Screen scraping

They have: 7 posts

Joined: May 1999

hi i would like to learn more about grabbing content on another site and displaying it on mine.

also i am interested if it is possible to complete forms on another site and display the results on mine

could this sort of thing be done with php?

Mark Hensler's picture

He has: 4,048 posts

Joined: Aug 2000

Yes, you can dynamically steal content with PHP.
No, I will not tell you how, unless you have permission to take that content.

They have: 7 posts

Joined: May 1999

appreciate your POV.

actually it is with the permission of the sites involoved.

ive heard screen scraping can be very problematic to maintain if even trivial changes are made to the original content pages html.

i just wanted to read up on it but couldnt find much searching for 'screen scrape' on google.

do people use another term to describe this activity?

Mark Hensler's picture

He has: 4,048 posts

Joined: Aug 2000

Yes, small changes to the HTML can affect the way that the script grabs content. Your script will basically pattern match the HTML for the information that you want. If the pattern changes, then your script needs updated.

You do have permission? Kuel! Check your email. Because of the topic, I thought it best to send you the info that way. I hate tempting people to commit copyright infringments.

Mark Hensler
If there is no answer on Google, then there is no question.

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