Page History: My Movies XBMC Scraper
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Page Revision: 2009/08/05 09:53
Introduction
Using the My Movies API, you can now access the high quality My Movies meta-data from within XBMC using your My Movies account. The service can be accessed either by purchasing an API access ($20), by contributing data to our service up to where you have 2500 points on your account, or you can create a 21 day trial for the 2500 points, to evaluate the scraper.
Scraper Definition
The "scraper" is actually not a scraper in the traditional way, as XMBC does not "scrape" a website, but instead access the My Movies API service directly, and received easy to process XML data, which is imported into XMBC's library.
Account Information
Before you start using the scraper, you must create a My Movies user account
here. You now have three different options to enable the API access for your account:
- Purchase a $20 API access here. This gives you unlimited access
- Create a 21 day 2500 point trial here. During the trial period, your account will have access to the My Movies API, however to awoid data harvesting, during a trial period, your account is limited to loading maximum 250 titles from our service.
Getting Started
To use the MyMovies scraper for your library, you first need to create an account, if you have not already got one.
Registering as a new user is quickly done via this url;
http://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=register
You will also need a number of points (???) in order to use the scraper. The short cut is to donate money but it is recommended that points are earned instead by contributing data and graphics.
There is still a huge number of movies in need of fanart/backdrops and posters. These can be found via this url;
http://www.mymovies.dk/editmovie.aspx
By contributing you help increase the quality of the service.
Configuring Scraper
Scraper files (mymoviesdk.xml + MyMoviesLogo.png) are copied to this location; System\Scrapers\Video within your XBMC file stucture.
In XBMC it is then possible to select the MyMovieDK video scraper when setting content for your video sources in file mode.
XBMC1.jpgYou are required to enter your user credentials on the settings page. This is enough to use the scraper.
XBMC2.jpgOptional Settings
Enable Fanart: Use this option to enable or disable the addition of fanart/backdrops to your library.
Preferred language: Tekst fetched for your movies will be returned in the preferred language if available.
Include adult movies: Will search for adult movie titles if you have such movies in your source.
Example
Consider the following file structure as an example of use.
MovieStructure.jpgFor some titles I have placed a NFO file containing the IMDB url to it's info. This is to show that MyMovies also work with these to get a 100% match.
MovieSample2.jpg
NfoExample.jpgFor the rest of the movies, the folder name will be used for searching for the title.
MovieSample1.jpgHaving added a source to this structure and scanned for new content we end up with a library showing this:
XBMC3.jpgFor each movie it's possible to change fanart/backdrop and poster if available:
XBMC4.jpg
XBMC5.jpgFinal Words
With the MyMovies.dk video scraper we have shown how to get high quality meta data and graphics into our XBMC library at very high speed.
The data retrieved is film data. This is because XBMC currently do not support disc id's (which MyMovies do), so we have no idea what we are dealing with when calling the MyMovies webservice. This might change some day in XBMC and if it does then the MyMovies scraper can easily be extended to support this and then correct DVD, HD-DVD or Blu-ray front and meta data will be shown in XBMC.
If you're wondering which skin was used for this example, here is an url; http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=53830