Movie Listings... Coming to an RR near you!

**GizmoQ** · 02-06-2008, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by Sonicxtacy02

ugh i'm still having problems with the unicode text at the end of the movie description. anyone with vb knowledge wanna tell me why using mid() on a string containing "..." (without quotes) shows funky unicode text? i tried both binary compare and text compare and it happens with both options

Try using mid$() instead.

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-06-2008, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by GizmoQ

Try using mid$() instead.

nopers didnt work

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-06-2008, 03:39 PM

after a few hours of scrolling thru windows character map i've found a way to erase the odd characters. Still dont have a method determined for pulling the extended description though.

**JohnWPB** · 02-06-2008, 03:50 PM

In the VBScript, you have to parse the description out obviousally. Why not use the search for the end of the description as "…</div>" Depending on how you do it, you will not get that part into your variable, as it will only go up to where it is found. Or, again depending on how you are parsing, if it does get that part, just do a left$(yourVar,len(description)-9).

To remove the &amp use:

Description = Replace (Description, "&amp", "&",1,-1,1)

Just an FYI, I have done lots and LOTS of screen scraping stuff in the past for my home automation software. Everything from stocks, weather, lotto results, jokes, movie showtimes, News headlines ect ect.... All of this was in VBScript.

**JohnWPB** · 02-06-2008, 04:05 PM

May have found a way for you to get the whole description. Well not the code, but how to do it at least

The URL contains the page number of the description:

&pg=1
&pg=2

ect, pull each one when "Get details is pressed, and do a x=x+1 kinda thing to get each one. As you get each one, do a search for

"More</a>" If the page does not contain this, then that is the last page (As the MORE is not a link, but just a text label) and you can break the loop and put the description all together to display it.

The basic logic would be:

for PageCount = 1 to 10
load Details page URL with PageCount in the URL
parse description
Description = Description + Description(PageCount )
look for the "More</a>" and if exists next PageCount
else exit

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-06-2008, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by JohnWPB

In the VBScript, you have to parse the description out obviousally. Why not use the search for the end of the description as "…</div>" Depending on how you do it, you will not get that part into your variable, as it will only go up to where it is found. Or, again depending on how you are parsing, if it does get that part, just do a left$(yourVar,len(description)-9).

To remove the &amp use:

Description = Replace (Description, "&amp", "&",1,-1,1)

Just an FYI, I have done lots and LOTS of screen scraping stuff in the past for my home automation software. Everything from stocks, weather, lotto results, jokes, movie showtimes, News headlines ect ect.... All of this was in VBScript.

i've got both of the problems solved, now i'm on to creating a custom list out of the description label. How would you like this done? One line per sentence? I just need a delimiter to split the variable with.

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-06-2008, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by JohnWPB

May have found a way for you to get the whole description. Well not the code, but how to do it at least

The URL contains the page number of the description:

&pg=1
&pg=2

ect, pull each one when "Get details is pressed, and do a x=x+1 kinda thing to get each one. As you get each one, do a search for

"More</a>" If the page does not contain this, then that is the last page (As the MORE is not a link, but just a text label) and you can break the loop and put the description all together to display it.

The basic logic would be:

for PageCount = 1 to 10
load Details page URL with PageCount in the URL
parse description
Description = Description + Description(PageCount )
look for the "More</a>" and if exists next PageCount
else exit

nearly exactly the way i have it working now and its not really adding much time to the plugin. We're on the same page here now! lol

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-06-2008, 04:58 PM

i'm feelin pretty good about this plugin now... here's the latest info shot showing the entire description (well entire meaning til the label runs out of space, havent converted to list yet). This also shows the new "official" sample skin created by barry (custommx3).

hmmm.. where did my rating stars go..somethings up with my indicator code .

**moahdib** · 02-07-2008, 05:09 AM

this is simply awesome

great work soni!

**Sonicxtacy02** · 02-07-2008, 08:50 AM

hey john, i found a potential bug with my star indicators i'd like you to quick-test for, seems that the indicators conflict with some of the other extension plugins out there (for example my new traffic app made the indicators stop working on movietimes). Can you open up your menu.skin and notate any other "x" lines then try to use movietimes again. i bet you're experiencing the same problem.