How to add IMDB's open graph images to Airtable?

Other Questions Airtable
1

I’m having trouble adding open graph images from IMDB to my Airtable database. I can get a clean image link, but Airtable won’t accept it.

When I try to upload the URL directly, Airtable asks for an array. So I tried wrapping it like this:

[
  {
    "url": "imageUrlHere"
  }
]

But then I get an error saying “attachmentsFailedUploading”. Anyone know how to fix this? I’m stumped and could really use some help!

2

I’ve encountered this issue with IMDB open graph images in Airtable as well. One workaround I found effective is to use a script to download the images locally, then upload them to a cloud storage service like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. This gives you stable, permanent URLs that Airtable can handle.

For the script, you can use Python with libraries like requests and boto3 (for S3). It fetches the IMDB image, saves it temporarily, uploads to your cloud storage, and returns the new URL. You can then use these URLs in your Airtable attachment field without issues.

This method also helps avoid potential copyright concerns, as you’re hosting the images yourself. Just ensure you have the right to use and store the images for your specific use case.

3

hey john, i had similar probs. try using a url shortener like bit.ly for the imdb links. it worked for me in airtable. also, double check ur json syntax - sometimes extra spaces can mess things up. good luck!

4

I’ve actually run into this issue before when working with IMDB images in Airtable. The problem is that IMDB’s image URLs are often temporary and expire quickly. What worked for me was using a proxy service to fetch and cache the images.

I set up a simple serverless function on Cloudflare Workers that would grab the IMDB image, store it in Cloudflare’s KV storage, and return a permanent URL. Then I’d use that URL in Airtable instead.

It’s a bit of extra work upfront, but it solved the attachment issues and made my database much more reliable. Plus, it had the added benefit of speeding up image loading times in Airtable.

If you’re not comfortable setting up your own proxy, there are some third-party services that offer similar functionality. Just be cautious about using them with copyrighted content like movie posters.