Example Code

Get started quickly with the examples below:

PHP

In this PHP code example, we are making a call to the search endpoint and searching for the string 'Toy Story'.  With the search results, we then echo out an html list of the movies and their year.

<?php
$apikey = 'insert_your_api_key_here';
$q = urlencode('Toy Story'); // make sure to url encode an query parameters

// construct the query with our apikey and the query we want to make
$endpoint = 'http://api.rottentomatoes.com/api/public/v1.0/movies.json?apikey=' . $apikey . '&q=' . $q;

// setup curl to make a call to the endpoint
$session = curl_init($endpoint);

// indicates that we want the response back
curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

// exec curl and get the data back
$data = curl_exec($session);

// remember to close the curl session once we are finished retrieveing the data
curl_close($session);

// decode the json data to make it easier to parse the php
$search_results = json_decode($data);
if ($search_results === NULL) die('Error parsing json');

// play with the data!
$movies = $search_results->movies;
echo '<ul>';
foreach ($movies as $movie) {
  echo '<li><a href="' . $movie->links->alternate . '">' . $movie->title . " (" . $movie->year . ")</a></li>";
}
echo '</ul>';


?>

Once you load up this code, you should see something similar to the following:

JavaScript (with jQuery)

In this JavaScript w/ jQuery code, we are making a call to the search endpoint for 'Gone with the Wind'.  With the search response, we then show the results of the search followed by a movie thumbnail.

<html>
  <head>
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

    <script>
var apikey = "myapikey";
var baseUrl = "http://api.rottentomatoes.com/api/public/v1.0";

// construct the uri with our apikey
var moviesSearchUrl = baseUrl + '/movies.json?apikey=' + apikey;
var query = "Gone with the Wind";

$(document).ready(function() {

  // send off the query
  $.ajax({
    url: moviesSearchUrl + '&q=' + encodeURI(query),
    dataType: "jsonp",
    success: searchCallback
  });
});

// callback for when we get back the results
function searchCallback(data) {
 $(document.body).append('Found ' + data.total + ' results for ' + query);
 var movies = data.movies;
 $.each(movies, function(index, movie) {
   $(document.body).append('<h1>' + movie.title + '</h1>');
   $(document.body).append('<img src="' + movie.posters.thumbnail + '" />');
 });
}

    </script>

  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

You should see something similar to the following screenshot:

version 3 as of 8 months ago by Steve N.

7 Comments

  1. manishapr – 11 months ago

    Can I use XMLHttpRequest() to retrieve the JSON data? If so, could you send me a small sample. Thanks.

  2. ODH – 8 months ago

    Only the Javascript example code worked for me. The PHP code keeps returning "error parsing json." I'm positive that I inserted the api key correctly. Quite strange...

  3. Steve N. – 8 months ago

    Hi ODH, I just tweaked the example a bit: the endpoint url it was hitting was 'movies' and I changed it to include the extension as well, so it is now 'movies.json'. Give that a try and let us know if it doesn't work.

  4. ODH – 8 months ago

    I tried a bunch of combinations of endpoint urls. None of them seem to work (including your updated version). Let me know if you have other ideas. Thank you!

  5. ODH – 8 months ago

    Do you think it's possible that my PHP settings are the problem?

  6. Steve N. – 8 months ago

    Hi ODH, I'm moving the discussion over to http://developer.rottentomatoes.com/forum/read/123681 Let's troubleshoot there, and perhaps other community members can help

  7. flik – 2 months ago

    "Gone with the wind" is coming three times. I want only latest "Gone with the wind." How do that?

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