Does IMDb provide an api or a data dump to get all

Question

IMDB provides plain text files user's can download and use which can be found here: IMDB Plain Text Files which is great but I don't see the ID used for each movie in any of the files.

Given IMDB specifically says not to use scrapers, data gatherers etc in their Conditions of Use how would one obtain the title ID http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1133985/ for each movie if they aren't included in any of the plain text files.

I've noticed there are some API's others have built that do include this ID so I'm wondering how did they manage to do that.

Answer 1

As mentioned, IMDB does not have a web service. imdbapi works by screen scraping. The flat files available for download are a legacy from IMDB's pre-Amazon days, and the information there is incomplete. (You could not build your own IMDB with just the files that are available)

However, Rotten Tomatoes does have a nice web interface that returns, among other things, the imdb id of the films - in the alternate_ids section. So, you could use the Rotten Tomatoes API to obtain the imdb id without screen scraping imdb directly.

Rotten Tomatoes' database is less extensive than IMDB's, but it does a pretty good job with modern (1995+) US releases.

Answer 2

You can use IMDB API located at

www.omdbapi.com

You can search for movie names like this -

http://www.omdbapi.com/?t=hangover%202

{
"Title":"The Hangover Part II",
"Year":"2011",
"Rated":"R",
"Released":"26 May 2011",
"Genre":"Comedy",
"Director":"Todd Phillips",
"Writer":"Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong",
"Actors":"Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha",
"Plot":"Right after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.",
"Poster":"http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM2MTM4MzY2OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjQ3NzI4NA@@._V1_SX320.jpg","
Runtime":"1 hr 42 mins",
"Rating":"7.1",
"Votes":"13547",
"ID":"tt1411697",
"Response":"True"
} 

You can get the "ID" (tt1411697) from this JSON response.

Answer 3

You can try TMDb. You can check the documentation here - http://docs.themoviedb.apiary.io/. You can use append_to_response and can get the IMDB id along with other details. There is an alternate solution that I know of. The solution is in PHP. Here is the link - http://blogs.niteshapte.com/2013-07-01-how-to-fetch-movie-identifier-id-from-imdb-using-php.htm. You might need to tweak it as per your requirement.