Does IMDB provide an API? [closed]

Question

I recently found a movie organizer application which fetches its data from the IMDB database.

Does IMDB provide an API for this, or any third party APIs available?

Answer 1

The IMDb currently has two public APIs that are, although undocumented, very quick and reliable (used on their own site through AJAX).

1. A statically cached search suggestions API:

   • http://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/a/aa.json
   • http://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/h/hello.json
   • Format: JSONP

   • Downside:

     • It's in JSONP format, however the callback parameter can not be set by passing a callback-query parameter. In order to use it cross-domain you'll have to use the function name they choose (which is in the "imdb${searchphrase}" format, see example below). Or use a local proxy (e.g. a small php file) that downloads (and caches!) it from IMDb and strips the JSON-P callback, or replaces it with a custom callback.

     • If there are no results, it doesn't gracefully fallback, but displays an XML error instead

// Basic
window.imdb$foo = function (list) {
  /* ... */
};
jQuery.getScript('http://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/f/foo.json');

// Using jQuery.ajax (let jQuery handle the callback)
jQuery.ajax({
    url: 'http://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/f/foo.json',
    dataType: 'jsonp',
    cache: true,
    jsonp: false,
    jsonpCallback: 'imdb$foo'
}).done(function (result) {
    /* ... */
});

// With local proxy to a PHP script replacing imdb$foo with a sanitized
// version of $_GET['callback'] (https://stackoverflow.com/a/8811412/319266)
jQuery.getJSON('./imdb.php?q=foo&callback=?', function (list) {
    /* ... */
});

2. More advanced search

   • Name search (json): http://www.imdb.com/xml/find?json=1&nr=1&nm=on&q=jeniffer+garner
   • Title search (xml): http://www.imdb.com/xml/find?xml=1&nr=1&tt=on&q=lost
   • Format: JSON, XML and more
   • Downside:
     • No JSONP. In order to use from JavaScript cross-domain, a local proxy is required.
     • No documentation, more formats may be available
   • Upside
     • Live search!
     • Name support for actors as well!
     • Proper fallback to empty object

As said, both of these APIs are undocumented. They could change at any time.

See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/8811412/319266, for an example of a JSON API in PHP.

Answer 2

Yes, but not for free.

.....annual fees ranging from $15,000 to higher depending on the audience for the data and which data are being licensed.

URL :- http://www.imdb.com/licensing/

Answer 3

Another legal alternative to get movie info is the Rotten-Tomatoes API (by Fandango).

Answer 4

https://deanclatworthy.com/tools.html is an IMDB API but has been down due to abuse.

Answer 5

Here is a simple solution that fetches shows by name based on the query from Krinkle:

You can get around the same-origin policy by having your server fetch the URL instead of trying to fetch it directly with AJAX and you don't have to use JSONP to do it.

Javascript (jQuery):

function getShowOptionsFromName (name) {
    $.ajax({
        url: "ajax.php",
        method: "GET",
        data: {q: name},
        dataType: "json"
    }).done(function(data){
        console.log(data);
    });
}

PHP (in file ajax.php):

$q = urlencode($_GET["q"]);
echo file_get_contents("http://www.imdb.com/xml/find?json=1&nr=1&tt=on&q=$q");

Answer 6

Here is a Python module providing API's to get data from IMDB website

http://techdiary-viki.blogspot.com/2011/03/imdb-api.html