The Movie Database Support
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Crew and cast changes in movie changes API
posted by CupidvogelSTAFFMOD on July 17, 2016 at 9:16 AM
I was looking at the movie changes API, with the URL pattern, for example, http://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/267860/changes?api_key=&startdate=2016-05-30&enddate=2016-06-10. I have some questions. In the images key for example, this image file name is repeated thrice : T2ckqPYnro521KCv7Xfn5FfOvI.jpg
One is for deleting and replacing by a new one, and one is for adding. What does this mean? Does this mean that the image file name is the same, only the image has been replaced? If so, why it is present in the "Added" section as well?
Secondly, for a certain movie (id 136984), I saw a change key as this:
"key":"adult", "items":[ { "id":"507436ef19c2957f2700005c", "action":"updated", "time":"2012-10-09 14:38:39 UTC", "value":false } ]
Shouldn't there be an "old value" key as well, which shows what the previous value was?
3rdly, when there are changes in cast and crew, how will the update look like? Can the person's name itself change? If so, will it come under movie/changes or person/changes? Basically I could not find one example where crew or cast is updated. All examples had these keys as "added". So I want to know how an update to crew or cast for a movie will look like, where for example, some crew information is updated or deleted.
The documentation on changes is not very clear and there are lots of assumptions to be made, so I think it is better if someone can clarify it.
Reply by Travis Bell
on July 17, 2016 at 10:36 AM
I think some of this might be easier to understand by looking at the website: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/267860-london-has-fallen/changes
The image
2MORPerZU0zYgi915PLsuHBDTT9.jpgfor example, was added then had it's language updated.Re: adult, since it's a boolean, it's always going to be false by default. Updated to true or vice versa.
Cast and crew are only added and deleted although on the credit record character names can be updated. With regards to person changes themselves, they happen on the person object, not the movie object.
Reply by Cupidvogel
on July 17, 2016 at 10:45 AM
Thanks Travis. However, the JSON structure of the response is still not clear. Is there any documentation on all possible keys that can be present in a change list JSON response? It looks like it will be trivial, since the keys are supposed to be the same in movie/id/changes as those found in the JSON response for movie/id, but in the example page for example, there is a key "character_names", which I have no way of knowing.
Reply by Cupidvogel
on July 17, 2016 at 11:24 AM
One example - in the example provided at http://docs.themoviedb.apiary.io/#reference/movies/movieidchanges/get, for the "adult" key, it shows only update, whereas for the "overview" key it shows first delete and then add. What is the difference between these two scenarios?
Reply by Cupidvogel
on July 18, 2016 at 12:46 PM
Any update? Sorry for badgering, but the change API is not well documented in my opinion, and without understanding completely how it works, I won't be able to set automation tasks which periodically updates the database, which would mean that my entire project will sink. :(
Reply by Travis Bell
on July 19, 2016 at 4:27 PM
You can grab the list of change keys from the /configuration method.
Re: your question about the overview, it's probably best to look at the actual responses, they documentation looks out of date. As far as I recall, there won't be a "deleted" action on any overviews. Those are always a "added" (the initial input since there's no original value) or a "updated" (with both the original and new value) action.
An example would be: https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/258489/changes?api_key=###&start_date=2016-07-03
Reply by Cupidvogel
on July 19, 2016 at 4:31 PM
Cool. So basically there should be no scenario where I see a "deleted" and an "added", right?
Reply by Travis Bell
on July 19, 2016 at 4:38 PM
That should be correct. You would see a "deleted" if there's no new data that was input (it was cleared out), but the event of replacing an overview, it should be "updated".
Reply by Cupidvogel
on July 19, 2016 at 4:39 PM
Yeah, exactly.. Thanks a lot, Travis!