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Thanks for the thought. Doesn't GreaseMonkey allow for scanning the resultant page for specific strings? Thus far that appears to be a one-stop solution without lots of moving parts. <BR>
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On Sun, 2018-01-14 at 12:24 -0500, Mark@markulmer.com via Ale wrote:<BR>
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Neal,
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Have you looked at getting a head start by having someone build you the website scraping part for you? You may look at <A HREF="http://Fiverr.com">Fiverr.com</A> and search for website scraping and/or automation. You should be able to get initial custom script built for anywhere from $5-$25. I’ve had great experiences with these freelancers. Be sure to include Linux in your requirements.
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Mark Ulmer
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">On January 13, 2018 1:16:34 PM Neal Rhodes via Ale <<A HREF="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</A>> wrote:</FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Boring "Real-World Details":</FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">So, we are planning a summer trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">We would really like to camp at Many Glaciers Campground in the park. However, at present, all the sites are already reserved. They are reserved through <A HREF="http://recreation.gov">recreation.gov</A>, starting 6 months to the day from today. </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">But we have a really strong impression that people initially book a long stretch, then later either reduce the duration once they get more specific plans, or cancel. </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">SO, we really want to detect if/when sites become available over the next 6 months and jump on it before someone else does. </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">There is someone who offers this as a service for $40 a reservation, irrespective of whether they are successful.</FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Exciting Technology Application: </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Initially I looked at the HTML for their search page, with the thought of using "wget" to simulate the reservation request. That increasingly looks like a fool's errand, assuming that they may have session cookies related to sign-on and other magic handshake crap that would be difficult to simulate. And what happens when they alter their data fields? </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Then I thought: All I want to do is: </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Setup a browser window on our Centos 6 desktop, any browser that understands https;</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Run that browser through the responses to get it to the search window on this campground, and put in all the dates and related input. </FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Then: </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Run SOMETHING that will automate: </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Hit the Search Submit button;</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">See if the resultant page contains "No Suitable availability"</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">IF Not: Email me</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Sleep 15 minutes</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Rinse, Later, Repeat</FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">This sounds to me like a very elemental application of a test/control manager for a GUI interface. If I can automate an existing browser, we can eliminate all the complexities of trying to fake out their web server. </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Since this just sits on my desk in the basement, I can live with hard-coded screen coordinates. </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">What tools exist in Linux to do this? </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">regards, </FONT><BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Neal Rhodes</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">MNOP Ltd</FONT><BR>
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