Content download Amazon or IMDb

[tmas73]

Does anyone have any idea how to downloag data from online sites like amazon or imdb? I want to download movie info from their servder direct into filemaker?? Any hints are welcome!!

Thanks

[Wim Decorte]

IMDB doesn't have an XML web service but Amazon does. Check out www.filemaker.com/xml for an Amazon example.

[Vaughan]

Check their copyright and useage restrictions carefuly before doing this for any use that may be remotely commercial.

[tmas73]

Thanks that helps, what is imdb using?

Thomas

[Wim Decorte]

Imdb is owned by Amazon (AFAIK) so they're not letting anyone hook into that. They let you hook into Amazon in the hope you'll eventually buy some stuff.

[tmas73]

Thanks

So I dl the example files, I registered with amazon and recieved a ID, configured FM and nothing works. Any clues on this?

Thomas

[Fenton]

There could be many things. There are basically 2 parts to getting the data into FileMaker. The first is to get the data from Amazon, the second is to transform it, via an xsl stylesheet, into the xml format that FileMaker requires for import.

I always use AppleScript with "curl" in a shell script to first test getting the data via a URL. Then at least you know that part works, and you get a sample of the xml returned. Try this in an AppleScript:

set myID to "Put your ID here"

set the_URL to quoted form of ("http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml3?locale=us&t=webservices-20&dev-t=" & myID & "&KeywordSearch=FileMaker%207&mode=books&sort=+titlerank&offer=All&type=lite&page=1&f=xml")



set theText to do shell script "curl " & the_URL

Edited April 20, 2006 by Guest
wish the code box was wider

[tmas73]

Hi so thats the result I'm getting. I'm sorry but I have no idea what that means, I'll try to make this happening. Thanks for your help!

Thomas

"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

We encountered an error while processing your request. Please make sure that you are using a valid developer token and that you have registered for this service. For more information, please visit http://www.amazon.com/webservices"