Importing my eXtreme Movie Manager movie collection

[shingaimav]

Hello,

I recently migrated from PC to Mac and it has become clear that I will not be able to continue using my DVD/movie management software, eXtreme Movie Manager (XMM), because it doesn't run on a Mac platform. I have a collection of almost 1000 movies which have cover art, cast info, synopses, etc and I would like to be able to move my entire database to DVDpedia. XMM has several export options and I am hoping some of them will align with the import options of DVDpedia. I hope I am not being too ambitious. Any assistance or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I would hate to start from scratch without first picking your brains. I look forward to your feedback.

On another note, I've been looking at your program/application and I am impressed by its ease of use; and judging from the many responses you get from your users, people seem to be really happy with it and the support you provide.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[FineWine]

XMM has several export options and I am hoping some of them will align with the import options of DVDpedia.

You can import into DVDpedia in several ways, have a read of this help page first. Importing entries

I had a look at the XMM support page which was of no help as they are still writing it. But it seems you can export from XMM in CSV and XML formats, BUT having a look at their support forums people are having trouble exporting anything if you are using XMM version 8. Last version where exporting worked was XMM version 7.2.3.6.

Though DVDpedia does not pacifically cater for XMM it will import using either CSV or XML formats, XML being the preferred. I would locate your XMM database file and make a backup of it before you try to do any exporting. I would do the same for the cover art if they have a separate folder system for that.

If you have any specific problems (missing info etc) with exporting from XMM and importing to DVDpedia Conor may be able to help you with a specific script or some such.

Hope this was of some help.

OH YES and welcome to the Apple  world of computing

Cheers

[Conor]

Although DVDpedia has 13 XML importers none of them are for XXM file format. As Fine Wine mentioned you want to export your data in CSV which allows for mapping between any column in the export and fields in DVDpedia. The only corrections you will need to do is the cover image path should be in a standard Mac format and not Windows (with backward slash replaced for forward slash and the "c:/" prefix removed). Should look like this and maps to "Image URL":

/Users/me/Desktop/XXM Export/Images/1.jpg

Should XXM not export the whole path, you will need to figure out how they export the cover information and append the entire path in the front of that information to have DVDpedia find the file.

As long as you can bring in any of your personal data and title and director, then you can gather the rest of the movie information with the gear button in the bottom right of the edit panel. If you have unique IDs that you imported like IMDb number then you can also use the "Movie -> Update from..." menu command on the entire selection as this option does not allow you to select the results like the gear button does, but choices the first result, perfect for when you have an ID. Doghouse is quite good with this feature as it takes into account a number of fields on making the exact match if you have no IDs and wish to do it automatically.

We are proud of the Pedias as well as all out users that have helped make the Pedias what they are today.

[FineWine]

As Fine Wine mentioned you want to export your data in CSV which allows for mapping between any column in the export and fields in DVDpedia..

So Conor is the preferred export from these esoteric database programs CSV? as I thought it was XML.

Happy New Year to all your team and Nora. When are we going to here the sound of little feet?

[Nora]

XML is preferred if we can import that particular format. (There are still many differences in XML so not a one-size-fits-all approach like CSV or tab delimited.)

Happy new year to you too! Sounds of little feet are not too far off actually (are you spying on us?! ) so if you notice a serious slow down in responses here in a couple of months, you'll know the reason...

[shingaimav]

Thank you Nora, Conor and FineWine! I have exported the XML file from XMM and I will now try to follow your instructions for importing into DVDPedia. I'll be honest, being me to Mac, I am not sure I follow the bit about changing the path but hopefully this will become apparent when I try it out. Wish me luck.

One other question, would I have an easier time with path names if I used a CSV file? I want to make sure I am using the least complicated method. Last thing I want is to screw this up .

Nora, congrats on the upcoming "sound of little feet".

Thanks again for all your help!

[Conor]

It will be better if you export a CSV. If you can go back to XXM and get a CSV export it would be ideal. Then just drag it over DVDpedia dock icon to initiate the import.