Complete newbie has idea for script... How do I go about making it?

[daws0n]

Hi,

I've often wondered why Newzbin has direct links to IMDB, but none to
rottentomatoes... Looking at the RT website they have a "deep linking"
facility that should make linking easier than I first thought...

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/help_desk/webmast...

e.g (taken from link above)

-----------------------------------

Mad Max: http://www.imdb.com/Title?0079501

Using the IMDB ID number, "0079501", you may access the Rotten
Tomatoes Mad Max page using the following URL:
Mad Max: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/alias?type=imdbid...

Essentially, you simply need to replace the IMDb-assigned ID value at
the end of the URL.

-----------------------------------

It seems like a simple text/string modification and you're away :)
Would this be easy to create into a greasemonkey script? Adding an
extra button left of the movie title (next to the IMDB globe link, for
example), or failing that just replacing the IMDB link already
supplied with an Rotten Tomatoes one.

I am completely new to programming/scripting in general so if anyone
could help with advice/first steps etc... I'd be very grateful... In
principal it seems it would be very easy to make but I have no idea
where to start!

Thanks,
Dawson

[metzgerite]

First thing you do is head on over to userscripts.org and do a search
on rotten tomatos to see if anyone has already made your script for
you...

A quick search on 'rotten tomatos' gets you a few IMDB and rotten
tomato related scripts. This one [ http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/12897
] seems like the best, it adds information from the Rotten Tomatos
site into the IMDB page. Doing multiple searches on rotten tomatos,
wiki, and imdb should get you a few more scripts that might be closer
to what you want.

If you are still intent on rolling your own, you can start off by
installing the script that is closest to what you want, I saw a few
that add links to the rotten tomatos site to other sites, like pirate
bay. You can install one of those (a simple one is better) and can
start poking around and seeing what parts of the script correspond to
adding in links. From there out google is your friend in terms of
looking up info on specific Javascript functions you encounter, and
for things like XPath and regular expressions, both of which you would
probably need for this script.

Once you have the general idea down, you can always come back here to
ask more specific questions.

Have fun!

[daws0n]

While I searched high and low for a newzbin to rotten tomatoes script,
I didn't think of looking for an IMDB>rotten tomatoes one... The one
you linked to does the job nicely for now, while I try and cook up my
own. Thanks a lot!