CLTBoss is a free plugin for Invelos DVD Profiler. The plugin includes an embedded web browser (a Microsoft Internet Explorer component) that is used to view and access the Invelos Credit Lookup Tool (CLT).



Users of this plugin must be registered DVD Profiler users, and also be registered on the website www.invelos.com. The user must be logged in (signed in) to the Invelos web site while using CLTBoss. The user's logon information is neither collected by nor accessible to CLTBoss.

The primary functions of CLTBoss are:

- "Scrape" the CLT web pages and collect the set of UPCs associated with an actor

- Search the Invelos online database for detailed credits information extracted from DVD Profiles associated with the scraped UPCs

- Save and restore the UPCs list

- Save and restore the Profiles list

- Display, search, save and restore XML formatted collections of credits information in a CLTBoss proprietary format

- Display, search, save and restore XML formatted collections of DVD Profiles information in Invelos Format

- Load an XML formatted file created by the "CLTPlus" legacy CLT scraping tool, as an alternate source of UPC/Profiles for credits search

- Add DVD Profiles to the user's local database via direct download from the Invelos online database

- Immediate viewing of a selected online profile's information in Invelos XML format

More information on this plugin can be found here, as well as video tutorials or other documentation.

How to Download:

(1) Register as a user on the mediadogg.com/shopping web site. Your real identity is not needed. I am not tracking, nor do I care about your personal information. I am primarily interested in how much the plugin is being used, in order to help me rationalize the amount of effort I spend on it.  However, if you would like to receive notifications or purchase other items on the web site, then of course, you will need to enter valid information.

Of course I reserve the right to reject any attempt at abusing the login process, and will delete any such account without notice.

(2) Then "purchase" the free plugin. No actual financial transaction will take place.

(3) If you prefer not to register, please send me a PM. I will make available a pre-registered generic user account where you can download the plugin.

Initial Tutorial Videos

These are subject to change and additional ones may be made available on the download website. Due to the fact that this Forum is no longer maintained in a way that I can request permanent update capability, I will lose the ability to update this or subsequent posts after a few days, so future updates will be made on the web site that I have referenced.


Walk Around CLTBoss

Automated Scrape and Scan

Manual Scrape and Scan

Note: Due to unresolved coding issues, I had to temporarily disable the automatic scraping of multiple variants. However, if you scrape each variant, one by one, using "Lookup Selected" (should be "Scrape Selected"), and decline the pop-up option to delete the existing UPCs, then the aggregate UPCs can be used to do a consolidated scan of the XML for credits, and the output window should contain an XML collection that consolidates the credits for all the variants in the table. At least - that was my intent.

Scraping multiple variants with consolidated XML Scan

Note: I discovered a bug while preparing this video. The bug does not affect the procedure, so I am publishing the video and will point out the bug during my discussion.

Using CLTPlus XML to populate the UPCs table prior to Online XML Scan

Aborting the Scraping
There is a way to abort the scraping operation. You must uncheck the "Auto Advance" box. It takes a bit of patience, because during the scraping, I am using a timer and AutoIt to control the screen, and it is difficult to interrupt. If you do, it confuses AutoIt. But if aborting the scrape, then it doesn't matter. Just keep clicking until you get the timing just right. Once unchecked, the timing loop will interrupt itself and ask if you want to continue. You can choose to Continue or Cancel. If you Cancel, the entire scrape operation cycle is aborted.

Aborting the XML Scan
As described in the last tutorial, the scanning operations should have a "Cancel" button activated. Clicking the cancel button should abort the scan.

Oh, this is tragic:

  <UPC>9-322225-034600</UPC> (Australia)

    <Actor FirstName="Ziyi" MiddleName="" LastName="Zhang" BirthYear="0" Role="Bai Ling (as Zhang Ziyi)" CreditedAs="" Voice="false" Uncredited="false" Puppeteer="false"/>

Quoting AiAustria:

Quote:
Would be interested in the history of the credited as field. Seems there were some steps before we got this simple field in the data base... 

I have no clue. But the Invelos person who coded the CLT certainly understood all the details. I'm discovering the nuances by trial, error and accident.

I have seen some truly weird stuff in the credits. Example "thongchu mcintrye 'bird'".

Thanks to the folks that have downloaded CLTBoss using my eCommerce site. It is much more convenient for me. When you are registered on the web site, obtaining updated software is as simple as logging in and going to the Account tab, Digital downloads. No need to re-order, or re-purchase.

A note on Privacy

mediadogg Software LLC, the entity responsible for my eCommerce site does not sell or otherwise participate in any marketing scheme that uses customer personal information. Financial transactions are conducted by 3rd parties such as Paypal, hence absolutely no financial information is available to my site nor stored anywhere on the site. Obvioulsy, as CLTBoss is free, no such transaction is performed.

eMail addresses are used for login and notifications (which can be opted out). Home addresses and phone numbers are only used for shipping purchased products. Otherwise, even this information is not required.

Quoting T!M:

Quote:
Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
Oh, this is tragic:

  <UPC>9-322225-034600</UPC> (Australia)

    <Actor FirstName="Ziyi" MiddleName="" LastName="Zhang" BirthYear="0" Role="Bai Ling (as Zhang Ziyi)" CreditedAs="" Voice="false" Uncredited="false" Puppeteer="false"/>

Whenever you encounter " (as xxx)" in the "Role" field, it has nothing to do with the history of the credited as field - it simply indicates that the cast data in that particular movie was mined from IMDb, and has not been re-checked against the credits since.

I see. But unfortunately I found that in order to best match The CLT, I needed to count it as a credit. Of course I will be eager to learn of anything that I need to know to make the tool useful and accurate. It would be easy for me to create some kind of output file for things like this, if somebody is interested in correcting profile errors. Just give me a list of what I should look out for, and I can keep a log of those issues. Some of them might already be in some of my debugging files that you will find in the folder. Someday, I will clean those up, if the tool is found to be stable enough.

I've tried to use it, but I'm having trouble figuring out the how to.

Yes, I did watch the video, but didn't have time to experiment. Come Wednesday, I'm off for 5 days and will give it a much better try. Thanks.

I really like the video tutorials, but ... I would like to also have a help file for reference.

If, for example, I look at CLTBoss and ask myself, "Match Using Contains", what is that about? Looking through all the tutorials again wouldn't seem very appealing, not even knowing if it was mentioned at all.

A help file is so much easier to use as a reference tool. And it is also much easier to keep up-to-date than video tutorials.

Just my two cents.