Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

86 points

Dashboard Movies Widget suddenly not working

The built-in Movies widget from Apple (that shows movie posters as a slide show on one side and theaters/times on the other side) has suddenly stopped working. I tried to quit and reopen from Dashboard, move the widget out of the main library's widget folder, reinstalling by double clicking on it, removing preferences, deleting system cache, history, repairing permissions, copying the widget from another computer: nothing worked.

The rounded rectangular window simply shows "No movie data available" and clicking on it does not make it flip as it normally should. Therefore, it is just sitting there on the dashboard, not showing anything other than the sentence above, and cannot be customized. I can open several of these Movies widgets simultaneously and none works nor flips.

I cannot think of anything that might have made it stop working (my internet is OK, not a firewall issue). Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks.

MacBook Air + iMac-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 21, 2011 4:27 PM

93 replies

Oct 27, 2011 5:04 PM in response to moovyphreak

Great idea moovyphreak! Thanks for taking the initiative and emailing Fandango. Yes, my Movies widget is now asking for the zip code, but has yet to accept the info. At least someone seems to be working on it, which is great! Hopefully they'll soon get it working properly again.

Oct 30, 2011 7:49 AM in response to S. G.

Same here - I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I thought maybe it was me because I switched ISP's! But, I gave it plenty chances to update and it has been at least a week without working.

Boo! Hope they fix it, it was a handy little widget!

skopcho

Level 1

30 points

Oct 30, 2011 9:10 PM in response to S. G.

As both S.G. and X423424X stated, the issue actually lies with Apple and not Fandango. The server call to wu.apple.com is failing with a 503 server error, so the widget can't even get past the location search screen.

http://wu.apple.com/frdi?pid=A99D3D1A-774C-49149E&verbosity=1&date=2011-10-30&op =performancesbycitystatesearch&city=Cupertino&state=CA

It needs a response from that script to list all the theaters, movies and showtimes. It then builds the alphabetical list of movie trailers from the response to that original call cross-referencing the trailers XML feed here:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/home/xml/widgets/indexall.xml

The Movies.wdgt/localizedStrings.js file probably isn't required unless you are on a language other than English, but it may not even exist at all and just be unused legacy code.

Apple needs to fix that wu.apple.com script. Without it the widget is useless.

Oct 30, 2011 10:14 PM in response to skopcho

I sent Apple some feedback on the issue. But, as they say, they won't reply. Hopefully, they will take note and work on it.

Nov 1, 2011 1:13 PM in response to S. G.

This may help you guys out: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20128399-263/fix-movies-dashboard-widget-in -os-x/?tag=txt;title

Nov 1, 2011 1:36 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Excellent! I just went through the procedure and after logging out and back in again, the widget works perfectly!

I wonder though if the procedure will have to be reversed if Apple "fixes" the widget on their end...

Thanks so much!

EMSmac

Level 1

17 points

Nov 1, 2011 1:48 PM in response to S. G.

Worked great for me too! Thanks for the link.

Logging out is not needed. Just quit the widget, then restart in Dashboard.

Nov 1, 2011 2:14 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Never Mind! I figured it out. I was just scrolling, not searching! Sorry!

Topher, I'm glad that worked for you guys. But it doesn't work for me. I used the Terminal and when I searched for "wu.apple.com" it's not in the file. I closed and removed the widget first.

Here's what shows in my moviesparser.js --- Any ideas why it's so different?

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

var _gLastMovieDataFetchDate;

function markLastMovieDataFetchDate() {

_gLastMovieDataFetchDate = new Date();

}

// return true if midnight (local time) has passed since data was last fetched

function getShouldFetchNewMovieData() {

if (!_gLastMovieDataFetchDate) {

return true;

}

// getDate() returns day of month as number

var midnightHasPassedSinceLastFetch = (new Date().getDate() != _gLastMo$

return midnightHasPassedSinceLastFetch;

}

function markShouldFetchNewData() {

_gLastMovieDataFetchDate = null;

}

Message was edited by: linda2009

Nov 1, 2011 3:26 PM in response to S. G.

Success here as well. Thanks for bringing this helpful article to our attention!

Nov 1, 2011 4:14 PM in response to linda2009

linda2009,

That is just the beginning of the file. The function that contains the URL string to change is further down. Are you opening the file in TextWrangler? If so then press Command-F to search, and enter "wu.apple.com" as the search term. This should locate the one I mentioned (there are several of them in the document).

Nov 1, 2011 4:21 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Yeah, sorry Topher - I did figure that out! I was trying to scroll instead of using the search function. But I did figure it out and replaced the text and it is working! Thanks!

sorry for the post...

Nov 1, 2011 4:23 PM in response to pmontlary

It shouldnt need to be changed if Apple fixes its servers. The wu.apple.com server appears to just be a proxy that redirects to Fandango's server. This is likely so Apple can track the Movies widget usage more than anything else, but when the data is grabbed it is from Fandango directly and not from Apple.

Nov 1, 2011 6:54 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Great. Thanks Topher! I was hoping that would be the case...

JML54

Level 1

29 points

Nov 1, 2011 7:42 PM in response to S. G.

Thanks for the information and fix. Shouldn't all 3 of the wu.apple.com entries be fixed? I did so, and everything seems to be fine.

The other entries are for ordering tickets online.

Nov 2, 2011 4:27 AM in response to moovyphreak

It did not work for me. I tied what it said will some one that got it to work show me what I did worong?

Dashboard Movies Widget suddenly not working