Movie Planner — планировщик фильмов и сериалов / Movie Planner: movie & TV series planning tool

Source: Dev.to

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# Movie Planner – a full watchlist & movie/TV planning tool

I built **Movie Planner** after my wife and I got tired of chaotic notes, screenshots, and scattered links.

## The problem

A couple of months ago my wife and I realized we were watching far less than we wanted to. Our “to‑watch” list lived in Telegram chats, screenshots, random notes, and favorites across 3–4 apps. Nothing we planned actually got watched.

## The solution

**Movie Planner** is a proper long‑term planning service for movies and TV shows.

> ⚠️ The service is currently Russian‑language only.

![Movie Planner screenshot](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800,height=&fit=scale-down,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fh80tjroskqexz9v06fe6.webp)

### How Movie Planner differs from typical “what to watch tonight” tools

Most existing tools help you pick a single movie for the moment—based on mood, group size, or quick recommendations. They’re great for spontaneous evenings, but they don’t help with long‑term planning.

Movie Planner is built for **ongoing management**:

- **Permanent watchlist** – personal or shared in a group chat (everyone sees and can add to the same list).  
- **Real planning with reminders** – set “Saturday 8 pm” or “tomorrow evening”; the bot reminds you and shows your notes/tickets.  
- **Cinema mode with tickets** – upload ticket photos/files; the bot sends them back 10 minutes before the session.  
- **TV‑series tracker** – mark episodes as watched, see progress, and **subscribe to new episodes** (notification when the next one drops).  
- **One‑click adding** – send a Kinopoisk/IMDb/Letterboxd link or use the Chrome extension; the film is added instantly.  
- **Web dashboard (read‑only)** – view your lists, upcoming plans, and ratings in a clean browser view (login via a one‑time code from Telegram, no passwords).  
- **Group‑chat support** – perfect for friends planning movie nights or families tracking a shared series.

#### Screenshots

| Feature | Screenshot |
|---|---|
| **Watchlist & Planning** | ![Watchlist & Planning](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800,height=&fit=scale-down,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F127txnqdov2kdk3w4cor.png) |
| **TV‑Series Tracker** | ![TV‑Series Tracker](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800,height=&fit=scale-down,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fgla370wc6yc896d7ifaf.png) |
| **Web Dashboard** | ![Web Dashboard](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800,height=&fit=scale-down,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fjaafwtdied84ycgawnc9.png) |
| **Group Chat View** | ![Group Chat View](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800,height=&fit=scale-down,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fbg1j6t2m72mctary79jv.png) |

> No AI mood picker or snack recipes (yet 😄), but it solves the real pain: “we have 47 films saved but never watch anything because we forget / lose links / don’t plan”.

---

## Project Architecture

- **Telegram bot** – Python, `pyTelegramBotAPI`, hosted on Railway.  
- **Database** – PostgreSQL with `RLock` for thread‑safe operations in a multi‑threaded environment.  
- **Modular design** – Handlers are split by feature (series, planning, search, recommendations) for easy maintenance.  
- **Background tasks** – APScheduler handles reminders, new‑episode notifications, and premiere checks, with user‑timezone support.  
- **Data source** – Unofficial Kinopoisk API for movie/TV metadata.  
- **Recommendations** – Sentence‑transformers embeddings + FAISS for similarity search (planned migration to an LLM API).  
- **Payments** – YooKassa integration.  
- **Web layer** – Flask serving webhooks and the extension API.

---

## Browser Extension

*(The original content was cut off here; insert the extension description and screenshots as needed.)*

All images retain their original URLs; alt‑text has been added or clarified where appropriate.

```markdown
![Movie Planner screenshot](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800,height=,fit=scale-down,gravity=auto,format=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fzst8nch5f4kfesqioqt0.png)

The extension is **Manifest V3** compliant. Content scripts detect movies/series/episodes on Kinopoisk, IMDb, Letterboxd, and 10+ streaming sites (IVI, Okko, Amediateka, etc.) by parsing the DOM. It shows a widget on watch pages for one‑click episode marking. All data is stored locally in `chrome.storage.local`.  

`background.js` (service worker) handles secure API calls and authorization via one‑time Telegram codes. Sync is instant — items added in the extension appear in the bot immediately.

## Current status

- Russian‑language only (Kinopoisk integration is very deep)  
- ~200 hours of pure vibecoding and iterative building, driven by real UX pain and my own usage (no ads, no data selling)  
- Monetisation only for optional premium (extended series tracking, priority reminders, etc.)  
- Actively used by a few hundred people so far (friends → friends of friends)

## Links

- **Telegram bot:**   
- **Chrome extension:**   
- **Website + read‑only dashboard:**   
- **GitHub (open source):** 

## I’d love to hear from you

- Would you be interested in an English version of this service? I could adapt it for IMDb/TMDB APIs and translate the interface if there’s demand.  
- How do you currently handle your watchlists / series tracking / movie‑night planning?  
- Does a tool focused on long‑term planning + reminders + shared lists + cinema tickets make sense for you?  
- What features are you missing in existing apps (Trakt, Letterboxd, TV Time, etc.)?

Thanks for reading — any feedback is super welcome!