SonicChicken blog

A few days ago my family signed up for Netflix. I had some spare time to play over the Thanksgiving weekend, so I installed and set up MyNetflix2 on my blog. Here’s how I did it. These instructions cover installation of MyNetflix2.0 beta on my web server (running FreeBSD 4.8). YMMV

1. Download and uncompress the plug-in: cd my_wordpress_dir/wp-content/plugins fetch http://amphichon.com/wp-content/media/mynetflix20b.tar.gz tar -xzf mynetflix20b.tar.gz
2. The source file needs to be customized before it can be used. (I guess this isn’t technically a “plug-in” because of this.) First change needed is adding your personal Netflix RSS feed URL’s. To find these, login to your Netflix account and follow the link labeld “RSS” at the bottom of the Netflix page. Below the “Personalized Feeds” heading, you’ll find the RSS URL’s. Copy and paste them into MyNetflix source code.
3. You may also need to modify other settings, particularly if you don’t have the “3-at-a-time” plan.
4. Activate the plugin from the admin / Plugins page.
5. Add some code to your WordPress theme (typically on a sidebar) to display however much of your queue, current DVD’s, and/or recent rentals that your wish. I’m using the code below to display the DVD’s we’re currently watching:

       <?php if (function_exists('mynetflix')) { ?>
           <h4><?php _e('Recent NetFlix Activity'); ?></h4>
           <?php mynetflix('out'); ?>
       <?php } ?>
   

6. I’ll probably add some code to display recently returned DVD’s in the future. (We haven’t returned any discs yet, so this breaks the MyNetflix code right now.)

That’s all there is to it. I’m going to see if I can hack up an Options page for this code to make it a true plugin. This would handle the RSS ID string(s) and the $plan settings, and possibly the image layout options. If/when I finish that, I’ll send the changes to herichon for inclusion in the next release.