Does IMDB provide an API?

Question

I recently found a movie organizer application which fetches its data from the IMDB database.

Does IMDB provide an API for this, or any third party APIs available?

Answer 1

The IMDb has a public API that, although undocumented, is fast and reliable (used on the official website through AJAX).

Search Suggestions API

• https://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/a/aa.json
• https://v2.sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/h/hello.json (alternate)
• Format: JSON-P
• Caveat: It's in JSON-P format, and the callback parameter can not customised. To use it cross-domain you'll have to use the function name they choose (which is in the imdb${searchphrase} format). Alternatively, one could strip or replace the padding via a local proxy.

// 1) Vanilla JavaScript (JSON-P)
function addScript(src) { var s = document.createElement('script'); s.src = src; document.head.appendChild(s); }
window.imdb$foo = function (results) {
  /* ... */
};
addScript('https://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/f/foo.json');

// 2) Using jQuery (JSON-P)
jQuery.ajax({
    url: 'https://sg.media-imdb.com/suggests/f/foo.json',
    dataType: 'jsonp',
    cache: true,
    jsonp: false,
    jsonpCallback: 'imdb$foo'
}).then(function (results) {
    /* ... */
});

// 3) Pure JSON (with jQuery)
// Use a local proxy that strips the "padding" of JSON-P,
// e.g. "imdb$foo(" and ")", leaving pure JSON only.
jQuery.getJSON('/api/imdb/?q=foo', function (results) {
    /* ... */
});

// 4) Pure JSON (ES2017 and Fetch API)
// Using a custom proxy at "/api" that strips the JSON-P padding.
const resp = await fetch('/api/imdb/?q=foo');
const results = await resp.json();

Advanced Search

• Name search (json): http://www.imdb.com/xml/find?json=1&nr=1&nm=on&q=jeniffer+garner
• Title search (xml): http://www.imdb.com/xml/find?xml=1&nr=1&tt=on&q=lost
• Format: XML
• Upside: Supports both film titles and actor names (unlike Suggestions API).