Personal Video Database

Until then, I see no reason not to do as all others: I will follow Microsoft and I will use vbs script.

For users of Firefox and other browsers, this may be a problem when using the vbs script to run the new Imdb.psf scripts.

VBScript (Visual Basic Script)

The vbs script was mentioned. But here comes the problem. it will be completely discontinued in 2027. Another problem is that apart from Internet Explorer (at least that's what I found on the internet) other browsers such as Firefox do not support vbs.

Here is a link where the withdrawal from the next Windows versions is mentioned.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/vbscript-deprecation-timelines-and-next-steps/4148301

https://www.masterpackager.com/blog/vbscript

Here is a link where the search engines in which vbs script works and in which it does not work.

https://www.mygreatlearning.com/vbscript/tutorials/vbscript-enabling-in-browsers

I understand. Thank you. It will be anyway easy to customize script to move the data back to comment field. It will be a matter of simple cut/paste only.

I too started with People script because I knew it is not used that much, so i could learn along the way. As you already know many solutions from People script are almost copy/paste to other IMDb scripts. So it will be easier for me to work on other scripts. I don't tend them to be "official" scripts. I kindly offer them as a community contribution. I want to learn because I want PVD to be alive for me at least.

This is temp topic so you could track where am I at the moment with scripts.
Most probably I will keep only this message and modify it with most recent updates.


IMDb People script:
CHANGE LOG :

            V 4.0.0.1 (23/01/2025) afrocuban:
         - Full and complete transtion to Selenium. No more instances or references to PVdBDownPage. Huge thanks to VVVEasy and Ivek to maintain decade long option to keep PVD alive with it.
         - Search function brought back to the script with thumbnails in the search window.
         - Full implementation of PvdConfigOptions. Extremely important for optimization and especially useful when refreshing only certain set of data
         - Job Title, Career and other personal data now moved from comment to bio field.
         - Starting positions provided for all the fileds in section "Field Overwrite Options position in pvdconf.ini".
         - No more pop-up windows stealing focus! In earlier versions, the downpage-UTF8_NO_BOM.htm file was repeatedly downloaded and deleted to parse different pages. Each time this occurred, a pop-up window would steal the focus. Thanks to a different approach in this script, which now downloads separate pages in parallel using Selenium, as well as the special PurgeTmpFiles procedure and vbs script instead of cmd.exe, this focus-stealing issue is now resolved.
TO DO:
SCRIPT COMPLETE
Script and instructions available in a package here.


IMDb Movie script:
CHANGE LOG :

            V 4.0.0.1 (18/01/2025) afrocuban:
         - Transition to Selenium started.
         - Various DownloadPageXXX functions for each page to be downloaded constructed.
         - ParsePage function adapted accordingly.
         - DownloadPage and DownloadImage functions set up for Selenium scripts.
         - ParsePage_IMDBSearchTitle function fully transitioned to Selenium which means that
         - Search function is brought back to the script with thumbnails in the search window.
         - Starting positions provided for all the fileds in section "Field Overwrite Options position in pvdconf.ini".
         - No more pop-up windows stealing focus! In earlier versions, the downpage-UTF8_NO_BOM.htm file was repeatedly downloaded and deleted to parse different pages. Each time this occurred, a pop-up window would steal the focus. Thanks to a different approach in this script, which now downloads separate pages in parallel using Selenium, as well as the special PurgeTmpFiles procedure and vbs script instead cmd.exe, this focus-stealing issue is now resolved.
---------------------------------
February as of 1st 2025 news:
----------------------------------
- Script fully transitioned to Selenium.
- Script Options, Script Data and Global Vars upgraded.
- New GetPvdConfigOptions Function introduced, so now
- Whole script successfully set to rely on PVDConfigOptions.
- GetDownloadURL Function completely set and functional.
- DownloadPage Function completely set and functional.
- DownloadImage Function completely set and functional.
- ParsePage_IMDBSearchTitle Function completely set and functional.
- ParsePage_IMDBMovieBASE Function completely set and functional.
- ParsePage_IMDBMovieAWARDS Function completely set and functional. (check the screenshot here)
- ParsePage_IMDBMoviePLOTSUMMARY Function completely set and functional.
- ParsePage Function completely set and functional.


---------------------------------
February as of 6th 2025 news:
----------------------------------
- ParsePage_IMDBMovieCREDIT Function redesigned and completely set and functional.
- ParsePage_IMDBMovieAKA Function completely set and functional.
- ParsePage_IMDBMovieCONNECTIONS Function brought back to the script with additional connection type not existed in the script so far (check the screenshot here)


---------------------------------
February as of 16th 2025 news:
----------------------------------
SCRIPT BASICALLY COMPLETED

---------------------------------
March as of 13th 2025 news:
----------------------------------
SCRIPT COMPLETE
Script and instructions available in a package here.

IMDb Series Script:
Nothing yet. When I finish movie and people scripts, I will check for and assess a possibilty to merge it with episodes script.

IMDb Episodes Script:
Nothing yet. When I finish movie and people scripts, I will check for and assess a possibilty to merge it with series script.

FilmAffinity Script:
I will strip the version down to v4, and for now for testing purposes I have successfully transitioned only DownloadImage (poster) to Selenium. The plan is to fully transition it to Selenium too, but since it works perfectly at the moment, it is not priority. The transition should be fast, though, because most probably it is only needed to set Selenium scripts and switch functions to them (there are not as many functions for FA as fro IMDb scripts). Trailer page is intended to be added too.
TO DO:
SCRIPT COMPLETE
Script and instructions available in a package here.

Selenium Scripts:
Single Download base page set for IMDb Movie, People and FilmAffinity Movie. ("3 in 1")
Single Search script set for IMDb Movie, People and FilmAffinity Movie. ("3 in 1")
Single Download image script set for IMDb Movie, People and FilmAffinity Movie. ("3 in 1")
Single Download additional pages scripts set for IMDb Movie and FilmAffinity Movie. ("2 in 1")
Single Download additional pages scripts set for IMDb People.
Scripts and instructions available in a package here.


TO DO:
- To set download base page and additional pages scripts for Series and Episodes script.
- To adapt Search script for Series and Episodes.

OTHER:
- vbs script set to use instead of cmd.exe in order to avoid annoying pop-up windows stealing focus.
- SCRIPTS CONFIGURATOR completely rewritten from the scratch (yes, I had to learn about ahk, too ) so now we have resizable window with scrollbars with all the options I could think of included.
Scripts, configurator exe and source code, screenshots and instructions available in a package here.

WISHFULL THINKING:
- Bringing back Allmovie and Rottentomatoes scripts too.

Add all the missing bio codes (ShouldParseBio and similar) that you didn't add to the text file so I can run tests, only then will I see what's happening and maybe find a way to add information to the bio field.