IMDB is an online database full of information about films, TV shows, and other types of content.
In this tutorial, I’ll show how to connect the IMDB REST API to Google Sheets in 5 steps:
To pull data from the IMDB API to Google Sheets easily and without writing any code, first install and open the Apipheny Google Sheets add-on.
Apipheny is a no-code API integrator for Google Sheets that you can use to make unlimited API requests, connect to unlimited APIs (including the IMDB API), save API requests, schedule API requests, and more. Click here if you want to learn more about Apipheny.
1. Install Apipheny by clicking the Install button on this page.
2. After you’ve installed Apipheny, open a Google Sheet and then click on the Add-Ons option in the menu at the top. In the add-ons menu, you should see Apipheny if you’ve installed it.
Then just click Apipheny > Import API to open the Apipheny sidebar in your Google Sheets.
Next, log in to your IMDB developer account.
In your developer account dashboard, click on your username:
In the Profile section, click the Profile option:
On this Profile page, you will find your API key:
Copy and paste your API key to safe location, because you’ll need it in the next steps.
In this section, we’ll show you how to browse the IMBD API documentation to find a specific API endpoint URL that retrieves the information you need from IMDB.
If you already know your API URL, or you want to use the same example URL as us, just skip to Step 4.
First, open the IMBD API documentation page: https://imdb-api.com/api
The main page contains a list of categorized IMBD API endpoints:
If you click an endpoint, for example FullCast, you’ll be redirected to that endpoint’s section:
If you click the little arrow next to the endpoint, you will expand the endpoint details.
For example, the FullCast endpoint returns the full cast/crew and actors/actresses of Movie or Series TV. Here is the URL for that specific endpoint:
https://imdb-api.com/en/API/FullCast/{your_key}/{id}
Don’t forget to replace {your_key} with your API key and {id} with a valid IMDB id.
Each endpoint’s documentation contains the endpoint’s HTTP method (eg. GET) and URL structure, a paragraph describing the endpoint’s purpose, a table listing the required parameters, and a section with formatted URL examples:
All API calls to the IMDB API should be made to the https://imdb-api.com/en/API/ base domain.
Now, the final steps to get your IMDB data in your Google Sheet is to go back to your Google Sheet and make sure that you’ve installed the Apipheny add-on and you have it opened to the “Import” tab. In the Import Tab of Apipheny, enter the following details into the add-on:
Method: At the top of the Apipheny sidebar, select the HTTP method (GET or POST) required by your IMDB API endpoint. For this example, we are using the “GET” method.
API URL: In Step 3, we explained how you can find the IMDB API endpoint that you need. Now copy your complete IMDB API URL into the Apipheny add-on, in the field that says API URL Path (JSON / CSV), followed by any GET parameters required for your query (if applicable).
For this example, we are using the SearchMovie endpoint, which returns the search results for a specific expression. The corresponding URL for this endpoint is:
https://imdb-api.com/en/API/SearchMovie/{key}/{expression}
If you want to follow the same example as us, just copy and paste this URL into the add-on, but replace {key} with your API key and {expression} with the movie title you want to search for.
Headers are not required for this API request, so you can leave that section blank in Apipheny.
Here’s what your IMDB API request should look like when entered into Apipheny:
The last step to get IMDB data into your Google Sheet is to click the Run button at the bottom of the Apipheny add-on. After clicking Run, your IMDB data will be imported into your Google Sheets. Congratulations!
After making a successful request to the IMDB API, try querying a different IMDB API endpoint, or try using one of the more advanced features in the Apipheny add-on, such as:
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Meelad Mashaw