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54 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
54 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: The TVDB Google App Script
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date: 2016-12-06
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---
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#### Let's learn something new!
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My girlfriend Becky and I enjoy watching TV shows
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together. So much so, in fact, that we've started putting together a
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spreadsheet of the shows the need to binge watch together. So just for
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the hell of it, I threw together a rather basic (and messy) Google App
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Script that lives in the spreadsheet, which pulls information from [The
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TVDB](https://thetvdb.com/) regarding
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how many episodes there are and how long it would take to binge watch
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all the shows (roughly).
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Some things I learned while working in the Google App Script IDE. First,
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tabs are only two spaces, instead of the usual four I work with in
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Python. Which messed me up slightly when I first started, but I go much
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more used to it. Second, it's just JavaScript, really. I expected some
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sort of stripped down programming language but it's really just a
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slightly tweaked JS environment, with some functions that allow you to
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interact with Google Docs/Sheets/Forms etc. And finally, I learned just
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how useful Google App Scripts can be -- I never really used them, and
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believed them to be a waste of time to learn. Alas, I was wrong, my
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elitist thinking getting the better of me.
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So let's talk about the actual script. You can find the whole thing in
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the Gist below, a slightly tidied up and revised version. You'll need an
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API key from The TVDB, and I highly recommend you check out [their API
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docs](https://api.thetvdb.com/swagger) so you know exactly what sort of info and routes
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we're using.
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Essentially, what happens in this. First, we search (using
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`searchTvdb(show, network)`) for the specific show, using the network to
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filter out results in case there are multiple shows with the same name.
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Next, we take the showId it returns and query TVDB for the info
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corresponding to the show -- we're most interested in the average
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runtime from this query. We also ask TVDB for the summary of the
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episodes, which returns the number of seasons, episodes aired, and so
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on. We aggregate all this data into one clump of data and then throw it
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into the spreadsheet.
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It's very inefficient, I realize that. There are plenty of things I
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could probably improve performance wise, however it works fine. I expect
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the more shows in the spreadsheet the longer it will take (about 12
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seconds with a 14 item list), but I'll refine a bit in the future.
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> "If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then
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> there'd be peace." -- [**John
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> Lennon**](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19968.John_Lennon) **(Probably)**
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