The Movie Database Support
Support → API Support
Filtering Search Results
posted by Chris CooperSTAFFMOD on May 31, 2013 at 9:57 AM
Hi!
I'd like to be able to search for a movie on multiple keys. For example, I'd like to be able to get a movie result list which has a specific genre and cast.
For example: Show movies with genres "Action" and "Adventure" (passing genre ids) with cast "Brad Pitt" (passing cast ID).
I don't see this as possible with how the API v3 stands now, but maybe I'm missing something.
I could technically make it work but it'd require searching for a movie response on a particular genre, then individually filtering each result by checking the cast of each result. Obviously this isn't very efficient and would require a massive number of requests to the API.
Thanks!
Reply by Travis Bell
on May 31, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Hi Chris,
You can use the discover method to get you 90% there. The only thing missing is being able to add any kind of text search (or person id) along side the discover method. Discover is more about being a movie data search than text or cast.
Other than that though, you'd have to build this yourself. There is nothing planned to take discover the extra mile you're looking for.
Reply by Chris Cooper
on May 31, 2013 at 10:25 AM
Thanks Travis, I've started looking into the Discover method. There's many more pieces of data I'd like to filter on than the two examples I provided, but of course - have to start somewhere. You all don't somehow provide a full DB dump do you?
Reply by Travis Bell
on May 31, 2013 at 10:27 AM
No, we do not. API access only.
Cheers.
Reply by Chris Cooper
on May 31, 2013 at 12:10 PM
Travis:
Two more quick follow-ups:
Reply by Travis Bell
on May 31, 2013 at 12:12 PM
You referring to doing that with the discover method? No. We return results only, you'd have to go off and query each ID for the full details.
Discover doesn't support any type of cast or person search. For this you'd have to build something on your own.
Reply by Chris Cooper
on May 31, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Thanks!
For #1) I was simply referring to the general result set being paginated instead of a full set. For example, if I get the Discover results down to perhaps 45 items, I end up with 3 "pages" (max, 20 items per page it seems). This is important because, as you've suggested, I'd have to build something myself - and having to build a full result set to then cull means I have to gather the full result set to start with. The pagination, as I'm sure you're aware, applies to more than just discover.