Reformatting Web Query Results for use in Batch - batch-file

Question

This is working, but doesn't feel elegant to me. I'm creating an automated movie archive script in batch and would like to automatically find a movie title based on the disc volume name. The web query is done via tmdb, but returned results is difficult to parse since it isn't meant for batch. The results would be a contiguous line like:
{"page":1,"results":[{"poster_path":"\/5ttOaThDVmTpV8iragbrhdfxEep.jpg","adult":false,"overview":"At the height of the Cold War, a mysterious criminal organization plans to use nuclear weapons and technology to upset the fragile balance of power between the United States and Soviet Union. CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin are forced to put aside their hostilities and work together to stop the evildoers in their tracks. The duo's only lead is the daughter of a missing German scientist, whom they must find soon to prevent a global catastrophe.","release_date":"2015-08-13","genre_ids":[35,28,12],"id":203801,"original_title":"The Man from U.N.C.L.E.","original_language":"en","title":"The Man from U.N.C.L.E.","backdrop_path":"\/bKxcCNv2xq8M3GD5iSrv9bMGDVa.jpg","popularity":5.346674,"vote_count":1842,"video":false,"vote_average":7},{"poster_path":"\/3VScfiBmE1loQxMkuN1suALv4f8.jpg","adult":false,"overview":"When THRUSH steals a nuclear weapon and demands a ransom delivered by Napoleon Solo, UNCLE recalls him and his partner to duty.","release_date":"1983-04-05","genre_ids":[28,80,53,10770],"id":94116,"original_title":"The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair","original_language":"en","title":"The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair","backdrop_path":"\/5LGBhGg5Tj9OSW4rD0itz0sYKPT.jpg","popularity":1.046707,"vote_count":5,"video":false,"vote_average":3.6}],"total_results":2,"total_pages":1}
You don't really know what you're going to get or how many titles will be returned. Dumping this into a file and reading back tokens doesn't make sense. The delimiter is a string (,") so I've come up with the following script which does function.
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set _tmdbReturn=
set _metaDataFile=
set _metaDataFile="C:\some path\metaData.txt"
set _metaDataFile=%_metaDataFile:~1,-1%
:: Do a movie title search based on a Disc Volume Label
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in (`PowerShell -Command "(new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/movie?api_key=xxx&query=The+Man+from+uncle')"`) do (set _tmdbReturn=%%a)
:: Result is in a contiguous string and the delimiter is a string with a comma and double quotes (,")
:: Replace delimiter string with a single character that does not occur in tmdb data
set _tmdbReturn=%_tmdbReturn:,"=#"%
set _tmdbReturn=%_tmdbReturn:"=%
:: replace unique single character with a line feed
set _tmdbReturn=!_tmdbReturn:#=^
!
:: Eliminate the special character
set _tmpdbReturn=!_tmdbReturn:#=!
:: Rewrite data to txt file with row separated data.
echo !_tmdbReturn!>"%_metaDataFile%"
set x=
set /a x=0
for /f "tokens=* delims=#" %%a in ('type "%_metaDataFile%"') do (
if !x!==0 (
set _newline=%%a
echo !_newline!>"%_metaDataFile%"
) else (
set _newline=%%a
echo !_newline!>>"%_metaDataFile%"
)
set /a x+=1
)
My question is two fold...is there a better way to do this? I also have not figured out how to write to the _metaDataFile without first dumping !_tmdbReturn! into a txt file. I've tried replacing the command of the last For Loop with
for /f "tokens=* delims=#" %%a in ('echo !_tmdbReturn!') do (
Only the first token writes yet
echo !_tmdbReturn!
displays the data properly producing the following:
{page:1
results:[{poster_path:\/5ttOaThDVmTpV8iragbrhdfxEep.jpg
adult:false
overview:At the height of the Cold War, a mysterious criminal organization plans to use nuclear weapons and technology to upset the fragile balance of power between the United States and Soviet Union. CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin are forced to put aside their hostilities and work together to stop the evildoers in their tracks. The duo's only lead is the daughter of a missing German scientist, whom they must find soon to prevent a global catastrophe.
release_date:2015-08-13
genre_ids:[35,28,12]
id:203801
original_title:The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
original_language:en
title:The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
backdrop_path:\/bKxcCNv2xq8M3GD5iSrv9bMGDVa.jpg
popularity:5.346674
vote_count:1842
video:false
vote_average:7},{poster_path:\/3VScfiBmE1loQxMkuN1suALv4f8.jpg
adult:false
overview:When THRUSH steals a nuclear weapon and demands a ransom delivered by Napoleon Solo, UNCLE recalls him and his partner to duty.
release_date:1983-04-05
genre_ids:[28,80,53,10770]
id:94116
original_title:The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair
original_language:en
title:The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair
backdrop_path:\/5LGBhGg5Tj9OSW4rD0itz0sYKPT.jpg
popularity:1.046707
vote_count:5
video:false
vote_average:3.6}]
total_results:2
total_pages:1}
I'm attempting to redirect echo !_tmdbReturn! to the Find function extracting a particular value by name. I can do it in a file using findstr, but was trying it on the variable. I'm not fluent in batch so any suggestions are appreciated.
In case its useful for someone I settled on the following:
set x=
set /a x=0
set y=
set /a y=0
:: clean up the beginning of the data replace {" with " so poster_path is passed as a value
set _tmdbReturn=%_tmdbReturn:{"="%
set _tmdbReturn=%_tmdbReturn:~0,-1%
for /F "tokens=1* delims=[" %%a in ("!_tmdbReturn!") do ( set _tmdbReturn=%%b)
rem Separate the string in lines at ," delimiter
for /F "delims=" %%a in (^"!_tmdbReturn:^,^"^=^
% Do NOT remove this line %
!^") do (
set "line=%%a"
rem Eliminate quotes
set "line=!line:"=!"
rem Show lines of desired values only
for /F "tokens=1* delims=:" %%b in ("!line!") do (
if "%%b" equ "poster_path" set /a x+=1
if "%%b" equ "total_results" (
call set _movie.%%b=%%c
) else (
echo call set _movie[!x!].%%b=%%c
call set _movie[!x!].%%b=%%c
)
)
)
This give me an array of the returned results with structured object properties that I can use as my script morphs. This may be old hat to most, but I'm having fun!

Answer 1

The code below separates your long string in several lines:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
:: Do a movie title search based on a Disc Volume Label
:: for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in (`PowerShell -Command "(new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/movie?api_key=xxx&query=The+Man+from+uncle')"`) do (set _tmdbReturn=%%a)
for /F "delims=" %%a in (input.txt) do set "_tmdbReturn=%%a"
rem Separate the string in lines at ," delimiter
for /F "delims=" %%a in (^"!_tmdbReturn:^,^"^=^
% Do NOT remove this line %
!^") do (
set "line=%%a"
rem Eliminate quotes
echo !line:"=!
)
I stored your long line in input.txt file for my testings.
About "redirect echo !tmdbReturn! to the Find function extracting a particular value by name"; if you show what exactly you want, perhaps I could show you how to get an equivalent result in a simpler way (without using find command)...
EDIT: Show just desired values
If you want not to create a file with all lines, but just show the lines of a desired value, then you may directly look for such a value in each line:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /F "delims=" %%a in (input.txt) do set "_tmdbReturn=%%a"
rem Separate the string in lines at ," delimiter
for /F "delims=" %%a in (^"!_tmdbReturn:^,^"^=^
% Do NOT remove this line %
!^") do (
set "line=%%a"
rem Eliminate quotes
set "line=!line:"=!"
rem Show lines of desired values only
for /F "tokens=1* delims=:" %%b in ("!line!") do (
if "%%b" equ "original_title" echo %%b: %%c
)
)
You may also look for several values; just define the list of the desired values at beginning, enclosing all values by a certain delimiter character:
set "values=/title/original_title/"
... and change the if command inside the for by this one:
if "!values:/%%b/=!" neq "%values%" echo %%b: %%c