SickGear/lib/tvdb_api/readme.md

# `tvdb_api`

`tvdb_api` is an easy to use interface to [thetvdb.com][tvdb]

`tvnamer` has moved to a separate repository: [github.com/dbr/tvnamer][tvnamer] - it is a utility which uses `tvdb_api` to rename files from `some.show.s01e03.blah.abc.avi` to `Some Show - [01x03] - The Episode Name.avi` (which works by getting the episode name from `tvdb_api`)

[![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/dbr/tvdb_api.png?branch=master)](http://travis-ci.org/dbr/tvdb_api)

## To install

You can easily install `tvdb_api` via `easy_install`

    easy_install tvdb_api

You may need to use sudo, depending on your setup:

    sudo easy_install tvdb_api

The [`tvnamer`][tvnamer] command-line tool can also be installed via `easy_install`, this installs `tvdb_api` as a dependancy:

    easy_install tvnamer


## Basic usage

    import tvdb_api
    t = indexerApi()
    episode = t['My Name Is Earl'][1][3] # get season 1, episode 3 of show
    print episode['episodename'] # Print episode name

## Advanced usage

Most of the documentation is in docstrings. The examples are tested (using doctest) so will always be up to date and working.

The docstring for `Tvdb.__init__` lists all initialisation arguments, including support for non-English searches, custom "Select Series" interfaces and enabling the retrieval of banners and extended actor information. You can also override the default API key using `apikey`, recommended if you're using `tvdb_api` in a larger script or application

### Exceptions

There are several exceptions you may catch, these can be imported from `tvdb_api`:

- `tvdb_error` - this is raised when there is an error communicating with [thetvdb.com][tvdb] (a network error most commonly)
- `tvdb_userabort` - raised when a user aborts the Select Series dialog (by `ctrl+c`, or entering `q`)
- `tvdb_shownotfound` - raised when `t['show name']` cannot find anything
- `tvdb_seasonnotfound` - raised when the requested series (`t['show name][99]`) does not exist
- `tvdb_episodenotfound` - raised when the requested episode (`t['show name][1][99]`) does not exist.
- `tvdb_attributenotfound` - raised when the requested attribute is not found (`t['show name']['an attribute']`, `t['show name'][1]['an attribute']`, or ``t['show name'][1][1]['an attribute']``)

### Series data

All data exposed by [thetvdb.com][tvdb] is accessible via the `Show` class. A Show is retrieved by doing..

    >>> import tvdb_api
    >>> t = indexerApi()
    >>> show = t['scrubs']
    >>> type(show)
    <class 'tvdb_api.Show'>

For example, to find out what network Scrubs is aired:

    >>> t['scrubs']['network']
    u'ABC'

The data is stored in an attribute named `data`, within the Show instance:

    >>> t['scrubs'].data.keys()
    ['networkid', 'rating', 'airs_dayofweek', 'contentrating', 'seriesname', 'id', 'airs_time', 'network', 'fanart', 'lastupdated', 'actors', 'ratingcount', 'status', 'added', 'poster', 'imdb_id', 'genre', 'banner', 'seriesid', 'language', 'zap2it_id', 'addedby', 'firstaired', 'runtime', 'overview']

Although each element is also accessible via `t['scrubs']` for ease-of-use:

    >>> t['scrubs']['rating']
    u'9.0'

This is the recommended way of retrieving "one-off" data (for example, if you are only interested in "seriesname"). If you wish to iterate over all data, or check if a particular show has a specific piece of data, use the `data` attribute,

    >>> 'rating' in t['scrubs'].data
    True

### Banners and actors

Since banners and actors are separate XML files, retrieving them by default is undesirable. If you wish to retrieve banners (and other fanart), use the `banners` Tvdb initialisation argument:

    >>> from tvdb_api import Tvdb
    >>> t = Tvdb(banners = True)

Then access the data using a `Show`'s `_banner` key:

    >>> t['scrubs']['_banners'].keys()
    ['fanart', 'poster', 'series', 'season']

The banner data structure will be improved in future versions.

Extended actor data is accessible similarly:

    >>> t = Tvdb(actors = True)
    >>> actors = t['scrubs']['_actors']
    >>> actors[0]
    <Actor "Zach Braff">
    >>> actors[0].keys()
    ['sortorder', 'image', 'role', 'id', 'name']
    >>> actors[0]['role']
    u'Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian'

Remember a simple list of actors is accessible via the default Show data:

    >>> t['scrubs']['actors']
    u'|Zach Braff|Donald Faison|Sarah Chalke|Christa Miller|Aloma Wright|Robert Maschio|Sam Lloyd|Neil Flynn|Ken Jenkins|Judy Reyes|John C. McGinley|Travis Schuldt|Johnny Kastl|Heather Graham|Michael Mosley|Kerry Bish\xe9|Dave Franco|Eliza Coupe|'

[tvdb]: http://thetvdb.com
[tvnamer]: http://github.com/dbr/tvnamer