Hongguo Short Drama Release Calendar Scraper API

Hongguo short drama release calendar scraper and API

Hongguo Short Drama Release Calendar Scraper API extracts date-based release schedules from Hongguo Duanju (红果短剧). Use this Hongguo release calendar scraper to discover new Chinese short dramas and upcoming titles, filter live-action dramas or comic series, and export readable metadata through the Apify API or Dataset.

Enter one or more dates in YYYYMMDD format. Results include drama titles, series IDs, cover images, release times, categories, and synopses, with episode counts, scores, and play counts when Hongguo supplies them. Titles stay in their original language. You do not need to provide a Hongguo account or API key.

What can this Hongguo calendar scraper do?

• Collect the available release calendar for multiple dates in one run.
• Choose all titles, live-action dramas, or comic series with genre.
• Monitor upcoming Chinese short dramas and compare daily release snapshots.
• Read titles, covers, IDs, and synopses directly in a flat results table.
• Connect returned seriesId values to episode-directory and metadata workflows.
• Export JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML for dashboards and catalog research.
• Schedule recurring runs and connect the Apify API, webhooks, Make, or n8n.

The Actor collects calendar metadata. Episode directories, media URLs, and authorized video downloads are available through the related Actors below.

What Hongguo drama data can you extract?

Field	Type	Description
title	string	Drama title in the source language.
seriesId	string	Hongguo series ID, preserved as text without rounding.
coverUrl	string	Cover image URL, shown as a thumbnail in Console.
intro	string	Drama synopsis.
dramaType	string	Live-action drama or Comic series, when identified.
releaseStatus	string	Released, Upcoming, or Unknown.
target_date	string	Requested calendar date in YYYYMMDD format.
scheduledPublishTime	string or null	Scheduled release time with the China +08:00 offset.
episodeCount	integer or null	Reported total episodes.
categories	array	Drama genres, categories, and tags.
playCount	integer or null	Reported plays when available.
score	string or null	Reported drama score.
firstVideoId	string or null	First episode video ID when supplied.
durationSeconds	integer or null	Reported total drama duration in seconds.
characters	array	Character names when supplied.
releaseText	string or null	Upcoming-title release notice.
raw	object	Complete original calendar item for reference.

Upcoming titles often have no episode count, score, or play count yet. Those fields remain null rather than being estimated. The Drama calendar view shows the main metadata; Drama details adds playback and character fields. Run diagnostics contains pagination and quota details, and Original data contains raw.

How to scrape Hongguo new releases by date

1. Open the Input tab and add one or more dates to Calendar dates.
2. Select All, Live-action dramas, or Comic series under Drama type.
3. Click Start and wait for the calendar requests to finish.
4. Open Dataset to inspect drama titles, covers, and release schedules.
5. Download the results or pass the series IDs to another Hongguo Actor.

Input example: live-action drama releases

{
  "target_dates": ["2026-10-24"],
  "genre": "shortplay"
}

Input	Required	Description
target_dates	Yes	Non-empty list of valid YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD strings. Both formats may be mixed. Duplicate dates are collected once.
genre	No	all for every drama type, shortplay for live-action dramas, or comic_series for comic series. Defaults to all.

For several dates, use "target_dates": ["2026-10-24", "2026-10-25", "2026-10-26"]. Existing YYYYMMDD inputs remain supported. Dates are validated, normalized to YYYYMMDD, and deduplicated before collection; impossible dates are rejected. The selected drama type applies to every date and page. See the Input tab for the complete schema.

Output: readable Hongguo release-calendar records

Each unique seriesId within a requested date becomes one Dataset row. Duplicate items for the same date are omitted before storage and billing; the same series on different requested dates produces separate rows. This simplified example shows the shared field structure for a released title and an upcoming title; full rows also include optional metadata and raw.

[
  {
    "title": "Example released drama",
    "seriesId": "7000000000000000001",
    "coverUrl": "https://example.com/cover.jpg",
    "intro": "A story about a fresh start.",
    "dramaType": "Live-action drama",
    "releaseStatus": "Released",
    "target_date": "20261024",
    "scheduledPublishTime": "2026-10-24T10:00:00+08:00",
    "episodeCount": 80,
    "categories": ["Family", "Drama"],
    "playCount": 120000,
    "score": "8.0"
  },
  {
    "title": "Example upcoming drama",
    "seriesId": "7000000000000000002",
    "coverUrl": "https://example.com/upcoming.jpg",
    "intro": "A new adventure begins.",
    "dramaType": "Live-action drama",
    "releaseStatus": "Upcoming",
    "target_date": "20261024",
    "scheduledPublishTime": "2026-10-24T18:00:00+08:00",
    "episodeCount": null,
    "categories": ["Romance"],
    "playCount": null,
    "score": null
  }
]

You can download the Dataset in JSON, HTML, CSV, Excel, or XML, or retrieve it from your application through the Apify API.

Hongguo release-calendar use cases

Track new Chinese short dramas and upcoming releases

Schedule the Actor for the dates you monitor and save a release snapshot. Match records by seriesId to compare titles and schedules between runs. A calendar snapshot describes the records returned by that session; schedules and availability can change.

Build a drama catalog with complete episode lists

Send a released title's seriesId to the Hongguo Series Details & Episodes Scraper API to retrieve its metadata and available episode video IDs. Upcoming titles may not have an episode directory yet.

Combine release schedules with search and recommendations

Use the Hongguo Short Drama Search API for title or keyword lookup, and the Hongguo Recommendation Feed API for discovery beyond a specific release date. This lets you compare date-based availability with search results and recommended titles.

Related Hongguo short drama Actors

Actor	Use it for
Hongguo Short Drama Search API	Find titles and series IDs by keyword.
Hongguo Recommendation Feed API	Discover recommended dramas without choosing a release date.
Hongguo Keyword Suggestions API	Expand seed terms with autocomplete and related keywords.
Hongguo Series Details & Episodes API	Enrich a released title and retrieve its episode directory.
Hongguo Video Downloader & Decryption to OSS	Store authorized episode downloads in S3-compatible object storage.

How much does the Hongguo calendar API cost?

Pricing uses the result event for each successfully saved unique drama per requested date:

Apify account tier	Price per drama-date result	Price per 1,000 results
FREE	$0.004	$4.00
BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM, DIAMOND	$0.003	$3.00

Within one run, duplicates are identified by target_date + seriesId, including repeated items on the same page or across pages. A drama repeated on one date is saved and charged once. The same drama on two different requested dates is saved and charged twice. Only successfully persisted unique results are charged; duplicate items, empty dates, and diagnostic failure rows are uncharged.

For example, if one date returns A, A, B and another returns A, C, the total is 4 billable results: two for each date. The result-event fees are $0.016 on the FREE tier or $0.012 on a paid tier, plus Apify platform usage. Deduplication applies within the run; rerunning the Actor is a new collection. See the Pricing tab for the active pricing configuration.

Apify platform usage is paid by the user in addition to result-event fees. Applicable compute, proxy, storage, and data-transfer charges are billed separately by Apify. Empty or failed requests can still incur platform usage even when no result events are charged.

Apify FREE-plan cloud accounts can save up to 100 successful unique drama-date results per UTC calendar month in this Actor, shared across the requested dates. Paid-plan accounts have no such product quota. If a monthly quota or run charge limit stops collection, the run reports incomplete collection. A monthly-quota stop includes a diagnostic row with the reset time.

Frequently asked questions

Can I query multiple Hongguo release dates at once?

Yes. Add the dates to target_dates. Different dates run concurrently, while each date follows its own calendar pages sequentially. The selected genre stays the same across every page and retry.

Can I get only live-action dramas or only comic series?

Yes. Use genre: "shortplay" for live-action dramas or genre: "comic_series" for comic series. genre: "all" includes every available type. Hongguo applies the filter upstream.

Are duplicate dramas charged more than once?

A repeated seriesId within the same requested date is counted once per run. The same series appearing on different requested dates is counted once for each date. Duplicate input dates are also collected only once. The monthly FREE-plan quota uses the same deduplicated result count.

Does this Actor return every new drama on Hongguo?

It follows pagination until the calendar session reports no more items. The results represent that session's responses, rather than an independently verified total for the entire platform. Empty dates produce no successful rows, and available records can differ between sessions.

What happens when one date fails?

Other dates continue. After the date workers finish, a date that still failed after retries makes the run fail. Earlier successful rows remain in the Dataset, so check the final run status before treating an export as complete.

Can I get full episode lists or download episodes?

Use the Hongguo Series Details & Episodes API for episode directories.

Can I use this Hongguo API from Python, JavaScript, Make, or n8n?

Yes. The API tab provides integration examples; the Apify API documentation covers programmatic access. You can start a run with the same JSON input, retrieve its Dataset, or connect schedules and webhooks to your automation workflow.

Maintainer and support

Actor author and maintainer: spider_studio. Use the Issues tab for support and the API tab for programmatic examples. Include the run ID, requested dates, selected drama type, and error message when reporting a problem.

Use calendar data in accordance with Hongguo's terms, applicable law, and your authorization. This Actor collects catalog metadata and does not require access to private Hongguo accounts.