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Searching for Metadata

MetaForge searches multiple keyless online sources simultaneously to find rich metadata for your media.

Search Sources

| Source | Type | Keyless | |--------|------|---------| | Wikidata | SPARQL queries for movies & TV shows | Yes | | Wikipedia | REST API article summaries | Yes | | TVmaze | TV show database | Yes | | Elcinema | Arabic Movie & TV database | Yes |

How It Works

  1. When a file is dropped, MetaForge extracts the filename and uses it as a search query.
  2. All three sources are queried in parallel.
  3. Results are displayed in the Search Panel (right side of the window).
  4. Each result shows the source badge, title, year, and a brief description.

Applying a Result

Click Apply on any search result to populate the metadata editor fields. This fills:

  • Title and Original Title
  • Year, Description
  • Director(s), Cast
  • Genres
  • Poster URL (when available)

Search Query Normalization

MetaForge normalizes your search query to improve matching:

  • Year removal: 4-digit years in parentheses at the end of the query are stripped before searching — "Blade Runner (1982)" searches for "Blade Runner".
  • Punctuation normalization: Colons (:), semicolons (;), and em-dashes are replaced with spaces — "Blade Runner: Black Lotus" searches as "Blade Runner Black Lotus", matching sources that omit the colon.
  • Arabic normalization: Hamza/alef/ya variants are collapsed (أ إ آ → ا, ى → ي, ة → ه, ؤ → و, ئ → ي) and diacritics stripped.

You can also type a custom search query in the top-bar search field and press Enter or click the search icon.