The Movie Database Support
Support → API Support
TMdb Search error
posted by HaraldurSaSTAFFMOD on April 19, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Hi all! I'm not sure how to put this. I have made a program which search the TMDb for movies. For that purpose I'm using the WatTMDb library v0.6.
The search strugles with : and - in the name of the movie. I have a movie which is named: "X-Men First Class" in my library. Doing a search in IMDb with that text finds the movie correctly. Doing a search in the TMDb via the web interface does not find the movie, nor is it found searching via the WatTMDb library.
However if I change the search text to: "X-Men: First Class" or "X Men First Class" or "X Men: First Class" then the movie is found. So there must be some confusing in the search algorithm at the TMDb. Look like it get confused about the "-" and ":" symbols.
If I now use the WatTMDb library to search for the movie and use the "X-Men: First Class" search text the movie is not found. If I trace the library I can see the actual search string send to the web site is: "X-Men- First Class". It is like it is replacing the : with - If I change the search string to: "X Men: First Class" or to "X Men First Class", then the movie is found. That is removing the - from the search string.
I think searching with: "X-Men: First Class" or "X Men First Class" or "X Men: First Class" or "X-Men First Class" should find the movie in all cases both via the web interface and the API interface. The : and - symbols should be ignored and replaced with space.
Best regards, Haraldur
Reply by Travis Bell
on April 22, 2013 at 9:46 AM
It's not quite that simple (just a difference of : vs. -) but this is all being looked at as part of the search overhaul. You can see all of the open search tickets here, and I'll be looking at these when I start looking at search in general.
http://tmdb.lighthouseapp.com/projects/83076-website/tickets?q=tagged%3A%22search%22
Reply by HaraldurSa
on April 22, 2013 at 2:16 PM
In the meanwhile I just replaced the : and - symbols with spaces in the search string. Looks like it does the trick.
Reply by nordicstyle
on April 23, 2013 at 1:28 PM
This wont work for all movies.
Reply by HaraldurSa
on April 28, 2013 at 5:38 PM
The search engine is not very glad for icelandi characters. Example: "Algjör Sveppi og dularfulla hótelherbergið" will not show result though the Movie tab shows 1 item. However searching with: "Algjor Sveppi og dularfulla hotelherbergid" gives results.
Would it be possible for the new search engine to be international in characters?
Reply by Travis Bell
on May 8, 2013 at 3:33 PM
Can you give this a try now? Should be working as expected.
Reply by HaraldurSa
on May 8, 2013 at 7:28 PM
Thanks Travis. It works excellent now.
It finds all my icelandic movies which are in the database by their icelandic names. Even the X-Men: First Class are found.
In the mean-time I changed my program so I can change the search string for the movie if it is not found in first round.
Reply by nordicstyle
on May 8, 2013 at 7:34 PM
The changes seem to help with my search problems, also.
Still get a 500 for this string:
http://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/movie?api_key=XXXXX&language=de&query=Ein%20%28un%29m%25F6glicher%20H%25E4rtefall&year=2003
EDIT: seems to be a problem in my encoding.
Reply by Travis Bell
on May 9, 2013 at 12:07 PM
Hi nordicstyle,
Indeed, your query unescapes back to
Ein (un)m%F6glicher H%E4rtefallwhich doesn't look right to me.