My Project 4: Movie Search App (with Python + Streamlit)

🎬 Building a Movie Search App with Python + Streamlit (Using OMDb API)

For this project, I wanted to practice working with external APIs that require an API key. The OMDb API is perfect for this — free, fast, and provides detailed movie information.

This project includes two versions:

• Console Version (movie_app.py)
• Streamlit Web Version (movie_app_streamlit.py)

By building this app, I learned how to work with authenticated APIs, handle search results, manage missing data, and build a better UI using Streamlit.

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🧱 1. Project Overview

The Movie Search App allows you to:

• Enter a movie title
• Fetch detailed movie information
• View poster, genre, plot, and rating
• Use either console or Streamlit web interface

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📂 Project Structure

movie_app/
│
├── movie_app.py                 # Console version
├── movie_app_streamlit.py       # Streamlit version
└── README.md                    # (optional)

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🌐 2. API Used: OMDb API

OMDb requires a free API key. Get one here:

🔗 https://www.omdbapi.com/apikey.aspx

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🖥️ 3. Console Version (movie_app.py)

Key Features:

• Fetch movie data using requests
• Handles invalid titles gracefully
• Displays essential movie details

📌 Code

import requests

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"  # Put your OMDb API key here

title = input("Movie title: ")

url = f"https://www.omdbapi.com/?t={title}&apikey={API_KEY}"
response = requests.get(url)

if response.status_code != 200:
    print("Error fetching data.")
    exit()

data = response.json()

if data["Response"] == "False":
    print("Movie not found.")
    exit()

print("=== Movie Info ===")
print("Title:", data["Title"])
print("Year:", data["Year"])
print("Genre:", data["Genre"])
print("Plot:", data["Plot"])
print("Rating:", data["imdbRating"])

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🌤️ 4. Streamlit Version (movie_app_streamlit.py)

Added Features:

• Poster image display
• Well formatted output UI
• Error / not found handling

📌 Code

import streamlit as st
import requests

st.title("🎬 Sabin's Movie Search App")

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"

title = st.text_input("Enter movie title:", "Inception")

if st.button("Search"):
    url = f"https://www.omdbapi.com/?t={title}&apikey={API_KEY}"
    response = requests.get(url)

    if response.status_code != 200:
        st.error("Error fetching data.")
    else:
        data = response.json()

        if data["Response"] == "False":
            st.warning("Movie not found.")
        else:
            st.subheader(f"{data['Title']} ({data['Year']})")

            if data["Poster"] != "N/A":
                st.image(data["Poster"], width=300)
            else:
                st.info("No poster available.")

            st.write(f"Genre: {data['Genre']}")
            st.write(f"Rating: ⭐ {data['imdbRating']}")
            st.write(f"Plot: {data['Plot']}")

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⚙️ 5. How to Run

✔ Console Version

python3 movie_app.py

✔ Streamlit Version

pip install streamlit
streamlit run movie_app_streamlit.py

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📚 6. What I Learned

• Working with authenticated APIs
• Error handling for missing data
• Displaying images in Streamlit
• CLI vs Web app differences

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🔧 7. Future Improvements

• Search by keyword instead of exact title
• Show similar or recommended movies
• Save favorite movies
• Add Rotten Tomatoes / Metacritic ratings
• Dark mode UI