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Wednesday, July 21st, 2021 2:27 PM

Contributor tips: Magic URLs

Contributor tips: Magic URLs

Hi all!

 

This is just a quick post to let you know about a handy contributor tip that you may not otherwise have been aware of which helps navigate our submission systems when submitting from Desktop.

Have you heard about magic URLs? They are a really useful way to make submissions quicker and easier for custom sections of a title, name or company page. All you need to do is get the tt number of the specific title page from the URL and switch it out in the links, e.g. The Shawshank Redemption is tt0111161:

 

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Here is an example of a magic URL that I use for titles which allows you to modify all existing cast credits on a title with an additional 100 new cast credits pre-selected:

https://contribute.imdb.com/updates?update=ttNNNNNNN:cast.correct.1/cast.add.100

And here is another one for titles which lets you modify all of the existing primary crew roles on a title along with adding a new number of credits for those sections:

https://contribute.imdb.com/updates?update=ttNNNNNNN:producers.correct.1/producers.add.20/writers.correct.1/directors.correct.1/directors.add.5/writers.add.20/composers.correct.1/composers.add.5/editors.correct.1/editors.add.10/cinematographers.correct.1/cinematographers.add.5

There are some more great examples in the top-tips help page from MayorDefacto and gromit82 including how to update specific sections for a name page (Robert Rodriguez is nm0001675) and company page (Netflix is co0144901).

If you have any other helpful magic URLs that you regularly use when contributing, please post them below so that other contributors can use them as well, or if this is the first time you’ve heard of magic URLs let me know below if you find this tip useful and whether you’d like us to post other contributor tips in the future.

Thanks,
Will

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3 years ago

That top-tips page has been very helpful to me.

I tend to contribute opera dvds to IMDb, and don't record every credit. So I use this when I create the title, since it opens all the boxes I need for the Add.

https://contribute.imdb.com/updates?update=title:music_department.add.3/miscellaneous.add.1/business_sd.add.1/writers.add.2/running_times.add.1/keywords.add.1/technical_rat.add.1/locations.add.1/

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3 years ago

Thanks both, these are great!

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3 years ago

There are some current data sections which are not included in the list on the help page. These seem to work:

script_department

sales_agents

series_end_year

synopsis

location_management is listed in the first list for titles, but not in the second list for names.

There may be additional codes for contact details and family details.

These listed codes don't seem to work since the sections are no longer available:

title_attr Title Attributes

naka Alternative Names

bio_wn Where Are They Now?

And though you say it works with a company code, this option isn't mentioned in the help page.

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3 years ago

Thanks Peter I've made those changes now, including additional contact detail options and family details. Although the company codes do work for some data types, I think they've purposefully been left off of the guide for precautionary reasons. I'll amend my post above.

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Via magic URLs, there have been a few times I accessed comprehensive filmographies of companies, but as these may be so large as to case the submission form to load very slowly, I'm reluctant to publicly hyperlink to such URLs, let alone visit them on my own.

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3 years ago

For IMDb title pages bereft of a lot of basic information, I've been known to visit script-generated queries of the form /updates?update=tt*:cast.correct.all/cast.add.10/production_companies.correct/production_companies.add5/running_times.correct/running_times.add.1/sound_mix.correct/sound_mix.add.1/outlines.correct/outlines.add.1/plot.correct/keywords.correct.all/keywords.add.20/soundtracks.correct/soundtracks.add.10/title_urls_msc.correct/title_urls_msc.add.2/title_urls_off.correct/title_urls_off.add.2/title_urls_mov.correct/title_urls_mov.add.2/title_urls_tra.correct/title_urls_tra.add.2/business_cp.correct/business_cp.add.3/technical_rat.correct/technical_rat.add.1/technical_cam.correct/technical_cam.add.1 along with several dozen others that might not be infeasible to list here. The combinations number in the billions, I guess. I achieve this via RegEx-involved DOM-manipulating bookmarklets mainly. IMDb name pages, and likewise brand pages, have some sections that can only be viewed or edited when an IMDbPro subscription is active. On this forum, sometimes I post magic URLs (i.e. hyperlinks to specific submission forms) when explaining to prospective contributors where and how to submit corrections on data types of interest to them.

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Well, bookmarklets are basically just browser bookmarks of JavaScript code URIs. When clicked, they execute in the environment of the most-recently-viewed active tab. I've only ever regularly surfed the Web via Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer, and all three of them support bookmarklets. (I don't remember whether or not an ancient browser by the name of Netscape supported them, but I did use that browser along with AOL's, many times, once upon a time.) It hadn't really thought about the fact that some browsers only accommodate HTTP URLs for bookmarks. I do know that the Web browsers on the smart television sets to which I have access don't support bookmarklets, and now I'm wondering if any of them support FTP or Gopher protocol, as it would make some sense for them to do that. I shall look into it. The issue with the browser for the smart TV is that the bookmarks manager is its own tab, hence a pseduo web page, unlike a tool bar.

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3 years ago

Thanks jeorj_euler, that one looks pretty comprehensive! Thanks for sharing.

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3 years ago

Wow! The Magic URLs have a lot of potential.

Here's a URL that allows me to add a single keyword to 200 different titles at the same time, using the same form:

https://contribute.imdb.com/updates?update=tt0043766:keywords.correct/keywords.add.200

I choose the film M (1951) for this, because that title is only one letter long, and it  therefore can be quickly and easily replaced with a different title for each title field, using the method described by @bderoes in the forum here. Basically, all you have to do is visit the magic URL, check the "Show title?" box, and refresh ("check these updates"), then you can add 200 titles by replacing M (1951) each time.

Without the magic URL, this method was limited to 50 titles at a time. Now, the sky's the limit!

(edited)

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@keyword_expert With great power comes great responsibility, please ensure that all keyword submissions are eligible and align with IMDb policies before submitting to IMDb.

(edited)

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@Will  But of course!

(edited)

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O, now I get it. The "Show title?" caveat is necessary. Some time ago, somebody mentioned something about adding keywords to multiple titles at once, and for some reason, I didn't connect the dots (even though I knew about the "Show title?" box), so I didn't understand what was the exact approach.

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@jeorj_euler Yes, I am very much indebted to @bderoes for suggesting this method. It really helps streamline the process when adding a single keyword to dozens of titles at a time.