
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?countries=hk&title=Jump	1

Other changes would be necessary to make proper use of this.

1. As you've suggested, it would be expected the updates triggered by a file scan would take advantage of this. That would require additional regex variables for extracting data from filenames.

2. The most direct way to use this would be to create a New record, enter whatever information is known, and then run the plugin. The problem with this is that if there are invisible records in the database with the same title, one of those will be made visible. (I had to delete at least a dozen invisible records before I could test Jump.) The purpose of that behaviour is to avoid the creation of duplicate records. I consider it a design flaw—which I hope will be fixed in 1.0. The check for duplicate records should happen after the new item has be selected and downloaded. Any existing (invisible) records can then be positively identified based on URL and deleted.

3. The method described in (2) should be available in some form in NMM. Assuming method (2) is available, I think it would suffice to have data boxes only for the few most frequently used fields (e.g., year, type, genre). I don't know why Original title is included in the NMM dialog—only one title can be used in the search. So the layout of the dialog should be something like...

Title:
To narrow the search, enter any other data you are sure of...
     Year: (validated)
     Type: (drop-down select list)
     Genre: (drop-down multi-select list)
If you would like to associate this title with a media file now...
     File path: (existing file picker)

[daddydave]

If nostra takes this up, maybe there should be an additional field, "Exact URL", for those cases where the search misses the expected result altogether. For example, if I do a search for Swiss Family Robinson, it skips over the 1960 Disney version, even though it is the first result when searching IMDB from the browser. It would be helpful if I could just paste in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054357/

[Hyomil]

If nostra takes this up, maybe there should be an additional field, "Exact URL", for those cases where the search misses the expected result altogether. For example, if I do a search for Swiss Family Robinson, it skips over the 1960 Disney version, even though it is the first result when searching IMDB from the browser. It would be helpful if I could just paste in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054357/

If I'm understanding you right, you can already do this.  Paste that URL into PVD's URL field, type/paste in whatever you want for Title, and PVD will import data for the correct movie.  It won't work if Title is left blank, though it would be nice if it could be.

[daddydave]

If I'm understanding you right, you can already do this.  Paste that URL into PVD's URL field, type/paste in whatever you want for Title, and PVD will import data for the correct movie.  It won't work if Title is left blank, though it would be nice if it could be.

Thanks, Hyomil, I wasn't aware of that.

[rick.ca]

It won't work if Title is left blank, though it would be nice if it could be.

That's simply because the record has to be saved first, and a record cannot be saved without a title. Others have argued otherwise, but I think it's a prudent restriction.

[buah]

Maybe some control could be used. The dialog box saying:"The record you are going to save doesn't have a title. If you want to save it anyway it'll be titled as "[No Title]"?

[rick.ca]

If a search is being done, a title is necessary. Except in one case—when a URL is being provided. So all this about the user not wanting to type anything (e.g., "x") in the title box before saving. I don't think this lazy b*stard is going to be any happier about having to read and dismiss a confirmation.

But seriously...If this is implemented, my preferred way of adding movies is going to be entering what I know in a new record and updating. I don't see any advantage to using NMM. So I would appreciate being able to start the plugin without having to save the record first. The program would take care of the housekeeping—saving the record with a temporary title before running the plugin.

The problem with this approach is IMDb isn't the only plugin, and it's not necessarily the first to be run. Other plugins and scripts will require a title. And, of course, the IMDb needs a title unless a URL is provided. So even if the program will handle the updating of a record not yet saved, allowing it to happen before a title is entered is not such a good idea. The tiny benefit it would provide will not outweigh the problems it will create. Like new users wondering what No Title is doing in their database.