Homework Overview

Vast amounts of digital data are generated each day, but raw data are often not immediately $$usable$.$ Instead,

we are interested in the information content of the data: what patterns are captured? This assignment covers

a few useful tools for acquiring, cleaning, storing, and visualizing datasets.

Why specific versions of software are used in homework assignments? Using specific versions of

software in homework assignments enables us to grade and provide immediate feedback to the large number

of students in the course $(1000+$ OMS students, $250+$ Atlanta students$).$ Autograders are used to grade

students' code submissions, and to ensure that these autograders can grade all submissions, we need to

know the specific versions of software that students use. This is because different versions of software can

have different features, and also to make sure that the autograders can detect potential errors that may occur

in different libraries and provide students with appropriate feedback to resolve them. Continuously updating

assignments to keep up with the latest versions of technology is a significant undertaking, so we carefully

select which aspects of our autograders to update, to balance the workload for our course staff and provide

a positive learning experience for students. As a result, you may see that certain assignment questions require

the use of $$older$"$ versions of software or specific libraries.

Q$1[40$ points$]$ Collect data from TMDb to build a co$-$actor network

Goal Collect data using an API for The Movie Database $($TMDb$).$ Construct a graph

representation of this data that shows which actors have acted together in various

movies. We use the word $$graph$$ and $$network$$ interchangeably.

Technology $$ Python $3\mathrm{.}10.$x only $($question and autograder developed and tested for these

versions$).$ It is possible that more other versions may also work, but we do not

officially support them $($it is possible that your code written with other versions

may break the autograder$).$

$$ TMDb API version $3$

Allowed Libraries The Python Standard Library only.

All other libraries $($including and not limited to Pandas, Numpy, and Requests$)$ are

NOT allowed. Providing a consistent autograder experience for all students vastly

outweighs the marginal utility of extending the scope of supported libraries. For

example, urllib can be easily used instead of Requests in solving this question.

Max runtime $10$ minutes. Submissions exceeding this will receive zero credit.

Deliverables $[$Gradescope$]$

$$ Q$1.$py: The completed Python file

$$ nodes.csv: The csv file containing nodes

$$ edges.csv: The csv file containing edges

For this question, you will use and submit a Python file. Complete all tasks according to the instructions

found in Q$1.$py to complete the Graph class, the TMDbAPIUtils class, and the one global function. The

Graph class will serve as a re$-$usable way to represent and write out your collected graph data. The

TMDbAPIUtils class will be used to work with the TMDB API for data retrieval.

Tasks and point breakdown

a$)[10$ pts$]$ Implementation of the Graph class according to the instructions in Q$1.$py$.$

o The graph is undirected, thus $\{$a$,$ b$\}$ and $\{$b$,$ a$\}$ refer to the same undirected edge in the

graph; keep only either $\{$a$,$ b$\}$ or $\{$b$,$ a$\}$ in the Graph object. A node$$s degree is the number

of $($undirected$)$ edges incident on it$.$ In$/$ out$-$degrees are not defined for undirected graphs.

$4$ Version $0$

b$)[10$ pts$]$ Implementation of the TMDbAPIUtils class according to instructions in Q$1.$py$.$ Use version

$3$ of the TMDb API to download data about actors and their co$-$actors. To use the API:

o Create a TMDb account and follow the instructions on this document to obtain an

authentication key. Be sure to use the key, not the token.

o Refer to the TMDB API Documentation as you work on this question.

c$)[20$ pts$]$ Producing correct nodes.csv and edges.csv$.$

o As mentioned in the Python file, if an actor name has comma characters $(,),$ remove those

characters before writing that name into the csv files.