See NetflixSuite Plugins for the very latest version of Netflix Queue.

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Occassionally, two forces collide for me and result in something. In this case, I was engaged in post-labor day real work, but I was also procrastinating by reading the MovableType Support Forum (Tips & Tricks). Here I ran into a thread on Netflix Trouble where Ben's Netflix plugin no longer worked because Netflix, an online movie rental service, had changed their format.

People wanted a working version (I'm not sure how many people, but some people in any case), and asked if anyone would fix it. Well, in the spirit of High Intensity Time Wasting, I could not resist this.

Not being a genius like Ben, I could only kludge together an inelegant rewrite, but I think it works, and that counts for something.

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Update!!! (9/18/03)
I have now developed a total rewrite of the Netflix plugin which I will call Netflix2. And I have added the following arguments (and I quote myself):

Additional arguments for <MTNetflixQueue> 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.

The plugin gives you some tags to display your Netflix Queue, and thus inform people of your movie viewing tastes and behaviors. For those with no idea about Netflix, you might check it out, and for those in search of the working plugin, download Netflix2 Queue Plugin 2003 here.

Let me know if there are problems, or other issues.

Note (9/20/03) BTW, if you'd like to see a cool mod, check out lomara's version of the plugin here - she's added an image tag to display the movie thumbnail!

Comments

12 Responses to Netflix Queue Plugin 2003

Smartacus Says:
September 22nd, 2003 at 07:49 pm
Anyone know of a plugin that displays one’s Netflix rental history? So far there’s one for the queue and one for ratings, but I’d rather display movies I’ve recently seen (and am therefore prepared to discuss).
lizard Says:
September 20th, 2003 at 01:06 pm
if i watched movies more than once every three or four years i would be so stoked about this. actually i would probably sign up for netflix if my dvd-rom drive was still alive.

i just realized i don’t have a tv. how weird is that?
Maggie Says:
September 20th, 2003 at 08:01 am
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Oscar, but then you know how much I know about these things. You are, however, truly amazing at this type of thing. I’m so grateful to have met you the way I did. You are a very “good” person and people like you are definitely a rarity. Hope you enjoy your weekend at the end of your work day today.
Oscar Says:
September 19th, 2003 at 12:21 pm
Sure. Sorry about that, and thanks for pointing it out!
Joseph J. Finn Says:
September 19th, 2003 at 12:12 pm
Ah, I see! Thanks very much.
Oscar Says:
September 19th, 2003 at 12:09 pm
Oh man, I really didn’t make that clear, did I? I have updated the doc.

Anyway, the “lastn” is an optional SECOND argument after session_id. So, the tag should look like this:

<MTNetflixQueue session_id = "<your session ID>" lastn = "10">
Says:
September 19th, 2003 at 11:48 am
Works fine, but I for the life of me can’t get the lastn to work right. This
is what I have at the moment:

<
MTNetflixQueue session_id="Pxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx">

<
a href="<$MTNetflixQueueURL$>"><$MTNetflixQueueTitle$></a><br
/>

<
/MTNetflixQueue>

I’ve tried a few things, but for the life of me I can’t figure where to put <MTNetflixQueue
lastn = "10"> in my MT code. Any ideas?
Rori Says:
September 18th, 2003 at 08:16 pm
Cool! Makes me want to run out and get a DVD player!
Brian the Red Says:
September 17th, 2003 at 09:09 pm
Another one of the two checking in to say thanks, worked on my site like a charm.
mashby Says:
September 16th, 2003 at 12:45 pm
Thanks for all your hard work! It works like a charm on my site.

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Tracked at 2003 09 17 10:42:07
: coolwalkingsmoothtalking: Netflix Queue Plugin 2003 If you have a NetFlix account, and would like to display your queue (or even just part of it) on...
Tracked at 2003 09 20 15:58:55

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