"A similar title was found" dialog

[AimHere]

Hi,

Since upgrading to 0.9.9.18, when I add new movies (either by "new movie master" or by scanning files on disc), the dialog that comes up telling me "A similar title was found in the database" hasn't quite been working right.

I've got it set up so that all the people in my database have complete filmographies (courtesy of IMDB), including titles I don't possess. So naturally, when I add new movies, many will match what's in the existing filmographies, and the above dialog appears. But with the newer version of PVD, more often than not, the main list area in the middle that's supposed to show which matching titles are in the database, doesn't actually list ANY movies. All I see in that area is "Add New", which isn't what I want (I actually do want to overwrite the existing movie record).

I've found that if I just click "Okay" without selecting anything in the (blank) list, PVD updates the record for the title in question as if it actually did appear in the list and was clicked on. So I seem to get the results I wanted in the first place; it's just that the dialog isn't always actually showing the matching record(s).  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. 

It didn't used to act this way... with the older version of PVD, there was always at least one matching title displayed. Please investigate.

Aimhere

[rick.ca]

This is an attempt to reduce the instance of duplicates (visible or invisible) being created when a movie is added. There's a discussion about it here. I find it confusing and ineffective, so I've turn it off at Preferences - Miscellaneous.

I don't think there have been any significant changes since my conclusion on this 10 months ago. I think the whole approach needs to be fundamentally different, possibly including a significant change in the structure of the database. I don't expect that to happen any time soon.

[nostra]

Indeed, this function is currently bad implemented, so I would not recommend using it. I promise you to fix the system in the version 1.0

[AimHere]

Thing is, what happens if I turn off the "Show selection dialog" option in Preferences, and try to add a movie which is already in the database somewhere (usually in one or more actor filmographies, though not as a visible record in Movies View)? Does PVD automatically overwrite the first matching movie's record in that case?

And what if there are more than one matching records, as I've seen in the past (e.g. I try to add "Generic Movie Title" and the actor filmographies already include "Generic Movie Title", "Generic Movie Title 2", and "Some Unrelated Movie With The Same Generic Words In The Title, Vol. 6"  )? Would PVD always choose the closest match in that case?

I really do prefer to be kept informed of such things when adding movies, so I'm just going to leave the dialog enabled for now and deal with the peculiarities...

Aimhere

[rick.ca]

I really do prefer to be kept informed of such things when adding movies, so I'm just going to leave the dialog enabled for now and deal with the peculiarities...

The problem is, as you've found, it's not very effective. And there are other related issues... When a filmography is added, any series are added with the year being the first year of the person's appearance. If this is not the same as the year of inception of the series, then a duplicate record is created. If the person is also shown in the series record credits, then both records appear in the filmography. If not, the series in the filmography will not appear as being a member of the collection and will not be linked to the series.

There needs to be a more robust way of maintaining the IMDb relations involving credits. I wonder if that might involve recording filmography items separately, and explicitly recording their relations with people and movies in the collection. That, of course, would be a major change in the structure and operation of the database. In any case, any routine for controlling or fixing duplicates is going to be much more effective after records are created and data is downloaded. Then, instead of trying to prevent the user from creating what might be a duplication, the program can inform the user of what is a duplication (because the downloaded URL is the same as an existing one) and offer to fix it (if asking is even necessary).