UPDATED FOR NEW NETFLIX FORMAT 5/19/05

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Who knew there was so much interest in Netflix, and related plugins for MovableType? Just when I thought I was finished up tweaking Ben's original plugin to display the Netflix Queue, I began to get other requests for other lists and various features.

So, I have decided to just put three plugins in one zip file and name it, presumptuously, the Netflix Suite.

Here are the plugins enclosed:

NOTE: The Image Tags return a URL to the small image for each movie. This uses Netflix's bandwidth, and I don't recommend it. It has been heavily requested, though, so it is included.

NetflixQueue

Displays movies in your rental queue.

Available tags are:
<MTNetflixQueue>
<$MTNetflixQueueTitle$>
<$MTNetflixQueueURL$>
<$MTNetflixQueueImage$>
<$MTNetflixQueueGenre$>
<$MTNetflixQueueRating$>
<$MTNetflixQueueAvailability$>
<$MTNetflixQueuePosition$>

Additional arguments for <MTNetfilxQueue> are "lastn" "firstn" and "randomn"
These treat your queue as such, i.e., FIFO, but they allude to weblogs where
the "lastn" are the "n" most recent posts. In this plugin , "lastn" returns the
list of "n" movies at the top of your queue, and "firstn" returns the list of
"n" movies at the bottom. "randomn" returns "n" random movies selected from your
queue. So, <MTNetflixQueue session_id = "<your session ID>" lastn = "10"> will
return the next 10 movies you will be viewing. Caution: Use of the image tag uses THEIR bandwith.

NetflixOutstanding

Displays list of movies you currently have on rental from NetFlix.

Available tags are:
<MTNetflixOutstanding>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingTitle$>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingURL$>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingImage$>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingGenre$>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingRating$>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingShipped$>
<$MTNetflixOutstandingArrival$>

Additional arguments for <MTNetfilxOutstanding> are "lastn" "firstn" and "randomn"
These treat your "oustanding" queue as such, i.e., FIFO, but they allude to weblogs where
the "lastn" are the "n" most recent posts. In this plugin , "lastn" returns the
list of "n" movies at the top of your "outstanding" queue, and "firstn" returns the list of
"n" movies at the bottom. "randomn" returns "n" random movies selected from your
"outstanding" queue. So, <MTNetflixOutstanding session_id = "<your session ID>" lastn = "3"> will
return the next 3 movies you have out. Caution: Use of the image tag uses THEIR bandwith.

Netflix History

Displays movies you have recently rented and presumably watched.

Available tags are:
<MTNetflixHistory>
<$MTNetflixHistoryTitle$>
<$MTNetflixHistoryURL$>
<$MTNetflixHistoryImage$>
<$MTNetflixHistoryShipDate$>
<$MTNetflixHistoryReturnDate$>
<$MTNetflixHistoryRating$>
<$MTNetflixHistoryRatingGraphic$>

An additional argument for <MTNetfilxHistory> is "lastn"
This treats your "history" queue as such, i.e., FIFO, but alludes to weblogs where
the "lastn" are the "n" most recent posts. In this plugin , "lastn" returns the
list of "n" movies at the top of your "history" queue.
So, <MTNetflixHistory session_id = "<your session ID>" lastn = "3"> will
return the top 3 movies you have out.

Caution: Caution: Use of the image tag uses THEIR bandwith.

Download: NetflixSuite

Comments

123 Responses to NetFlix Suite

Oscar Says:
June 19th, 2004 at 08:58 am
Okay, that’s fixed.
Oscar Says:
June 14th, 2004 at 02:18 pm
Hi Brett - You know, I don’t think I’ve ever run into that. One thing you could do that would help me is to sign into your queue page, then “view source,” copy it to a text file, zip it, and email it to me. That way I could easily tune the regex to deal with two disk sets. Can’t promise when I’d be able to get to it, but probably fairly soon.
brett Says:
June 14th, 2004 at 01:38 pm
I have a netflix rental that is 2 discs and I’m guessing the way they format the queue display is screwing up the scraper. If you go to my site, you’ll see what the result is. I have a screenshot of what my queue looks like on the netflix site here. Anyone else run in to this and have a fix?
Oscar Says:
June 14th, 2004 at 12:53 pm
Just letting you all know, Kim was able to get this working. She zapped some gremlins on her end, and the plugin appears fine, out of the box ... for now ...
kim Says:
June 13th, 2004 at 05:32 pm
oddly, the history bit still doesn’t work, but i’ve given up. i’ll quit whining now.
Oscar Says:
June 13th, 2004 at 12:35 pm
Thanks Kim. Always happy to help out. Yes, I plan to keep up the plugins. I still have my MT installation. I plan to keep everything up to date as well as I can!
kim Says:
June 13th, 2004 at 12:13 pm
niiice. thanks. i had no idea that would change. you rock as always oscar! are you going to continue to ‘develop’ this for MT everytime netflix changes, since you’ve moved to EE?
Oscar Says:
June 13th, 2004 at 07:55 am
Hi Kim - No bother at all - glad to help. I just tested the plugins and they still seem to work here. I think you will need to update your session ID number. Best way is probably to log out of your account on the web, and then log back in. Go to your cookies after that and retrieve the new ID #, and plug it into your templates. That ought to work. Let me know ...
kim Says:
June 12th, 2004 at 11:10 pm
i hate to bug you again but i had my netflix account on hold while switching banks, and now it won’t work again. i updated my plugins with the most recent ones here. nothing funky shows up on my account that would break it, like the reported problems broke the history plugin. any ideas?
Oscar Says:
October 18th, 2003 at 11:56 am
Fay and I tried to answer this by email. Here was my last comment on this one, which she either hasn’t gotten to yet, or didn’t work and she gave up in frustration, or else did work. I’m hoping for the latter:
Fay Says:
October 15th, 2003 at 03:29 pm
I’ve been trying to install your Netflix code, but the error message I keep getting is:

Build error in template ‘Fay’s Template’: Error in MTNetflixQueue tag: HTTP error: 501 Protocol scheme ‘https’ is not supported.

Any ideas?
Oscar Says:
October 8th, 2003 at 06:20 pm
Okay, we got it fixed. Had to do with getting the session id number in there correctly. Phew!
-b- Says:
October 8th, 2003 at 10:03 am
Hello, I get this error, each and every time. Any suggestions?

MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x834c800) Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) at extlib/HTTP/Cookies.pm line 136.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x834c800) Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at extlib/HTTP/Cookies.pm line 182.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x834c800) Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) at extlib/HTTP/Cookies.pm line 188.

Thanks.
Oscar Says:
October 3rd, 2003 at 07:43 am
They’re fixed.
Smartacus Says:
October 2nd, 2003 at 01:48 pm
Crap. Netflix changed their format yet again, thwarting your spiffy plugins!