@database "MovieMUI.guide" @node main "MovieDataBase-Documentation" Movie Database V3.1 Amiga - 25.01.1995 ======================================== @{" 1.1 Introduction & Requirements " link Introduction} @{" 1.2 Legal Matters " link "Legal Matters"} @{" 2. About the MovieDataBase " link General} @{" 3. Installation, Update & Maintenance " link Installation} @{" 4. MovieMUI " link MovieMUI} @{" 4.1 MovieMUI's GUI-Interface " link GUI} @{" 4.2 MovieMUI's AREXX-Interface " link AREXX} @{" 4.3 MovieMUI's AREXX-scripts " link AREXX_SCRIPTS} @{" 4.4 MovieMUI's BBS-scripts " link AREXX_BBS} Appendix: @{" A. Keeping the Database Up-To-Date " link Updating} @{" B. Adding information to the database " link additions.guide/main} @{" C. Key to movie titles " link moviedatabase.guide/9} @{" D. Key to symbols in filmographies " link moviedatabase.guide/10} @{" E. Votes " link Votes} @{" F. Genres " link Genres} @{" G. Tooltype & CLI-Options " link Tooltypes} @{" H. Addresses " link Addresses} @{" I. Technical Information " link "Technical Information"} @{" J. Troubleshooting " link Troubleshooting} IMPORTANT: The "aka-names.list", "complete-cast.list" & "movie-links.list" which are part of this distribution are not supported by MovieMUI yet! Send comments, suggestions, bugreports or ARexx-scripts to Read the History file to learn what's new with this version @endnode @node Introduction 1.1 Introduction & Requirements =============================== Welcome to the MovieDataBase v3.1 Amiga! @{"What is the MovieDataBase?" link moviedatabase.guide/1} @{"Objective & Distribution " link moviedatabase.guide/7} This package provides a fully featured, easy-to-use graphical user interface (based on Stefan Stuntz's @{"MagicUserInterface" link MUI}, so hopefully it can answer almost any movie query you might have. Therefore MUI has to be installed on your system before you try to install the MovieDataBase. Kickstart 2.0 or higher is required. If you want to use all features of the MovieDataBase, you need to have at least 26 MB-diskspace (more diskspace will be needed during the @{"installation" link Installation} process, depending on which method you prefer to set up the database) and about 2 MB Ram. A fast processor and a fast harddisk would also be very handy, if the time for the installation and data look-up is to be kept to a minimum. If you have any questions concerning the Amiga Version of the Movie Database, please write to me (André Bernhardt). General questions on the Database should be directed to the people who are responsible for maintaining the Database. Please refer to the appendix for @{"Addresses" link Addresses}. @endnode @node "Legal Matters" 1.2 LEGAL STUFF =============== @{"1.2.1 Copyrights " link Copyrights} @{"1.2.2 Disclaimer " link Disclaimer} @{"1.2.3 License " link License} @{"1.2.4 MUI " link MUI} @{"1.2.5 Acknowledgements " link Acknowledgements} @endnode @node Copyrights 1.2.1 Copyrights ================ MovieMUI and all its documentation and supplementary scripts: (c) 1993-95 by André Bernhardt Installer and Installer project icon (c) Copyright 1991-93 Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced and distributed under license from Commodore. MUI is MagicUserInterface (c) Copyright 1993-95 by Stefan Stuntz @endnode @node Disclaimer 1.2.2 DISCLAIMER ================ THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ''AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. INSTALLER SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ''AS-IS'' AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE; NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE. ALL USE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY IS ASSUMED. @endnode @node License 1.2.3 LICENSE ============= For objective and distribution see @{"MovieDatabase Guide Chapter 7" link moviedatabase.guide/7}. This file is part of the Internet Movie Database. The database is an international volunteer effort whose principal objective is to provide useful and up to date movie information *freely* available on-line, across as many systems and platforms as possible. The Internet Movie Database Team can be reached via e-mail at and are happy to discuss the implications of and exceptions to this license. All data and software released by the Internet Movie Database Team is freely available to anyone within certain limitations described below. You are encouraged to quote subsets of the database in USENET articles, movie related FAQs, magazine articles etc. We do ask, however, that if appropriate, you make reference to the source of the data and provide a pointer to database for the benefit of the reader. Permission is granted by the copyright holder to allow free distribution of this file and any other part of the Internet Movie Database in an ELECTRONIC FORM ONLY, providing the following conditions are met: (1) NO FEE OF ANY KIND (however indirect), can be charged for its distribution. If this file is being stored for later distribution to anyone that can be seen as a customer to yourself or your company / organization YOU MUST contact the Internet Movie Database Team for permission. (2) Each of the database files may be distributed individually but only in an unaltered form. All the header and trailer information (including this notice and the details on how to access the database) must remain intact. (3) Specifically the files may NOT be used to construct any kind of on-line database (except for individual personal use). Clearance for ALL such on-line data resources must be requested from the Internet Movie Database Team. This is to enable us to maintain an up to date list of all such sites. Clearance will be granted provided access to said database is itself entirely free from ANY fees. (4) In addition, copies of the movie database frequently asked questions list and additions guide must be made available in the same area / by the same method as the other database files. (5) CD-ROM distribution is prohibited without written permission from the Internet Movie Database Team (see below for an e-mail contact). Distribution by e-mail, BBS and internet systems is positively encouraged within these limitations. The files and software which make up the movie database may be uploaded to commercial BBS systems providing that the above conditions are met and no *additional* fees are applied above the standard connect time or downloading charges. This copyright notice has been designed to ensure that the voluntary time and effort of the Internet Movie Database Team and database users, is not used for financial gain by those who have contributed nothing or little to its growth or success. The changing nature of the Internet towards more commercial uses has forced us to produce this statement. Please do not be discouraged from submitting additions to the database as a result of this policy. If you need further explanation please contact the team at the address given below. If you are in doubt as to whether this copyright notice prevents you from distributing the database to others, you should contact the Internet Movie Database Team by e-mail at . @endnode @node MUI 1.2.4 MUI ========= The graphical user interface for the MovieDataBase is 'MovieMUI'. It will only run with Kickstart 2.0 or higher being installed. If this is your first MUI-application you will have to get a copy of 'MUI' and have it installed as described in MUI's documents. MUI - MagicUserInterface (c) Copyright 1993/94 by Stefan Stuntz MUI is a system to generate and maintain graphical user interfaces. With the aid of a preferences program, the user of an application has the ability to customize the outfit according to his personal taste. MUI is distributed as shareware. To obtain a complete package containing lots of examples and more information about registration please look for a file called "muiXXusr.lha" (XX means the latest version number) on your local bulletin boards or on public domain disks. If you want to register directly, feel free to send DM 30.- or US$ 20.- to Stefan Stuntz Eduard-Spranger-Straße 7 80935 München GERMANY NOTE: 'MovieMUI' will still work, even if you don't register MUI, but you will not be able to make use of all of mui's features. Please read the 'mui.docs' for more information. @endnode @node Acknowledgements 1.2.5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ====================== I would like to thank the following persons: - Col Needham for chapter two of this manual, for his work of correcting the whole document and of course for keeping the database together. - The people who built up, maintain and improve the MovieDataBase - Christian Warren for his basic ideas on the new database structure and some routines. This saved a lot of time. - Dirk Schwaderer for his work on this guide-file and beta-testing. - Samir Gajjar for his Installer-script, beta-testing and suggestions. - Mark 'TheMUG' Rose for his 'MagicMovie'-icons - Sami Radwan and Georg 'Gio' Magschok for writing the transamiga-script and installing the database on their BBSs. - Kenneth Fribert and Michael A. Bode for sending me additional ARexx-scripts for BBS-support. - Bernd Ernesti for 'MGuide.rexx' and beta-testing. - Thomas Boerkel, Ralf "Mephisto" Deifel, René Graf, Mario "MagicK" Kemper, Harald Mayr, Thomas Meyer, Joachim Polzer, Hans-Juergen Roesch, Andreas "Goonie" Schildbach and Edwin Yau for additional beta-testing. - Stefan Stuntz for 'MUI' - Eric Totel for MUIBuilder. MUIBuilder is a very nice tool to test your ideas of a GUI, although I did most of MovieMUI's GUI myself. @endnode @node General 2. General Information on the Database ====================================== The movie database is an international volunteer effort coordinated via the USENET newsgroup rec.arts.movies. The objective of the database is to provide useful and up to date movie information *freely* available on-line, across as many systems and platforms as possible. It currently covers over 38,000 movies with over 470,000 filmography entries and is expanding continuously. The database includes filmographies for actors, directors, writers, composers, cinematographers, editors, production designers, costume designers and producers; plot summaries; character names; movie ratings; year of release; running times; movie trivia; quotes; goofs; soundtracks; personal trivia; alternative names; certificates; color information; country of production; genres; production companies; sound mix; reference literature; filming locations; sequel/remake information; release dates; advertising tag lines; detailed technical data; and Academy Award information. Several thousand of the movies are covered completely from the major actors to the minor bit players. In their ASCII form, the source datafiles currently occupy about 27Mb of disk-space. All the information comes from the users of the database so please continue to support it and help it to grow. New lists are constantly being introduced. MovieMUI 3.2 which is currently under development will support many more lists as well as support for movie-pictures, sounds, anims etc. The @{"MovieDatabase Guide" link moviedatabase.guide/main} will explain most questions concerning the Internet MovieDatabase. The @{"Additions Guide" link additions.guide/main} will tell you how to submit new entries for the inclusion in the database. These guides are constantly being updated. @endnode @node Installation 3. Installation, Update & Maintenance ===================================== Depending on how much space is available on your harddisk read the following section. Note that if you don't want to regularly update the database all *.list - files may be deleted which halves the size of the database after installation. Note: If you don't have a 2.5 MB piece of free memory (check the 'Largest' field in the output of the 'avail'-command), you'll need another 2.5 MB on your harddisk for temporary files. Additionally, updating will take a little longer. @{"3.1 Updating from MDB 2.8 and earlier " link 3.1} @{"3.2 Automatic installation via Installer (>55 MB) " link 3.2} @{"3.3 Manual Installation (about 55 MB free diskspace) " link 3.3} @{"3.4 Manual Installation (less than 55 MB diskspace) " link 3.4} @{"3.5 Maintenance (updating new database files) " link 3.5} After installation has been completed, I suggest to open as many windows as possible and place them where ever it suits you. Then save the Prefs. MovieMUI will remember the size and position of each window. If you have any difficulties in setting up the movie database please read the section about @{"Troubleshooting" link Troubleshooting}. @endnode @node "3.1" 3.1 Updating from MDB 2.8 and earlier ===================================== MovieMUI 3.0 and higher has nothing in common with its earlier versions. Even most of the database-files have (slightly) changed their formats. Therefore you should delete all files related to earlier releases. Remove existing assigns, prefs-files and all MovieMUI-files in ENVARC:Mui/ and ENV:Mui/ and get the archives from the 3.0 distribution. @{"3.2 Automatic installation via Installer (>55 MB) " link 3.2} @{"3.3 Manual Installation (about 55 MB free diskspace) " link 3.3} @{"3.4 Manual Installation (less than 55 MB diskspace) " link 3.4} @{"3.5 Maintenance (updating new database files) " link 3.5} @endnode @node "3.2" 3.2 Automatic installation via Installer ======================================== Verify that you have a recent version of @{"MUI" link MUI} installed on your system. Unpack the binary-archive and have the data-archives ready on request (do not unpack them!). Start the installation procedure by double-clicking the MovieMUI-Install-Icon. Follow the instructions given by the Installation script. The database will be set up automatically. This will take some time (about 35 minutes A3000 / 10 MB Ram). A progress indicator will tell you about the state of progress. If you do not intend to update the database regularly, you may delete the data-archives and all *.list-files. However I recommend to keep a backup-copy of the archives at some place. You are a registered user of MUI? Then I would recommend you to select the register-mode in MUI-prefs. This makes the Show-Title-Window clearer. @endnode @node "3.3" 3.3 Manual Installation (about 55 MB free diskspace) ==================================================== Verify that you have a recent version of @{"MUI" link MUI} installed on your system. Unpack the binary-archive. Copy MovieMUI, its Icon and the guide-file to any directory on your harddisk. Copy the ARexx-Scripts to REXX: Unpack the data-archives to any directory on your harddisk. Create a directory where the database shall be kept. Start MovieMUI by double-clicking its icon. On startup MovieMUI will claim that the database cannot be accessed. Select the @{"Menu Preferences-Paths" link 4.1.7} and set the correct pathnames for list- and dbs-files. Save the prefs. Select the @{"Menu Maintenance-Database" link 4.1.6} and click on UPDATE. The database will be set up automatically. This will take some time (about 35 minutes A3000 / 10 MB Ram). A progress indicator will tell you about the state of progress. If you do not intend to update the database regularly, you may delete the data-archives and all *.list-files. However I recommend to keep a backup-copy of the archives at some place. You are a registered user of MUI? Then I would recommend you to select the register-mode in MUI-prefs. This makes the Show-Title-Window clearer. @endnode @node "3.4" 3.4 Manual Installation (less than 55 MB diskspace) =================================================== I recommend to keep a backup-copy of the archives at some place. If anything goes wrong during installation you will have to start again from the beginning. Verify that you have a recent version of @{"MUI" link MUI} installed on your system. Unpack the binary-archive. Copy MovieMUI, its Icon and the guide-file to any directory on your harddisk. Copy the ARexx-Scripts to REXX: Create a directory where the listfiles shall be kept. Create a directory where the database shall be kept. Start MovieMUI by double-clicking its icon. On startup MovieMUI will claim that the database cannot be accessed. Select the @{"Menu Preferences-Paths" link 4.1.7} and set the correct pathnames for list- and dbs-files. Save the prefs. Unpack the first data-archive to the listfiles-directory on your harddisk. Delete any database-file that you don't want to install. IMPORTANT: Do not delete the 'movies.list' ! Select the @{"Menu Maintenance-Database" link 4.1.6} and click on UPDATE. The database will be partially set up. A progress indicator will tell you about the state of progress. Remove all listfiles (especially the 'movies.list'!) from the listfiles-directory. Now unpack the second data-archive to the listfiles-directory on your harddisk. Delete any database-file that you don't want to install. Again, select the Menu Maintenance-Database and click on UPDATE. Remove all listfiles from the listfiles-directory. At last unpack the third data-archive to the listfiles-directory on your harddisk and delete any database-file that you don't want to install.Then select the Menu Maintenance-Database and click on UPDATE. Remove all listfiles from the listfiles-directory. You are a registered user of MUI? Then I would recommend you to select the register-mode in MUI-prefs. This makes the Show-Title-Window clearer. @endnode @node "3.5" 3.5 Maintenance =============== This section describes how to update single database-files. IMPORTANT: It is not possible to update the movies.list without updating every other listfile! It is not possible to update the directors.list without the trivia.list! Copy the listfile(s) to be updated to the listfiles-directory. Every file in this directory will be updated (Therefore be careful that the movies.list is not in that directory). Select the @{"Menu Maintenance-Database" link 4.1.6} and click on UPDATE. The database will be updated. A progress indicator will tell you about the state of progress. Remove all listfiles from the listfiles-directory if you like. @endnode @node MovieMUI 4. MovieMUI =========== Start MovieMUI by double-clicking its icon or by running it from the CLI (note: set the stack-size to about 10 kbytes when running from CLI). The Amiga is capable of multitasking. That means that MovieMUI may be addressed from various sources at the same time (e.g. the GUI and several ARexx-programs in a multi-line-BBS). It is not possible to run two MovieMUIs at the same time. MovieMUI can handle multi-user-acces via the ARexx-Port, but due to a bug/ missing-feature in MUI you have to prevent simultaneous access via GUI and ARexx (see @{"Known bugs & problems" link Troubleshooting}). @{" 4.1 MovieMUI's GUI-Interface " link GUI} @{" 4.2 MovieMUI's AREXX-Interface " link AREXX} @{" 4.3 MovieMUI's AREXX-scripts " link AREXX_SCRIPTS} @{" 4.4 MovieMUI's BBS-scripts " link AREXX_BBS} See @{"Tooltypes & CLI-Options" link Tooltypes} for how to influence MovieMUI's behaviour. @endnode @node GUI 4.1 The GraphicalUserInterface of MovieMUI ========================================== This is one of the two ways to access the data in the database. As MovieMUI has been completely rewritten and does not use the Unix-commands like 'mfind' or 'mtitle' anymore, the handling of the GUI has been improved a lot. Most features are more or less self-explaining. Remember that you may have up to 30 output-windows open at the same time and you may continue your search by simply double-clicking any entry in any outputwindow. This also includes top/worst-output window! @{"4.1.1 Pulldown-menues " link 4.1.1} @{"4.1.2 Main Window " link 4.1.2} @{"4.1.3 Show Window " link 4.1.3} @{"4.1.4 Show Person Window " link 4.1.4} @{"4.1.5 Show Title Window " link 4.1.5} @{"4.1.6 Database Maintenance " link 4.1.6} @{"4.1.7 Preferences Paths " link 4.1.7} @{"4.1.8 Preferences Options " link 4.1.8} @{"4.1.9 Statistics Database Entries " link 4.1.9} @{"4.1.10 Statistics Top/Worst Movies " link 4.1.10} @endnode @node 4.1.1 4.1.1 The PullDown-Menues of the Main Window ============================================ Project - About: gives some useful information on MovieMUI and its creator :-) Project - Iconify: iconifies MovieMUI Project - Quit: quits MovieMUI Maintenance - Database: see @{"Database Maintenance" link 4.1.6} Preferences - Paths: see @{"Path Preferences" link 4.1.7} Preferences - Options: see @{"Option Preferences" link 4.1.8} Preferences - Prefs - Load, Save: As you might suspect, this one enables you to load and save your preferences (paths & options). Additionally the state of the cycle-gadget in the mainwindow and the state of the two proportional gadgets in the statistic window will be saved. Furthermore the position and dimension of all windows will be saved. Statistics - Database Entries: see @{"Statistics Database Entries" link 4.1.9} Statistics - Top/Worst Movies: see @{"Statistics Top/Worst Movies" link 4.1.10} @endnode @node 4.1.2 4.1.2 The Main Window ===================== If you start MovieMUI, the first thing to appear is the MainWindow. This Window as well as every other window (apart from the maintenance window) features some @{"PullDown-Menues" link 4.1.1}. At the top of the Main Window you will find a listview called "Search Entries". All criteria you entered for the next search will be shown here. If there is more than one entry, click on any entry to edit it. Directly below the "Search Entries"-Listview are two buttons: Clicking on the "Add"-Button will generate a new entry in the "Search Entries" - Listview, ready to be edited. The "Delete"-Button will delete the active entry. Below these two buttons there is a stringgadget and a cyclegadget. With the stringgadget you can add or edit the searchpattern, whereas the cyclegadget defines the type of data you entered in the stringgadget. Select MOVIE if you are looking for a movie. Use ANY if you want to search for a specific person in all cast-lists, or use any of the other types if you want to limit the search to a single cast list. I suggest to use ANY for person - searches. Note: - leading articles in movies are placed at the end (e.g. Terminator, The) - names have to be entered in the format: last name, first name (e.g. Ford, Harrison) - the year of release is used to distinguish between movies with the same or similar titles (e.g. "Cape Fear (1962)" and "Cape Fear (1991)") - TV-series are enclosed in quotation marks ("). - All searches are not case sensitive. There are several ways of accessing the data from the Main Window: @{"4.1.2.A. Search for a specific movie/person " link 4.1.2.A} @{"4.1.2.B. Substring Search " link 4.1.2.B} @{"4.1.2.C. Pattern Search " link 4.1.2.C} @{"4.1.2.D. Combined Search " link 4.1.2.D} @endnode @node 4.1.2.A 4.1.2.A. Search for a specific movie/person =========================================== If you want to access information of a specific movie or person, simply enter the person/movie in the stringgadget press RETURN and choose the correct type with the cycling gadget. If this is the only entry in the listview, clicking the 'Execute'-Button will search for the movie/person. If there is more than one entry in the listview, clicking 'Execute' would start a @{"Combined Search" link 4.1.4.D}. In this case you'll have to double-click on the listview-entry. If the movie/person can be found in the database, then, after a few seconds a new output window (@{"Show Person Window" link 4.1.4} or @{"Show Title Window" link 4.1.5}) will appear. If no entry can be matched, a requester will appear, asking you, if a @{"Substring Search" link 4.1.4.B} shall be performed. If the name/title contains any special pattern-characters MovieMUI will directly perform a @{"Pattern Search" link 4.1.4.C}. Maybe an example will make this a little bit clearer: Assuming you want to know about all movies where Harrison Ford appeared in, you'll first have to make sure that the "Search Entries"-Listview is empty (if not, use the "delete"-Button). Then click into the stringgadget and enter: Ford, Harrison; press Return and set the cyclegadget to either "any" or "actor". Afterwards press the "Execute"-Button. After some seconds another @{"Show Person Window" link 4.1.4} will appear including all information on Harrison Ford and his movies. @endnode @node 4.1.2.B 4.1.2.B. Substring Search ========================= In case you are not sure about the correct spelling enter the part of the name/title that know for sure. Now you can perform a substring search, by clicking 'Execute' (or double-clicking the entry in the listview) and answering the requester with 'Substring'. After some seconds another @{"Show Window" link 4.1.3} will appear, including all entries containing that substring. Note: Substring search is equal to a pattern-search with #?name#?, only faster. @endnode @node 4.1.2.C 4.1.2.C. Pattern Search ======================= In case you are not sure about the correct spelling enter the part of the name/title that know for sure. Now you can perform a pattern search, by using special Amiga-Dos search patterns and clicking 'Execute' (or double-clicking the entry in the listview). After some seconds another @{"Show Window" link 4.1.3} will appear, including all entries containing that pattern. The following special characters (Jokers) may be used (For more information read your AmigaDos manual): - # The following expression or character may be repeated any number of times, including 0. - ? Matches any single character. - | Matches any expression separated by '|'. The syntax is "(abc|xyz)" - () With these parentheses it's possible to modify the evaluation sequence while parsing the string. The parentheses may be nested. - % A joker for an empty expression like "". - ' The following character will not be taken as a special character, e.g. "'?" is equivalent to the character "?". - ~ Negates the following expression and matches all strings that do not match exactly to the expression. E.g. ~(abc) matches to every string that is not exactly "abc", e.g. "_abc". - [] The characters or expressions inside these brackets - e.g. [a#bc(de)] will be interpreted as (a|#b|c|de). This is much shorter than the AmigaDOS 1.3 pattern. There may also be a character-range within the brackets, e.g.[c-h], which allows any characters from "c" to "h". If you want the charater "-" to be in the class, put it directly after "[" or in front of "]". [~chars] matches any of the characters that are not in the class. NOTE: AmigaDOS 2.0 will match "[#?]" to the characters "#" and "?" and not with any string. IMPORTANT: Only the special characters '#', '?', '|', '~', '*', '%', '[' and ']' are used to determine, whether a Pattern-Search shall be carried out. If you want to use the "'", '(' or ')' you'll have to add a 'real' joker character (such as the '#?'). EXAMPLES: #?1#0 Matches e.g. Amiga1000, Amiga1 ~(Amiga500) Matches e.g. Amiga1000, _Amiga500 ~(#?Amiga500) Matches e.g Amiga1000, not _Amiga500 #[~0-9]1#0 Matches e.g. Amiga1000 Amig?#[~a-zA-Z125-9] Matches e.g. Amiga0003 Amiga'#?000 Matches only Amiga*000 #a(#m(#i(#g(#a#?)))) Matches e.g. Ammiiigaaaagaagaack (Amiga|Amig[io])(1000|%) Matches e.g. Amiga, Amigo1000 #A#m#i#g#a|A#?a Matches e.g. Angela @endnode @node 4.1.2.D 4.1.2.D. Combined search ======================== A combined search is useful, if you want to find out, if there are common persons in two (or more) movies. Simply enter the titles of the movies (one movie per entry) and click 'Execute'. After some seconds another @{"Show Window" link 4.1.3} will appear, including all entries containing common cast & crew members to these movies. On the other hand you can use the Combined Search to find out all movies where certain persons were involved in together. Simply enter the persons (one person per entry) and click 'Execute'. After some seconds another @{"Show Window" link 4.1.3} will appear, including all entries containing common movies. IMPORTANT: It is necessary that the names/titles are spelled correctly. If you are not sure about this (or if you get an error-message) double click on the entry that is in question and perform a substring search. Then correct the entry manually and press 'Execute' The Combined Search is even more versatile: You may use special joker characters in person/title names. e.g. the movie "alien#?" and the actress "Weaver, Sigourney" will produce the three Alien-movies where Sigourney Weaver appeared in. When using the Combined Search with Joker characters, it is important to put the more specific search entries first. Otherwise the result buffer can overflow (you'll get a message if this happens). So, instead of looking for the MOVIE "a#?" with the ACTRESS "Weaver, Sigourney", you should look for the ACTRESS "Weaver, Sigourney" in the MOVIE "a#?". About the joker characters see @{"Pattern Search" link 4.1.2.C} IMPORTANT: Using joker character in more than one entry which are not of the same type will produce nothing! e.g. the movie "alien#?" and the actress "Weaver,#?" will produce nothing! VERY VERY IMPORTANT: Movies with a special joker character (especially '?') cannot be accessed in this way. Exception: the "'", '(' and ')' are not treated as special characters. @endnode @node 4.1.3 4.1.3. The Show Window ====================== This window will always appear if you search for a certain pattern/substring in the database, or if a Combined Search has been performed. The listview contains all matched entries. A double-click on any entry will open the apropriate @{"Show Person Window" link 4.1.4} or @{"Show Title Window" link 4.1.5}. There may be up to 10 Show Windows open at the same time. @endnode @node 4.1.4 4.1.4. The Show Person Window ============================= This window will always appear if you search for a certain person in the database. The upper listview shows some general information about this person (like his/her birthday, real name, biography, etc.). In the lower listview you can find all the movies this person has been involved with (the so-called filmography) with year of release, Movietitle, character name and if the option 'Add Rating in Person Windows' is selected, the rating of that movie. (see @{"Option Preferences" link 4.1.8}) At the bottom there are several buttons and one cyclegadget which are all self-explaining. For the cryptic award- and votes-information see the appendix of this manual. @{" Formats " link moviedatabase.guide/9} @{" Awards " link moviedatabase.guide/10} @{" Votes " link votes} Highlighting a movie-title and then pressing 'RETURN' has the same effect as a double-click on a movie-title: MovieMUI will search all information available on this entry and open a new @{"Show Title Window" link 4.1.5}. There may be up to 10 Show Person Windows open at the same time. @endnode @node 4.1.5 4.1.5. The Show Title Window ============================ This window will always appear if you search for a certain movie in the database. The upper listview shows some general information about this movie. For the cryptic award- and votes-information see the appendix of this manual. @{" Formats " link moviedatabase.guide/9} @{" Awards " link moviedatabase.guide/10} @{" Votes " link votes} Below this listview, there are up to three cycleentries(registers) depending on the information available: (If you are a registered user of @{"MUI" link MUI}, it is very helpful to select the register-mode in MUI-prefs. This makes the Show-Title-Window clearer.) "Cast & Crew" shows the parts of the movie credits the database contains. "Plot Summary" is a short summary of this film. If this entry doesn't appear then there is no summary in the moviedatabase. So it's up to you to write an abstract. See @{"Adding information to the database " link additions.guide/main} "Trivia" will bring up some special background information of this film - information which not everyone knows. Try out and you´ll see! This entry will only appear if there is any trivia information on this movie available in the database. Of course you can double-click on a person in the "Cast & Crew" register again and a new @{"Show Person Window" link 4.1.4} will appear showing everything about this person found in the database. Then you can select another film again, and so on... This way you can easiely browse through the whole database and proof that Kevin Bacon indeed is the center of the universe :-) There may be up to 10 Show Title Windows open at the same time. @endnode @node 4.1.6 4.1.6. The Maintenance Window ============================= Everytime you get new *.list-files, you need to integrate them into the database. This is done by selecting this menue-entry and then pressing the "Update"-Button in the appearing window. It takes some time to generate the database files. The progress-gauge indicates how many per cent of the database has been created. The status line below the progress indicators display what lists are currently processed and how many entries (first number) and links (second number) have been added. Note: If you don't have a 2.5 MB piece of free memory (check the 'Largest' field in the output of the 'avail'-command), you'll need another 2.5 MB on your harddisk for temporary files. Additionally, updating will take a little longer. Check out the menu @{"Statistics Database Entries" link 4.1.9} to verify that all database files have been added correctly. See: @{"Technical Information" link "Technical Information"} @{"Keeping the Database Up-To-Date" link Updating} @endnode @node 4.1.7 4.1.7. The Paths Window ======================= In this window can set the paths to the certain subdirectories. If the database has been installed by the Installer-Script all entries should contain the correct pathname. Change these settings only if there is need for it and if you know what you do. Currently only 'german-aka-titles' are supported as locale akas. @endnode @node 4.1.8 4.1.8. The Options Window ========================= In this window you can define some presets that will also be used by all @{"ARexx-Commands" link AREXX}. - Use ANY for subsequent searches Whenever you double-click on a person in a Show Window or Show Title Window this person is searched only in a single cast/crew-list. Turning ON this option will MovieMUI have to search for this person in every cast/crew-list. Since this option does not significantly slow the search-speed down, I suggest to turn this option on (default). - Add Biographies adds biographies if available. Since this option does not significantly slow the search-speed down, I suggest to turn this option on (default). - Add Plot Summaries adds plot summaries if available. Since this option does not significantly slow the search-speed down, I suggest to turn this option on (default). - Add Trivia Information adds trivia information if available. Since this option does not significantly slow the search-speed down, I suggest to turn this option on (default). - Add Rating in Person Windows Selecting RATING will cause MovieMUI to add ratings to any movietitle in the Personwindow. This takes a considerable amount of time. In title-windows ratings are always added though. I suggest to turn OFF this option when you don't need it (default). - Search Results Max Limits the number of entries that will be displayed in a @{"Show Window" link 4.1.3}. If run into memory trouble during @{"Substring Search" link 4.1.2.B}, @{"Pattern Search" link 4.1.2.C} or @{"Combined Search" link 4.1.2.D} you should decrease this value. - Default Sort Order - Sort by year sorts all entries in a Show Person Window by year of release. - Sort by name sorts all entries in a Show Person Window by the movie title. - Sort by rating sorts all entries in a Show Person Window by rating (works only, if the Option 'Add Rating in Person Windows' is selected). @endnode @node 4.1.9 4.1.9. The Database Entries Window ================================== A window will appear, showing the total number of different actors, actresses, akas, biographies, cinematographers, etc. These figures do not reflect the total number actual links, e.g. actors who appeared in more than one movie. You can use this function to verify that the database has been set up correctly. @endnode @node 4.1.10 4.1.10. Top/Worst Movies - Window ================================= With this special feature of MovieMUI you can find out which Movies are considered best or worst by the Internet community. With the two proportional-gadgets at the bottom you can define how many Movies you want to have listed (e.g. Top-10, Top-20 or Top-100) and how many votes are necessary for a movie to be taken into account (I generally think that a rating is only representative with 50 or more votes). A double-click on a movie-title will get all information available on this movie and open a new @{"Show Title Window" link 4.1.5}. See: @{"Votes" link votes} @endnode @node AREXX 4.2 The ARexx-Interface ======================= This is one of the two ways to access the data in the database. As MovieMUI has been completely rewritten and does not use the Unix-commands like 'mfind' or 'mtitle' anymore, the handling has been improved a lot. This section describes the powerful ARexx-Port which allows to user to write scripts of his own for special purposes (see @{"MovieMUI's AREXX-scripts" link AREXX_SCRIPTS} for some examples). Portname: MOVIEMUI @{"4.2.1 Example " link 4.2.1} @{"4.2.2 Commands " link 4.2.2} @{"4.2.3 Error-Codes " link 4.2.3} @endnode @node 4.2.1 4.2.1 Example ============= See @{"4.3 ARexx-Scripts " link AREXX_SCRIPTS} for more examples. The KEY-concept allows a very large number of ARexx-programms to access the database at the same time, however, search-requests are handled one after the other. If there is no danger of interference with other ARexx-scripts, you may as well ignore all keys. Usage: Example of ARexx multi-user-access to the MovieDataBase: UNSELECT KEY=0 get an for a selection in RESULT SELECT KEY "Aliens" FROM MOVIE returns number of selected entries in RESULT SELECT KEY "b#?" FROM ACTORS returns number of selected entries in RESULT GETSELECTION returns all actors with "b#?" that starred in "Aliens" in RESULT GETFROMSELECTION 1 get all information on the first entry in the selection (here: Michael Biehn) ENDSELECTION free selection and return memory GET "Aliens" FROM MOVIE get all information on the movie "Aliens" GET "Biehn, Michael" FROM ACTORS get all information on the actor Michael Biehn Note: TV-Series can not be accessed by GET in this way! Note: Movies that have a Pattern-Character (like '?') in their name can not be accessed via SELECTION! (However, "'", '(' and ')' do not count as joker characters.) @endnode @node 4.2.2 4.2.2. Commands =============== The Commands may be divided into three main groups: @{"4.2.2.A. Basic Commands " link 4.2.2.A} @{"4.2.2.B. Database Access Commands " link 4.2.2.B} @{"4.2.2.C. Options & Prefs Commands " link 4.2.2.C} @endnode @node 4.2.2.A 4.2.2.A. Basic Commands ======================= - QUIT Ends the application. - HIDE Hides (iconifies) the application - SHOW Shows (pops up) an iconified application. - INFO ITEM/A According to the given parameter the result string is filled with the following contents: - "title" Title of the application - "author" Author of the application - "copyright" Copyright message - "description" Short description - "version" Version string - "base" Name of the ARexx port - "screen" Name of the public screen - HELP FILE/A A list of all ARexx commands available for the application is written into the given file. - GETERROR Returns the last error message in RESULT. Default string is program name & version N.B: Do not use GETERROR with multiuser access. @endnode @node 4.2.2.B 4.2.2.B. Database Access Commands ================================= - UNSELECT KEY/N/K initializes Selection. The KEY-Parameter is optional. Examples: UNSELECT initializes the global selection UNSELECT KEY=0 initializes the next-vacant selection and returns ID of this selection in RESULT UNSELECT KEY= where has to be greater than 0 re-iniatializes an already existing selection - ENDSELECTION KEY/N/K removes a selection from memory and frees the selection ID Examples: ENDSELECTION frees the global selection ENDSELECTION KEY= frees the selection with the ID - SELECT KEY/N/K,NAME/A,FROM/A/K,WHERE/K performs a selection. The number of selected entries is limited to the Maximum as specified in Prefs/Options. More specific searches should be carried out first. FROM is one of: ANY MOVIE ACR or ACTORS ACS or ACTRESSES CINE or CINEMATOGRAPHERS COMP or COMPOSERS COST or COSTUME-DESIGNERS DIRE or DIRECTORS EDIT or EDITORS PRDE or PRODUCTION-DESIGNERS PROD or PRODUCERS WRIT or WRITERS WHERE is not supported yet. The number of selected entries is returned in RESULT Examples: SELECT "aliens" FROM MOVIE selects every member of the cast & crew of "Aliens" SELECT "alien#?" FROM MOVIE selects every movie that begins with ALIEN and stores the result in the global selection SELECT "cameron, james" FROM WRITERS selects all movies written by James Cameron SELECT KEY= "Cameron, #?" from PROD selects all producers with the surname 'Cameron' in the selection with the ID Correct: SELECT "Weaver, Sigourney" FROM ACS SELECT "A#?" FROM MOVIE Wrong: SELECT "A#?" FROM MOVIE SELECT "Weaver, Sigourney" FROM ACS - UNDOSELECT KEY/N/K undo the last selection. The number of selected entries is returned in RESULT - GETSELECTION KEY/N/K FORMAT/N/K returns all selected entries in RESULT The result can be directly accessed by GETFROMSELECTION FORMAT defines the output-format: 0 no formatting 1 entries are numbered 2 entries are formatted, i.e. the type of a group of entries is printed out 3 (default) formatted & numbered output - GETFROMSELECTION KEY/N/K NUMBER/N/A returns the result of a movietitle/person search in RESULT. number is the number of the selection entry that is searched for. The 'use ANY for subsequent searches'-flag will be taken into account. - GET NAME/A,FROM/A/K According to the given parameter FROM, the RESULT string is filled with the result of a movietitle/person search: ANY MOVIE ACR or ACTORS ACS or ACTRESSES CINE or CINEMATOGRAPHERS COMP or COMPOSERS COST or COSTUME-DESIGNERS DIRE or DIRECTORS EDIT or EDITORS PRDE or PRODUCTION-DESIGNERS PROD or PRODUCERS WRIT or WRITERS Example: GET "Aliens" FROM MOVIE - GETSTATISTIC result returns number of entries of each database - GETRANKING TOP/N/K WORST/N/K VOTES/N/K get top or worst movies with a minimum of n votes. Example: GETRANKING TOP=10 VOTES=100 get top 10 movies with 100 votes minimum GETRANKING WORST=20 get worst 20 movies with default minimum of votes GETRANKING get default top movies with default minimum of votes Note: The default values are set and saved in the Top/Worst-Window. The value for TOP and WORST has to be between 10 and 100 (This might change in the future) The value for VOTES has to be between 0 and 500 (This might change in the future) If the values exceed the limit, the default value will be used. - UPDATE updates the whole database. NOTE: This is currently the only Arexx-Command that supports the GUI to show the update progress. ATTENTION: Due to a bug/missing feature in MUI, it is possible to submit a new Arexx-command while updating is still in progress. This however has to be prevented by the user. I suggest not to use this Arexx-Command at all. It was only implemented to support the installer-script. @endnode @node 4.2.2.C 4.2.2.C. Options & Prefs Commands ================================= - SETPATH TYPE/A NAME/A sets a pathname. TYPE is one of LIST DBS PRINTER LOCALE - GETPATH TYPE/A return pathname in RESULT. TYPE is one of LIST DBS PRINTER LOCALE - SETFLAG OPTION/A,OFF/S/K sets flag in Prefs/Options-Window, where OPTION is: TABLE ANY use ANY for subsequent searches (Default is ON) BIO add data from biography (Default is ON) PLOT add plot summaries (Default is ON) TRIVIA add trivia-information (Default is ON) REVIEWS PICS RATING add ratings with a person's movies (Default is OFF) OFF turns off the Option - GETFLAG OPTION/A gets state of flag in Prefs/Options-Window, where OPTION is: TABLE ANY use ANY for subsequent searches (Default is ON) BIO add data from biography (Default is ON) PLOT add plot summaries (Default is ON) TRIVIA add trivia-information (Default is ON) REVIEWS PICS RATING add ratings with a person's movies (Default is OFF) - SETSORT ORDER/A sets sorting order in person-windows and Output, where ORDER is: YEAR NAME RATING (works in person-windows only, not in the text-output and only if the 'Add rating...' - option has been activated) - GETSORT returns current state of the sortorder cyclegadget - SETMAX MAX/A sets the maximum number of results to a new value (10 <= MAX <= 5000) - GETMAX gets the maximum number of results (10 <= RESULT <= 5000) - SAVEPREFS saves the paths- & options-preferences to ENV & ENVARC: - LOADPREFS loads the paths- & options-preferences from ENVARC: @endnode @node 4.2.3 4.2.3 Errornumbers ================== In case of an error, MUI returns the following values in RC to the rexx-script (the ARexx-command GETERROR returns a more specific error-message in RESULT): 0 No error. RESULT contains the result of the executed command. In every other case (RC <> 0) RESULT will be unchanged. - 1 Wrong command definition in host program. Should never happen. (MUI-Error) - 2 Out of memory. (MUI-Error) - 3 Unknown ARexx command. (MUI-Error) - 4 Syntax error. (MUI-Error) 1 The movietitle/person is not in the database. Please check spelling. 10 Unsupported command/option. 11 Unknown option. 12 Syntax error. 20 The database has not been created. See docs. 21 The format of the database has changed. Reinstall the whole database. 22 The data-initstring in a *.list file could not be found. 23 The ratings are not available. 24 Impossible link. This should never happen. 25 The movie titles cannot be accessed (movies.list or movie.hash). Please check if pathnames are set correctly. 50 Maximum number of windows reached (GUI only). 51 Search buffer is full. 52 Nothing to look for (GUI only). 53 A limit has been exceeded. 60 The given key does not exist. 61 Selection is empty. 62 The given number is bigger than the number of entries in a selection. 63 Selection has not been initialized. 80 Failed to open a file. 81 Failed to find a position in a file. 82 Error when reading from a file. 83 Error when writing to a file. 100 Out of memory. 101 Failed to create the Application. 102 Failed to open a library. @endnode @node AREXX_SCRIPTS 4.3 The ARexx-Scripts ===================== There are several ARexx-scripts distributed with MovieMUI. If you write any useful script, feel free to mail it to me. I would love to include it with the next release of the MovieDataBase. @{"4.3.1 mtrace.rexx " link 4.3.1} @{"4.3.2 listall.rexx " link 4.3.2} @{"4.3.3 MGuide.rexx " link 4.3.3} @{"4.4 MovieMUI's BBS-scripts" link AREXX_BBS} @endnode @node 4.3.1 4.3.1 mtrace.rexx ================= This program displays all the information about each of the movies that someone has worked on. For a good example try: rx mtrace.rexx Hitchcock, Alfred finds the list of Hitchcock's movies then reports full details on each one. Use Amigados redirection to save the output to a file or printer. Note: This script may take several minutes to be executed. @endnode @node 4.3.2 4.3.2 listall.rexx ================== 'listall' takes a movie title as an argument and for each person involved in that movie, lists all the other movies they have worked on. Example: rx listall.rexx Abyss, The Use Amigados redirection to save the output to a file or printer. Note: This script may take several minutes to be executed. @endnode @node 4.3.3 4.3.3 MGuide.rexx ================== 'MGuide' takes a filename of a file of movietitles as an argument. For each movietitle in this file all info is shown. Example: create a file 'movie_guide' containing the following lines: Abyss, The Aliens Groundhog Day and run rx mguide.rexx movie_guide Use Amigados redirection to save the output to a file or printer. Note: This script may take several minutes to be executed. This ARexx script was written by Bernd Ernesti. @endnode @node AREXX_BBS 4.4 The ARexx-BBS-Scripts ========================= MovieMUI provides ARexx Support for several BBS-Systems. Please read the instructions carefully. If you have any questions please contact the author of the original script, because I don't know much about running a BBS System. The Techno and Excelsior BBS scripts are just modified versions of the Transamiga script. You might need some files from the Transamiga directory as well. @{"4.4.1 Transamiga BBS " link 4.4.1} @{"4.4.2 Techno BBS " link 4.4.2} @{"4.4.3 Excelsior! BBS " link 4.4.3} I would really appreciate it, if anybody could write scripts to support the MovieDataBase with other BBS-programs. @endnode @node 4.4.1 4.4.1 Transamiga BBS ==================== MovieMUI can be used online with TransAmiga and the supplied ARexx script. This little paragraph describes the installation procedure. Copy the ARexx script mdb.trans that came with MovieMui in your rexx directory of TransAmiga. If your TransAmiga installation follows the suggestions of the manual it is BBS:Rexx. Edit the .Rx file of the menu you wish to add MovieMUI to. I suggest the Extra or main menu. In case of extra menu you would edit BBS:Configs/Extra.Rx and in case of the main menu you need to edit Main.Rx. Add the following line at the end of the file: M MovieMUI 0 -------- mdb.trans ATTENTION! Spacing is really important. The best way is to snap the line of this document and insert it in the file. If the menu you want to add MovieMUI already uses M as a command replace the first letter of the line by the key you want. If you don't know what to do read the corresponding chapter of TransAmiga's manual. The ARexx-script is multiline aware so you can use it without any change on all lines. The script expects MovieMUI in the system path. If you do not want MovieMUI in your path you have to edit the script and add the path at line 18. mdb.trans uses a menu to let the user choose the action. There are example menu files included. They all start with mdb as filename. Copy them to your BBS:text directory. If you wish to change them load them to your favourite (ANSI-)editor. Give them the personal touch you like. They follow TransAmiga's naming system. That's all you're ready for use - if you allready installed MovieMUI :-) The ARexx script was written by Georg 'Gio' Magschok and slightly improved (especially multiline possibility) by Sami Radwan. We have some future plans of new online software that uses MovieMUI so keep your eyes open. :-) @endnode @node 4.4.2 4.4.2 Techno BBS ================ Hi everybody out there! As I've just started with the TBBS software, I'm very curious to what's out there of good doors. When I saw the MovieMUI distribution had a TransAmiga door in it, I thought that I might as well translate it to TechnoBBS. It was very easy, took me only a couple of hours, and this is the result. I've drawn some nice menu's instead of the old ones (I hate monocrome :-), and then I've tidyed up in the code a bit, no need for multiple arexx commands on one line, it just makes it more difficult to read. To install it, just extract the archive in your BBS: drawer. I've assumed you have a 'doors' drawer in it, but there's no reason why it couldn't go anywhere else. In the top of the script, there's some configuration settings. This tells the script where the menu's are, and whether it should quit MovieMUI after use. The old script just quit MovieMUI if it was set, but I use an environment variable to see if there are other users (on a multiline BBS) that uses MovieMUI at the moment. You should also configure where the script can find MovieMui, and what to call the temp file it uses. I've installed MovieMUI in my doors menu with this: Command "movie" (N:1) { dos("rx >NIL: Doors:mdb/mdb.rexx \(node())"); }; That's just about it, have fun... Kenneth Fribert Fido: 2:235/317.0 Amy: 39:141/104.15 Inter: kfribert@scala.ping.dk BBS/Fax: +45 31 87 98 36 @endnode @node 4.4.3 4.4.3 Excelsior BBS =================== MovieMUI can be used online with Excelsior! and the supplied ARexx script. This little paragraph describes the installation procedure. Copy the ARexx script mdb.rexx that came with MovieMui in your doors directory of Excelsior ("/ExcelBBS/Doors", "BBS:Doors" or just "DOORS:", that depends on your installation of Excelsior!). Add the following line in your EX.BBSMenus file: 590, MDB, 0, "1-32", "\#0DOORS:mdb.rexx\" You can choose any number from 580 upwards in the globals commands section. You need to change the access and the path to fit your own environment. The other way to install MDB is in the doors-section of Excelsior!. Simple add it as usual as an ARexx-Door with non-exclusive access and IPL-variable set to 0. The ARexx-script is multiline aware so you can use it without any change on all lines. Take a look in the script itself, you need to change the given path for MovieMUI to that one you use on your system. mdb.rexx uses a menu to let the user choose the action. There are example menu files included. They all start with mdb as filename. Copy them to your BBS:text// directory. If you wish to change them load them to your favourite (ANSI-)editor. Give them the personal touch you like. That's all you're ready for use - if you allready installed MovieMUI :-) And don't forget to alter the path for MovieMUI in the arexx-script itself! The original ARexx script was written by Georg 'Gio' Magschok and slightly improved (especially multiline possibility) by Sami Radwan. It was changed to work with E! by Michael A. Bode. E!-sysops (and other persons as well ;)) may contact me under root@morphic.wupper.de. Have fun ! ;) @endnode @node Updating A. Maintaining the Database =========================== For updating your MovieDataBase, you need to get a copy of the latest database files. Of course, with every new version of MovieMUI you will get the latest lists, but as there will not be a new version every month - whereas the lists are updated more often - there are other ways to be more up-to-date. @{" Updating via FTP " link "Updating via FTP"} @{" Updating using diff-files " link "Updating via diffs"} @{" Updating from rec.arts.movies " link "Updating from rec.arts.movies"} @{" Updating from Mailboxes " link "Updating from Mailboxes"} See @{" Maintenance " link 3.5} to learn, what to to with the new list-files. @endnode @node "Updating via FTP" A.1 Updating via FTP ==================== For this one you'll need direct access to the INTERNET. You may prefer to update the Database directly from the ftp site and in fact, some lists are only available via ftp. Simply get a copy of the lists put them in your list-files directory and start 'MovieMUI'. The lists are stored on the ftp site in compressed form (.Z extensions), therefore you have to uncompress them first. At least the following ftp-sites should have the latest databasefiles: cathouse.org:/pub/cathouse/movies/database ftp.funet.fi:/pub/culture/tv+film/lists ftp.fu-berlin.de in pub/misc/movies/database @endnode @node "Updating via diffs" A.2 Updating using diff-files ============================= For this one you'll need direct access to the INTERNET. The movie database files on cathouse are updated every Friday. The latest full versions of all the files are held in the 'database' directory. This 'diffs' directory contains sets of diff files for each week's database files with respect to the previous week's. For example, diffs-941230.tar.Z contains the diffs to be applied to the 30th December 1994 files in order to generate the files for 6th January 1995. NOTE: if you miss more than one weeks worth of updates you need to apply the patches for all the missing weeks in succession to bring your local copies up to date. This distribution features a small utility called 'ApplyDiffs' to manage those diff files. Please refer to its Readme-File in the tool-directory for more information. @endnode @node "Updating from rec.arts.movies" A.3 Updating from REC.ARTS.MOVIES ================================= Rec.arts.movies is a USENET-newsgroup where you can find discussions, opinions or reviews about movies. Some of the list-files are posted here, too. Most of the posted lists are split over several smaller articles. You will need to join all the articles together and remove the news headers from part two and any subsequent parts. Do not delete any of the header text from part one since the system needs it to detect the start of data. The disadvantage of this method is that only a subset of the complete lists is posted and there is no way of joining the complete lists with the subset lists. @endnode @node "Updating from Mailboxes" A.4 Updating from Mailboxes =========================== Whenever the Amiga-software is updated, a snapshot of the latest database files together with the executables is uploaded to AMINET. Any mailbox that mirrors AMINET should have a copy of the moviedatabase too. As the Amiga-software is updated only once in while, the last databasefiles on AMINET may not be up-to-date. Maybe there are some mailboxes, which have the latest list-files mirrored from the INTERNET. Look a little bit around in your area and ask the sysops. @endnode @node votes E. Votes ======== All ratings available in the MovieDataBase are taken from the ratings.list. In this list, movies have been rated on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being good and 1 being bad. For each movie, the total number of votes, the average rating, and the vote distribution are shown. New movies are indicated by a "*" before their entry. The vote distribution uses a single character to represent the percentage of votes for each ranking. The following characters codes can appear: "." no votes cast "3" 30-39% of the votes "7" 70-79% of the votes "0" 1-9% of the votes "4" 40-49% of the votes "8" 80-89% of the votes "1" 10-19% of the votes "5" 50-59% of the votes "9" 90-99% of the votes "2" 20-29% of the votes "6" 60-69% of the votes "*" 100% of the votes To have your votes tallied in the list, send mail to movie-vote@ibmpcug.co.uk. In your mail, any line beginning with the word "vote" will be considered as a vote. All other lines ARE IGNORED. No human will see your mail. Votes must be of the form vote where <rating> is an integer between 1 and 10, and <title> is everything on the line after the <rating>. Case is not considered in movie titles. Valid votes might be vote 8 Annie Hall vote 1 santa claus conquers the martians This report is available via anonymous FTP from: cathouse.org in pub/cathouse/movies/database/ratings.list.Z ftp.funet.fi in pub/culture/tv+film/lists/ratings.list.gz penguin.gatech.edu in pub/movie A set of Unix shell scripts to help manage your votes is available via anonymous FTP: cathouse.org in pub/cathouse/movies/database/tools/voting_scripts.Z ftp.funet.fi in pub/culture/tv+film/lists/tools/voting_scripts.gz If you have access to a WWW browser such as Mosaic, the movie database WWW server now provides a simple way to vote in the report. You can browse the database and easily create a vote file for mailing to the tabulator. This interface is available through the document: http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk/Movies/ Mosaic runs on many systems and is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in the directory /Web The movie ratings report is now a joint project between Chuck Musciano <chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com> and Colin Needham <cn@ibmpcug.co.uk>. All questions concerning the day to day running of the report should be addressed to Colin. @endnode @node Genres F. Genres ========= Listed here are some genres for the more popular types of movies. Action Adventure Animation Comedy Documentary Drama Fantasy Fiction Film-Noir Horror Musical Sci-Fi Thriller Western These are the main genres, there is an unlimited number of sub-genres. @endnode @node Tooltypes G. Tooltypes & CLI-Options ========================== You may influence MovieMUI's behaviour with the following CLI-options: (Note: When run from CLI, don't forget to increase the stack to about 10KB) QUIET will start MovieMUI iconified. ERRORFILE=<filename> or ERRORFILE will produce an errorfile when the database is compiled. Default filename is T:errorfile ERRORLEVEL=n will only produce an error-requester if the error-penalty is greater or equal n (see below). Default is 10 DEBUGLEVEL=n will add additional information to any error-requester if if the error- penalty is greater or equal n (see below). Default is 20 Values for error-penalty: ------------------------- 0 no error 5 harmless error 10 serious error 20 a very serious that should be reported to me, because a bug in the code is very likely. @endnode @node Addresses H. Addresses ============ Please use the following E-Mail adresses for making contact. If you do not have the possibility to send E-Mails to the usenet please contact me (André Bernhardt) and I will pass the mail on. Name Aas, Lars J E-Mail larsa@colargol.edb.tih.no Name Bernhardt, Andre S-Mail Pfaffstr.6 76227 Karlsruhe Germany E-Mail ujad@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de Name Chapman, Murray E-Mail muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au Name Gaines, Michael E-Mail starman@intac.com Name Hafner, Michel E-Mail hafner@ifi.unizh.ch Name Hammond, Steve E-Mail shammond@indirect.com Name Harding, Mark E-Mail ccsmh@ss1.bath.ac.uk Name Higgins, Ron E-Mail rhiggins@carroll1.cc.edu Name Mayr, Harald E-Mail marvin@bike.augusta.de Name Needham, Col E-Mail cn@ibmpcug.co.uk Name Reeves, Jon E-Mail reeves@zk3.dec.com Name Tinto, Colin E-Mail colint@spider.co.uk @endnode @node "Technical Information" I. Technical Information ======================== The *.list files contain, in addition to the database files, some general information on the Database, its maintainers etc. During the installing/maintanance of the database the movie-data itself will be extracted and some additional index-information and hash-files will be genereated to accelerate the search-procedures (if you know the older versions of MovieMUI you´ll know what I´m talking of). This additional information will be stored in extra files so don´t wonder if one *.list file produces more than one database-file. After this, the *.list files are obsolete and may be deleted. However, if you plan to currently update the database you should keep the *.list files somewhere around. Apart from the 'movies.list', you do not need to install all *.listfiles of this distribution. Database files that cannot be found, will simply be ignored. @endnode @node Troubleshooting J. Known bugs & problems, final notes ===================================== I welcome feedback on the package. If you have any problems or would like to see a particular feature added, please let me know by e-mail. Read the History-file to learn about future enhancements of MovieMUI. If you have any problems with MovieMUI then continue to read the following list. Maybe there is an explanation for MovieMUI's behaviour on your system. If you still encounter any bugs or problems, please do report them! - "I can't access information on 'aka-names', 'complete-cast' or 'movie-links' although those lists were part of the package" Well, this is simply because the "aka-names.list", "complete-cast.list" & "movie-links.list" which are indeed part of this distribution are not supported by MovieMUI yet! You can, however, access these listfiles using your preferred text-viewer. - "MovieMUI seems to eat memory." Well I haven't found out the reason why, but you'll miss some memory (only a few KByte) when quitting MovieMUI. I'm working on this problem, but maybe it's a bug in MUI? - "I always run into memory trouble." Well, MovieMUI consumes a lot of memory. When updating/creating the database you'll need about 800 KByte at the very minimum, preferably in one piece. However updating is fastest with a 2.5 MByte piece of memory. If you run into trouble when updating the database, I suggest to reset your Amiga (maybe the memory is fragmented) and only run as few programs as possible. If you have memory problems during database-access, I suggest keep the number of open windows to a minimum. Decrease the "search results max" in @{"Preferences Options" link 4.1.8} - "I can't access my favorite TV-series via the ARexx-Port." Unfortunately, the '"' which indicates TV-series are not passed to MovieMUI. A way to solve this problem is to do a selection and then use the GETFROMSELECTION-command to access the data. - "I can't directly access the movie 'Why Me? (1990)' from the GUI." This is because of the '?' in the Movietitle. MovieMUI considers the question mark to be a special joker character (see @{"Pattern Search" link 4.1.2.C}). Therefore a pattern search is carried out. When using the GUI this is no problem - simply double-click the movie in the Show Window and you'll get what you want. The ARexx-command GET works perfectly, because it does not support any pattern matching. ARexx-Pattern Searches have to be performed using the selection method. - "I can't start another MovieMUI while the first one is still running." This is correct, since I don't consider it any advantage, if two tasks are fighting for harddisk-access at the same time. MovieMUI is fast enough, there is no need to run two MovieMUIs at the same time. - "Accessing the database from ARexx and the GUI at the same time, does somtimes not work properly." MovieMUI can handle multi-user-acces via the ARexx-Port, but due to a bug/ missing-feature in MUI you have to prevent simultaneous access via GUI and ARexx. This is because I use several global variables (shame on me) and I can't prevent MUI from performing an ARexx-command, while already performing a search with the GUI. As a Sysop of a BBS that offers MovieDataBase access, you should be careful to use the GUI when some users are accessing the database. - "When trying to update the database, I always get a 'Cannot access movie-titles.'- errormessage". MovieMUI needs the movie titles as a reference to update the cast- & crew-lists. If neither the movies.list-file in the /lists-directory, nor the movie.hash-file in the /dbs-directory can be found, MovieMUI cannot update any list. The reason for this may be that the pathnames are not set correctly. Please check that out. Tools like Snoopdos might help you in finding the error. - "Something went wrong during the installation-process and now I don't get the damn thing to work." In some very rare cases, when anything that can go wrong, goes wrong (always remember Murphy), the database structure may be corrupted, without MovieMUI taking notice of it. In this case, you'll usually tend to get those nice "A very serious error ... please report it ..." - requesters. Delete the whole database-directory (deleting the MovieDatabase.count file will actually have the same effect) and start over again. @endnode