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

[Neal Rhodes]

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. 


On Sun, 2018-01-14 at 12:24 -0500, Mark at markulmer.com via Ale wrote:

> Neal,
> 
> Have you looked at getting a head start by having someone build you
> the  website scraping part for you? You may look at Fiverr.com 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. 
> 
> 
> 
> Mark Ulmer
> 
> 
> > On January 13, 2018 1:16:34 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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