AP_MALPorter

A CLI for porting over your anime data from AnimePlanet to MyAnimeList

1.0 Features

• Fast and gets the job done; built mainly for the sole purpose of porting over anime data from AnimePlanet's database to MyAnimeList's database.
• Lightweight; only two third party dependancies are used - requests and python-dotenv.
• Simple to use; simply put in your exported list from AnimePlanet and it'd do wonders, though some human intervention may be needed.
• Comes pre-packaged with a local database that will expand gradually over use since both sites have name discrepancies.

1.1 Behaviour

• Your list on either sites can be private, as long as you authorise the MAL client app.
• Unable to update is_rewatching value in MyAnimeList since AnimePlanet did not include any likewise data when exporting.
• Scores on AnimePlanet will multiply by 2 when updating score in MyAnimeList since the latter has scores up til 10.
• Number of watched episodes and amount of times rewatched will update accordingly.
• The properties, priority and rewatch_value in MyAnimeList will be left out when porting over, similar to is_rewatching.
• Same goes for Start Date and Finish Date as the official MyAnimeList API does not include any endpoints to update those values.
• If an anime in AnimPlanet has a status of won't watch it will be converted to dropped since there are no corresponding values in MyAnimePlanet.
• With regards to MyAnimeList's API behaviour, it will override old data if new data is pushed to its server.
• There are some entries in AP's database where it is bundled as one whereas over on MAL's database, such as AP[0], AP[1] and MAL[0].
  • MAL entry had the two episodes bundled together as one show whereas AP had the two episodes separate.
  • Considered a caveat since the expected behaviour is to just map the two episodes (technically one show) from AP to the one MAL ID.
  • The status/ratings would be overrided for whichever is ported last.
• For querying anime data in MAL, due to restrictions imposed by its API, the anime name will be repeated if the name on AP consists lesser than 3 characters in order to make it 3 characters long.
  • Tried padding it with spaces (both with and w/o urlsafe encoding), didn't work.
  • Ineffective, may need to manually source the MAL ID.

1.2 Brief description on steps

Uses the exported list provided by user.

Iterates through exported list and tries to find entry in local database (matched anime's name on AP's database with MAL ID).

If no matching entry found within local database, it'll query and try to automatically find the matching anime on MyAnimeList (both sites might have name discrepancies for the same anime).

If it finds none matching ( < 100% match), you would be given a list which contains up to 5 animes, ranking from the most relevance to the least; input the number to select.

If returned list does not contains any matching results, an input 0 will allow you to type in the anime ID on MyAnimePlanet.
Else, input -3 to skip.

After that is done it will add the anime name with its corresponding MAL ID into the local database.

Proceeding with the next anime in the exported list.

At the very end, upon user's confirmation it will port all the anime that were managed to be matched with an anime id to MyAnimeList.

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2.0 Setting up

The list of instructions is created with being able to cater to people of different skillsets in mind.

Step 1: Setting up MyAnimeList's app

Setting up a MyAnimeList's app will allow you to access its API.
Refer to here for the guide.
Key takeaways of the guide:

Create a MyAnimeList's app
Get CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET

You will need these two later.
NOTE: The CLIENT_SECRET should be treated as a confidential item, like a password, do not share it around.

Step 2: Get Python and Git into your local system and cloning the repo

Refer to here.
Above guide is meant for people who are unfamiliar with the Git workflow and has no experience with Python.
Key takeaways of the guide:

Being able to use git command in your terminal and clone the repository to your local system
Being able to use py/python command in your terminal

Alternatively, you can download the .zip file from this repository

This will remove the need of getting git.

Step 3: Create local environment variables

Create a .env file, its name can be anything really.
Just make sure it ends with the .env file extension.
Save the file within the project folder, AP_MALPorter.
In it, create two variables and fill them up with the values obtained from Step 1.
CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET, word for word, case sensitive.

It should look something like this:

CLIENT_ID = be55d6f36dfbed4
CLIENT_SECRET = 5aeed4fd04ff666e61fc573800baa2019516263d6531178174be81f0da53f51e

Of course those are just keyboard smashings.

Step 4: Getting the exported list from AnimePlanet

Log in to AnimePlanet and head over to www.anime-planet.com/users/export_list.php to export your anime data.
Name it whatever you want (needs to end with .json though), you'll be asked to input it in later.
Highly advise you to save it alongside the .env file, in the project folder, AP_MALPorter, if you're not too well-versed with directories.

Step 5: Install third-party dependenacies

There are only two dependancies that this project requires as of so far.
Check this section.

Navigate to the cloned repo and run:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 6: Run the code

You can either run the code with your terminal or by simply clicking on the __main__.py script in the project folder.

Right now, I am under the assumption that the cloned project folder is stored in C:\Users\faded\Desktop so the absolute path to the cloned project folder is C:\Users\faded\Desktop\AP_MALPorter.

Running code via terminal

Using the cd command, navigate to the folder where the cloned project folder is stored.
(afaik, Windows, Linux, macOS uses the same command)

Then run the follow command, (Windows)

py AP_MALPorter

OR if you're using linux

python AP_MALPorter

Supposing you didn't change the name of the folder and kept it as "AP_MALPorter".
Note:

Your working directory is the parent folder of the cloned project folder. In our case, C:\Users\faded\Desktop
So when you are trying to refer to another file, it is best to use absolute paths or if relative paths are used, keep in mind of your working directory
E.g. You want to reference the database file that is in the cloned project folder, you would do AP_MALPorter/database.json

Running code via executing the __main__.py script

Without using the terminal, simply clicking the __main__.py script will execute the Python script for you, granted you had set up Python correctly.
Note:

Unlike running the code via the terminal, your working directory is now within the cloned project folder
So if you want to reference a file (let's say database.json) which is inside AP_MALPorter using relative paths, you would simply do database.json

Though it is most advisable to run things in the terminal.

You will not be able to capture the error messages fast enough if an error were to happen as the Python prompt would just close straight away.

Step 7: Using the CLI

CLI stands for "Command Line Interface".
It comes packed with a few commands to get you started.
Read here for more on it.

And you're done!

2.1 Dependenc(y/ies) used in this project:

Here are a list of third party dependencies needed to be installed,

• requests
• python-dotenv

Easy installation, simply by using the requirements.txt file in the repository.

pip install -r requirements.txt

2.2 Errors

This section is to give you a guide on how to resolve thrown errors.
Contacting me would be a wise move when you cannot resolve these errors by yourself.

MainActionError:

Invalid database file input, "FILENAME"

Desc: Your local database inputted file is not a .json file.
Fix: Ensure that the file you inputted for the local databse is a valid .json file.

Database file, "FILENAME" is empty, write atleast "{}" into it

Desc: Your local database inputted file is not formatted nicely or may be blank.
Fix: Ensure that your .json file has some contents in it. If it is blank, just writing "{}" into it is sufficient enough.

Missing database file, "FILENAME" in project

Desc: Your local database inputted file is not a valid file because it does not exists.
Fix: Ensure that the file you inputted for the local database exists in your system.

Missing saves.json file in cache folder, tried to reference C:\users\...\cache\saves.json

Desc: Preferences file is not present in the /cache folder under project folder, AP_MALPorter.
Fix: Create a new .json file, name it saves.json and save it under the /cache folder under project folder.

Contents of saves.json is empty, write atleast "{}" into it

Desc: Preference file - saves.json file under /cache folder in project folder, is empty.
Fix: Ensure that saves.json has atleast {} written to it.

AP_PARSER_ERROR:

AP_Parser was never initialised; call init() function to initialise

Desc: Internal error with the scripts; ap_parser.py was never intialised yet functions are called.
Fix: Contact me

Missing AnimePlanet export file, "FILENAME"

Desc: Inputted file for your AnimePlanet export list does not exists.
Fix: Ensure that the inputted file does exists in your local system and the path is correct.

AnimePlanet export file, "FILENAME", is empty

Desc: Inputted file for your AnimePlanet export list contains nothing.
Fix: Ensure that your exported file contains the exported anime data.
This error only occurs when the inputted file is empty.

AnimePlanet export file, "FILENAME", is malformed; not formatted with the correct keys properly

Desc: Inputted file for your AnimePlanet is malformed, as it has a missing key, "entries".
Fix: Ensure that the .json file you're getting from AnimePlanet's side is correct and is not empty.
This error is only thrown when the export file has the missing key, "entries", which contains all the exported anime data.
Error should not appear and if it does, it is most likely on AnimePlanet's side else they may have changed the schematics of their exported .json file.

MAL_Error:

Have not initialised mal_interactor; call mal_interactor.authenticate()

Desc: Internal error with the scripts; mal_interactor.py was never initialised yet its functions were called.
Fix: Contact me

authenticate() was called more than once

Desc: Internal error with the scripts; mal_interactor.py's authenticate() function was called more than once.
Fix: If you modified the scripts, ensure authenticate() is only called once as there is no reason to obtain the access token twice.
Else, if the error pops out of nowhere, contact me.

Missing cache file (auth_params.json) inside FILEPATH

Desc: Missing auth_params.json file to store the cache of the access token and refresh token.
Fix: Ensure a the filepath exists, FILEPATH, and write "{}" into its contents. (.json file)

FILEPATH is empty, write "{}" into it

Desc: FILEPATH is empty. .json contents can never be empty.
Fix: Write "{}" into FILEPATH and save.

Missing CLIENT_ID field in .env file

Desc: Required local environment variable, CLIENT_ID required.
Fix: Ensure you have stored the correct CLIENT_ID you've acquired from setting up in a .env file stored somewhere in the project folder locally with the key, CLIENT_ID.

Missing CLIENT_SECRET field in .env file

Desc: Required local environment variable, CLIENT_SECRET required.
Fix: Ensure you have stored the correct CLIENT_SECRET you've acquired from setting up in a .env file stored somewhere in the project folder locally with the key, CLIENT_SECRET.

Error trying to parse token and state string into respective variables

Desc: After authorisation your app, giving an invalid input of the redirect url will throw this warning
Fix: Ensure you have copied and pasted the full url after authorising access, word for word.
The entire url should look something like this:
redirecturl/?code=longstringofcharacters&state=amistillintact

With redirecturl being the one you set in setting up.
E.g. https://myanimelist.net/

Returned state is not the same as sent state

Desc: Internal error; when making the authorisation request with the state amistillintact, returned state is not the same after authorisation by user.
Fix: Something has went wrong, contact me.

Error authenticating with token; failed to get access token

Desc: Internal error; when trying to get the access token, MAL API threw an error.
Fix: Ensure your CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET is valid.
You might need additional help from me, contact me.

Error raised when interacting with MAL API

Desc: Used as a catch-all error when MAL API complains about any requests.
Fix: No general fixes, but contacting me should help.

Again, if any of the fixes does not fix your issue, feel free to contact me along with the given context.

Contact

Create a new issue or
Contact me on Discord: carsoccerfan#7171

I would be glad to assist you throughout your journey of importing your list over to MAL, hmu. 🤡👍