Hi Alessio
Joining via EAN starting with OFDB script currently doesn't make sense for many XMM users.
Since the script engine is not able to store the ID of a specific DVD product of a movie, there is no clean way to store one specific EAN number via OFDB script.
The same is valid for starting UPC joining with IMDB script, because www.imdb.com is listing several DVD products per movie.
Storing a specific product ID with a movie database entry would bring the advantage of having exact RUNTIME, AUDIODVD, SCREENDVD, UPC, STUDIO, MPAA and may be more DVD related fields.
Also an advantage (specific to IMDB) would be the Amazon.com ASIN which is shown within the IMDB DVD product entries. When the user could chose a specific DVD product ID on IMDB, this would help to automate synchronisation via the AMAZON.COM script 
On following web pages you can see that there are many different DVD products for the movie Matrix:
www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=film&fid=154" target="_blank">http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=film&fid=154
www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/dvd" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/dvd
I would sugguest to add a new block to the script engine which acts similar to the "Serie -> Episode" handling.
- First the user gets a list of search hits for a movie title via the #CREATEMOVIELIST# block
- The user clicks on one title
- The direct link will we stored into the the database (right?)
- Now the new mentioned block (i.e. named #CREATEPRODUCTLIST# ) comes into place: the script parses the web page to find all listed DVD/VHS/TV product versions of the chosen movie and shows this list to the user. The titles (list) will be produced by the script programmer. The user should be able to click on the titles to get a preview of the select DVD/VHS/TV product (but this is a nice to have).
When the user choses one title (multiple should not be provided, this would not make sense), the script engine should store the product ID, but not the direct link to the product page.
After the new block (#CREATEPRODUCTLIST#) the script engine continues with the directlink of the movie (not the chosen link from the product list).
There should be a solution for the case where the direct link is already available, but the product is not. Also it should be possible to change the product ID against a different product ID.
I would sugguest to store the product ID with the direct link using a unique seperator (or a seperate field like a described at the end of this posting). How this is being done is up to you and should be transparent to the script programmer. The script programmer should use following commands to interface with directlink and product id:
#TAKEDIRECTLINK#=#XY#
#TAKEPRODUCTID#=#XY#
#TAKEMOVIEID#=#XY#
#GETMOVIEVAR#=#XY#=#DIRECTLINK#
#GETMOVIEVAR#=#XY#=#PRODUCTID#
#GETMOVIEVAR#=#XY#=#MOVIEID# (opposite of TAKEMOVIEID)
So instead of storing directPRODUCTlinks like:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/dvd#B00005YEA3" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/dvd#B00005YEA3
www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=154&vid=19895" target="_blank">http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=154&vid=19895
you should store the product ID with a unique seperator i.e.:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093|$|B00005YEA3
www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=film&fid=154" target="_blank">http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=film&fid=154|$|19895
or a different way (instead of using a seperator) of implementing this stuff could be:
Script used: OFDB.DE.txt|
Web link: www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=film&fid=154" target="_blank">http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=film&fid=154|
(New field working like the two above):
Product ID: 19895|
I would say that this would be an essential/important feature to get as much automation (and correctness) as possible from XMM.
Oliver
Storing product id with movies?
Posted - 08 Dec 2006 : 11:35:22
