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Thread: getting data from a site?

  1. #1
    Member
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    Sep 2003
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    getting data from a site?

    Is there any way to programmatically "rip" data from a website that doesn't offer XML/RSS feeds? In other words, is there any way to programmatically read the html source code of a site and then parse out the data you want?

    I assume no... but you never know. thanks.

  2. #2
    Junior Member
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    getting data from a site?

    I do not know if it can be done with Flash alone but you can do it with Flash combined with ASP. Many people call this "scraping" and it uses Microsoft's xmlhttp component.

    I use it to "scrape" news articles from sites and display only the news links in a flash movie using loadVariables().

    If you are interested I can email you an example of the ASP code I wrote for this.

    You can view a working example here: http://conxit.com/public/root/mix97/main.html

    Just click on the music news link.

    You can find out more about xmlHTTP and ASP scraping here:
    http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/102401-1.shtml

    Karbo-

  3. #3
    Member
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    Sep 2003
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    thanks a lot for the response karbo. that is exactly what I am looking to do...
    however, is ASP the only method one can use to "scrape"?
    I ask this because I am not all that familiar with using ASP, and while using the xmlhttp component seems straightforward, I wonder if there is alternative method that does not involve using ASP.

    In any case, I'd like it if you sent me your source code so I could have something to go on. You can send it to:

    kennasucks3[at]yahoo[dot]com.

    peace.

  4. #4
    Senior Member tupps's Avatar
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    Practically any programming environment can be used for scraping web pages, especially if it has a web accessibility (most do). Then it is just a matter of programming skill that determines how well it finds the correct information.

    Do a search on Web Scraping in google, and you will find many examples of programs and tools to do it.

    Thanks

    Luke
    Flash-XML FAQ
    http://www.tupps.com/flash/faq/

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