Introduction

Objective of this project was to create a backend application with a light framework, which receives a requested movie genre and serves only the movies of the corresponding genre.

Approach

The following elements were used in order to implement this project:

  • Flask Framework
  • CSV file: IMDB moview data was stored in the CSV file
  • CSV parser: a csv parser function was developerd to read the csv file, and return the results to the flask application

How does it work

There are two options available for a user to search movies within this application:

  • passing an argument searching for any genre, e.g. Action, Comedy
  • searching the following predefined genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance

How to install and run

The following steps are required to run the application:

  • Create a project directory: for example mkdir my_imdb
  • Add project files: app.py and csv_parser.py
  • Install Flask: pip install Flask
  • To search any genre: GET on / This route will parse the GET parameter genre, to be able to filter by movie genre. Example on how to access this route: curl "http://localhost:8080?genre=action"
  • To search a specific genre (e.g. action): GET on /action This route will only serve action movies. Example on how to access this route: curl "http://localhost:8080/action"
  • To run the application: python app.py

Program Files

csv_parser.py 

            
              import csv

              def get_genre(genre):
                  file = "imdb-movie-data.csv"
                  result = list()
                  with open (file) as csvfile:
                      reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
                      for row in reader:
                          if genre in row["Genre"]:
                              result.append(row)
                  return result

app.py 

            
              # Import the Flask Class
              from flask import Flask
              from flask import request
              import json
              from csv_parser import get_genre

              # Create an instance of Flask Class called name
              app = Flask(__name__)

              # Use the route() decorator to tell Flask what URL should trigger the index() function
              @app.route('/')
              # The function returns the data in JSON format
              def index():
                  genre = request.args.get("genre")
                  data = genre.title()
                  result = get_genre(data)
                  return json.dumps(result)

              @app.route('/action')
              def action():
                  result = get_genre("Action")
                  return json.dumps(result)
                  
              @app.route('/adventure')
              def adventure():
                  result = get_genre("Adventure")
                  return json.dumps(result)

              @app.route('/comedy')
              def comedy():
                  result = get_genre("Comedy")
                  return json.dumps(result)

              @app.route('/drama')
              def drama():
                  result = get_genre("Drama")
                  return json.dumps(result)

              @app.route('/romance')
              def romance():
                  result = get_genre("Romance")
                  return json.dumps(result)


              app.run('0.0.0.0', port=8080) # default Flask port is 5000, 8080 is used to be accessed externally


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