Introduction to Netflix API Documentation

Note:

The following documentation is highly detailed and presents a good many elements you may not need to know. If you're looking to get started quickly, please see the "Resources" page for links to existing Netflix libraries, user contributed guidelines, and various tools that may make working with the API easier.


For a very fast introduction to OAuth on Netflix, please see the Netflix Authentication Walk-Through.

This guide is intended for developers who would like to integrate Netflix functionality into their applications. The guide contains the following sections:

  • Introduction to the Netflix API Guide (this section) provides an overview of how you can use the Netflix APIs.
  • Authentication Overview covers authentication and using OAuth.
  • Javascript API Reference describes the Javascript API that has been optimized to help you emulate the Netflix experience in your application.
  • REST API Conventions covers the terminology and conventions in use. To get the most from the APIs, you should be familiar with the material in this section.
  • Common REST API Tasks provides a task-oriented guide to using the APIs. It also includes a list of common tasks with pointers on how to accomplish these tasks.
  • REST API Reference provides detailed descriptions of all REST resources grouped by category.
  • Branding Requirements lays out the branding requirements of any API implementation.

API Overview

Netflix supplies three sets of API components:

  • JavaScript API - The JavaScript API is a simple API that has been optimized to help you emulate the Netflix experience in your application. The JavaScript API lets you render Netflix Add and Play buttons, as shown in the following figure. See Javascript APIs for more information.
  • REST Programming API - A set of REST (representational state transfer) APIs to give you fine-grained access to such Netflix resources as the title catalog, user queues, and rental activity. See Netflix REST API Conventions for more information on working with Netflix resources.
  • Atom feeds - The Atom feeds provide a means for enabling non-subscriber users to read Netflix feed data such as subscriber queues. Feeds are accessed via the REST API.

To use these APIs, you need to register for a developer account at http://developer.netflix.com/. When you register, you will receive a consumer key and secret for accessing Netflix resources. The security requirements vary by API and resource type, and you may additionally be required to supply other identification criteria such as signatures and access tokens. See Security for more information.

The Netflix Web APIs provide the ability for you to integrate Netflix user services into your application. The APIs provide the following capabilities:

  • Performing searches of movies, TV series, cast members, and directors
  • Retrieving catalog titles, including details about the title such as name, box art, director, cast, etc.
  • Determining the subscriber's relationship to a specific title, e.g, in queue, saved, available on DVD, etc.
  • Managing and displaying queues for users
  • Providing conveniences such as auto-completion of partial search terms typed by a user.
  • Displaying a user's ratings and reviews.
  • Including functional Add and Play buttons in your web application.

A typical example of a Netflix API is to use the catalog/title resource to search through the catalog and display the results within your application. The following figure shows the results of a typical call to the catalog/title resource (in the box with the red border) and how this data is displayed on the Netflix site. You can access the same data and display it however you'd like on your website. 

 

Catalog File Example

version 37 as of 3 days ago by Kent Brewster

Comments

  1. ryanhickman – 8 months ago

    seems pretty simple.

  2. kirihimete – 7 months ago

    lol "seems pretty simple"

    After 4 weeks, does it still seem pretty simple?

  3. Cecilia – 7 months ago

    No for me--first time working with API and in a language that I don't know about. Only if you can see how big my head is right now.

  4. Dipanjan – 3 months ago

    Is there any API available to access trailers?

  5. Mjietucom – 3 days ago

    Hi I have been testing to get token but gets this error any Idea how to solve this?
    <status>
    <status_code>403</status_code>
    <message>Account inactive</message>
    </status>

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