[ale] How to drive Linux browser to make a campground sniper?

[Pete Hardie]

I have used a Firefox extension that could script both butting presses and
field entries, and I believe it could check data form the page.  I will see
if I can look up the name

On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 2:16 PM, Neal Rhodes via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Boring "Real-World Details":
>
> So, we are planning a summer trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.
>
> 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 recreation.gov, starting 6 months to the day from today.
>
> 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.
>
> SO, we really want to detect if/when sites become available over the next
> 6 months and jump on it before someone else does.
>
> There is someone who offers this as a service for $40 a reservation,
> irrespective of whether they are successful.
>
> Exciting Technology Application:
>
> 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?
>
> Then I thought:  All I want to do is:
>
> Setup a browser window on our Centos 6 desktop, any browser that
> understands https;
> 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.
> Then:
>
> Run SOMETHING that will automate:
>
> Hit the Search Submit button;
> See if the resultant page contains "No Suitable availability"
> IF Not: Email me
> Sleep 15 minutes
> Rinse, Later, Repeat
>
> 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.
>
> Since this just sits on my desk in the basement, I can live with
> hard-coded screen coordinates.
>
> What tools exist in Linux to do this?
>
> regards,
>
> Neal Rhodes
> MNOP Ltd
>
>
>
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>


-- 
Pete Hardie
--------
Better Living Through Bitmaps
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