Test reports

4. Software test: IMDB management 'MovieMUI' (by Michael Alzheimer)

»The InternetMovieDataBase - or MovieMUI

Who is a real movie /cinema fan, can't avoid this phantastic database. The InternetMovieDataBasie includes a nearly incredible number of movies and infos about actors, producers, directors and, and, and...

The InternetMovieDatabase can be found in the Internet, of course. But who doesn't want to pay all the time much money for the infos (Greetings to the Deutsche Telekom), can install it also on his AMIGA as a local database. MovieMUI is this database - in fact MovieMUI is the interface between the user and the hundreds of thounsand recordsets. MovieMUI can be found in the Aminet (misc/imdb).

What do I require for MovieMUI?

First: good knowledge of the English language, because the program as well as the database are completely in English! Well, there's not many more you need: Of course, the main archive (imdb3_5_bin.lha), the update (recommended) (imdb3_5a_upd.lha) and at least the movie archive (movies.lha). Those who want all the infos will have to download everything from the Aminet (aprox. 88 MByte!!!! - without the "diff-files"). Or you wait, until those files are pressed on an Aminet-CD. The so-called "diff-files" aren't necessary for the moment (which are all files beginning with &uot;imdbDiff". I will explain them later.)

Now comes the actual installation: First you have to unarc the main archives (namely imdb3_5_bin.lha and imdb3_5a_upd.lha). After that just start the installation script of imdb_3_5 (it installs itself nearly without help). If this is done just install the update over the previous installation (the update also includes an install script). And now unarc all the database archives. They have to be unarchived into the directory "lists/", which is in the main direcotry of MovieMUI, if you didn't choose a different directory. But this work hasn't to be done, if you have the database archives (e.g. "movies.lha") ready when installing, because the installation script can install them during the actual installation of MovieMUI. So it is not necessary to unarchive them manually.

After the database archives were made using the installation script an automatic creation of the database can be initiated. (Just answer the question "Shall I process the Data now..." with a "Yes".) If this shouldn't work, you have to install manually.

Manual installation of the database: If the two main archives are installed and the list files (at least "movies.lha" has to be unarchived!) you can bring the database alive for the first time. And you can watch - the first error message!

But that doesn't matter. Because: We didn't create a database, yet, but just unarchived a few list files. So just click on "OK" - you don't have any other choice, anyway. Now, the main window appears.

First, it is important to create the database, else we can't use "MovieMUI"

To update the database just enter the menu and select the point "Mantenance -gt; Database".

Now a new window appears.

Now, if you click on the "update" field the database will be created. The more archives have been unarchived the longer an update will take.

An update can take several hours under certain circumstances!!! If the database update is complete, you can start!

The search for the right movie! There are various possibilities to find infos about a movie: The most common might be the search for the title.

In this example I entered the title "The Matrix". When putting in the data you have to watch out not to input "The Matrix", but "Matrix, The". This is also true for persons, so you don't enter e.g. "Keanu Reeves" but "Reeves, Keanu", else the database search won't match. Now, if you click on "Execute Title search" and MovieMUI will look for any infos about "The Matrix" and presents them in a new window.

But you can also search for just a part of a title.

E.g. input "Matrix" in the search type "substring" the result (which takes quite a while) looks like this:

With a double click on an entry you can watch a whole bunch of infos.

It is also possible to search a person. On the index card "Person", which is exactly like the index card "Title", you can search a person. So there is a great number of "James Cameron". After double clicking on one of those names you get infos about the guy you just selected.

And then there's the "Complex-Search". This can select various search methods.

With the field "Add" you can add a new search entry, e.g. "Winslet, Kate". With the selection button next to the field you can select "Actress", because she is one! Clicking on "Add" again shows the next entry.

In our examplet this would be "Cameron, James" as a "Director". If you click on "Execute Complex Search" the thing first looks four our good "Kate" and then for the good "James". If a movie is found now, both took part, it appears as a selection in the result window. Because Kate had a job as actress and James worked as a director in this movie, the movie "Titanic" will appear in the selection. If both hadn't worked in the same movie there would just be an error message.

Top / Worst Movies!

It is also a good thing to do a query for the best or the worst movie. Using the menue "Statistics -> Top/Worst Movies" you get a selection window. Here you set e.g. the number of the movies to show. Entering "10" shows the 10 best or 10 worst movies. Setting "Min. No. of Votes" allows you to set how many evaluations the movie has to have as a minimum. The movies are evaluated by people like you and me (but this is only possible in the Internet). And if e.g. one person evaluates a movie with 10 points no one else evaluated or maybe no one knows this would become the best movie of all times!?! This is why you should set "Min. No. of Votes" to a reasonable value (e.g. with 500 you can get a quite representative result). If you then click on "Top" you get the best movies, clicking on "Worst" will show the the worst movies.

And the new movies?

Of course, there are always new movies and infos being added. These have to be put into the database. For this purpose you download the imdbdiff-file. This is built quite logically: imdbdiff990326.lha - This diff-file is from March 26, 1999. Important: If you want to insert the latest diff file, you have to consider this: You can only insert the diff file following the last of the database. That means: If your current database is from March 18, 1999 (can be found out using "Statistics ->Database", only the following diff file ("imdbdiff990402.lha" in this case) can be inserted!!! So if you downloaded the correct diff-file you unarchive it into the main directory of MovieMUI.

After that you change into the main directory of MovieMUI. In the subdirectory "Tools/" there is a tiny program, called "ApplyDiffs". This has to be executed with the required options (lists directory and diffs directory).

'Tools/ApplyDiffs lists/ diffs/' (Actually, the other options aren't necessary.)

Now ApplyDiffs checks, if the database entries and the diff files fit. If this is so, ApplyDiffs connects all the necessary lists and diffs. And that can take quite a while.

If this is done, you have to open MovieMUI again and make a database update (best over night!!!) (Menu "Maintenance -> Database").

Now the database is on the latest status - the next Diff file can be inserted - I know.) Tip: Insert various diffs at the same time - unarchive diff - execute ApplyDiff. Now, "don't" update the Database using MovieMUI, but unarchive the next Diff and insert it with ApplyDiff - and so on - after inserting the last diff file update the database using MovieMUI - this saves a lot of time!

Over all MovieMUI is fine. But the program could also support German (wouldn't be bad).

Positive: Handles all the entries quite quick (with this big amount of entries!!); clearly arranged.

Negative: The database update could be easier. The "diff files" should be inserted automatically (e.g. using a menu point). And the program should also show, which diff files has to be needed next.

You see, the InternetMovieDatabase really offers a lot. It is worth it, to install MovieMUI and to install a few lists. It is really interesting to find out the backgrounds of the movies.

Michael Alzheimer <m.alzheimer@msp.baynet.de>«