Abdullah Rubiyath :: Alif's Web

This jQuery Plugin (jimdb) allows you to Grab Movie Details from an IMDB Webpage very easily. It grabs the basic details (Title, Director, Writers, Release Date, Tag line, Plot, Runtime, MPAA, Language, Aspect Ratio, Country) from the IMDB Page and Returns the data in JSON Format.

To overcome Javascript Cross-domain restriction, a server-side proxy file has been provided in PHP with the plugin.

The Plugin has the following Method:

jQuery.imdb.grab( full-url-of-imdb-page, [options], [callback]); 

Basic Usage:

At first include the jquery.js file and the plugin file:

Now call the method $.jimdb.grab, with the IMDB URL to get its contents:

// call the method below with no options, for basic usage

$.imdb.grab('http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/', function(data) {
  // check status, if its OK, then data contains the grabbed info, so, append it to some div
   if( data.status == "OK" ) {
    $('#someDiv').append("Director: "+ data.director+"
"
                + "Release: " + data.releaseDate
                + "Tag Line: "+ data.tagline
                + "Plot: "+ data.plot
                + "MPAA:"+data.mpaa
                + "Country:" + data.country
      );
    } else {
       alert( data.message );
    }
});

Below is a full details of all the JSON properties of the returned result (i.e. data). The names are self-explanatory and is in camelCase.

Returned result's (JSON) Properties:	Explanation/Details of the Property
status	The Status of the process. Returns "OK" or "Error". If status = "error", then an error occured while grabbing. If its "OK", then grabbed successfully.
message	The Status Message. If Error occurs, this message will explain the error, If there was no error, the message will be "Success".
director	The Director(s) of the Movie
releaseDate	The Release Date of Movie
tagline	The Tag Line of the Movie
plot	The Plot of the Movie
mpaa	The MPAA Rating of the Movie
runtime	The Running time of the Movie
country	The Country of the Movie
language	The Language(s) of the Movie
color	Color of the Movie
aspectRatio	The Aspect Ratio of the Movie
key	Only used if keyValue is set to true on option. This contains a Javascript Array containing all the keys
val	Only used if keyValue is set to true on option. This contains a Javascript Array containing all the corresponding values of keys

Customizing

The Options (2nd parameter) allows you to grab the returned result in key/value pair and also let you specify your own server-side proxy file.

Option Properties:	Explanation/Details of the Property
keyValue	Possible Values: true or false. When keyvalue is set to true. The JSON data is returned in key/value pair
proxyFile	The Path to the Server-side Proxy File. If you decide to choose a different Proxy File, then set proxyFile = path-of-proxy File. If this is not set, then it picks the default proxy file in php, (proxy.php)

Set the keyValue to true, to return the result in a key/value* pair. Here's an example:

$.jimdb.grab('http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/', { keyValue: true }, function(data) {
        // check status 
        if( data.status == 'OK') {
           // now data has the values in 2 separate arrays as key/values, so you can run a loop
           for(var i=0;i < data.key.length;i++) { $('#someDiv').append('
'+data.key[i]+'
'+data.val[i]); }
        } else {
            alert(data.message);
        }
});

To set your own server-side proxy File, do the following:

$.jimdb.grab('http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/', {proxyFile: 'my-proxy-file.php'} , function(data) {

});

Tip: Sometimes, grabbing a file via Javascript may take more than a few secs, so to show a progress bar, ajaxStart and ajaxStop Method of jQuery can be used.

Download the Plugin: http://plugins.jquery.com/project/jimdb

View Demo