Hi,
I'm probably missing something but as I see it the weakest spot of TMDB is extremely low number of ratings. Except that, it's GREAT! I'm developing my first app based on this API and find it hard to understand how can it be. There are several apps based on this API for both iPhone and android. First, I think you should allow rating submission based on any identification parameter (email, Facebook, tweeter, etc.). So anytime one of the apps users rate a movie in their app it can be rated at the TMDB as well. Second, you should make it mandatory or at least give some advantage to those developers who contribute to TMDB. For example, you can limit the number of requests from 30requests/10sec and max 20 connections to 5requests/10sec and max of 3 connections. Then update the limits for those API keys that provide feedback (in terms of rating). The more feedback the API provide the better limit you should give.
I know it may sound to strict but I think you have to find a way to get much more votes and I think it shouldn't be too hard based on huge number of people using this API.
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Reply by Travis Bell
on December 10, 2012 at 12:03 PM
I'm pretty sure then, it's gotta be the anti-abuse system kicking in. What is specific example movie id and rating that is currently throwing the 500 right now?
Reply by Pavel
on December 11, 2012 at 2:09 AM
You, Me and Dupree throws the 500 error (no matter what rating I try) for both session IDs I posted earlier (I use these IDs for debug). Right now this movie is rated by 4 users, 2 of them are my ratings (from the above mentioned session IDs)
Reply by Travis Bell
on December 12, 2012 at 5:20 PM
Pavel,
I need you to generate a new session ID and record for me in order, every request you make until it starts throwing an error.
I have tested this until I'm blue in the face and cannot make it error. I've created new and editing existing ratings, well over 20 times on "You, Me and Dupree (1819)" and everything is working fine.
If you could pass me every step you did until it errors I can see what's going. Somehow you're saving an invalid rating but I can't track it down.
P.S. I have deleted your 2 guest sessions (and associated ratings).
Reply by Pavel
on December 13, 2012 at 8:07 AM
Thanks Travis for all the efforts!
This is the new session ID I'm using 6d033ea768262efcfe1b6c41ec8d189a. In general I use integer from 1 to 10 (I've excluded 0) to post rating.
I've rated You, Me and Dupree (2006) with 6 and got status code 201 with TMDB status code 1 (Success). I've changed the rating to 5 and got status code 201 with TMDB status code 12 (The item/record was updated successfully). I've changed the rating back to 6 and got status code 500. Now no matter what I do for this specific movie I continue getting 500 error.
I've tried this on Doubt (2008) as well. In this case I was able to create rating (5), update to 6, update again to 5 and that's it. Any further updates result in 500 error.
There were movies (using previous IDs) that I was able to update 6-7 times but eventually I was getting 500 on all of them.
I must admit that I know that it's extreme condition since most users will never even update once their rating so if you think it's not worse wasting time on this issue - I'll understand.
Reply by Travis Bell
on December 13, 2012 at 12:14 PM
Ok, I tracked this down. The big thing was you said integers, and I was always using floats.
I am now coercing the value to a float, no matter what. This hasn't gone to production yet but will probably make it up later today.
Thanks.
Reply by Pavel
on December 14, 2012 at 5:05 AM
Have you made the change? I've just tried with Meet Joe Black (1998). Once again it was successful rating and one successful update. Starting second update and on I'm still receiving 500.
Reply by Travis Bell
on December 14, 2012 at 11:08 AM
No, it hasn't been pushed. You can simply change all of your ratings to floats which will fix it as well.
No guarantees that this will fix your previously rated movies, but should fix everything for new ratings.
Reply by caveman923
on December 14, 2012 at 12:17 PM
Hi all. I"m new here. I wanted to start playing around with the TMDB api and have applied for an API key, but I haven't heard anything yet. How long does it take. I don't want to publish anything yet I just want to get a developer key. Any thoughts?
Reply by Travis Bell
on December 14, 2012 at 12:20 PM
We've been getting slammed this past week, hundreds of requests per day. I used to be able to get things cleared out within 12 hours but this past week it's been closer to 48 hours.
Reply by caveman923
on December 14, 2012 at 12:51 PM
Hi Travis,
As I said, I'm new - I didn't know you worked this site! Just wanted to see if how long the process took. Now I know you are working as fast as you can on these things. Wonder why the spike in requests? Hmm.
Anyhow - have a great day and I look forward to working with tmdb in my development effort.
Reply by Pavel
on December 15, 2012 at 7:17 AM
Travis,
You're the king! I've changed the posting rating to float and it's working!
I think you can close this discussion.
Thanks!