Data retrieval

Hi fellow rebols, I'm writing a script to collect data from various web pages and send the results in an email. Most web pages are ok but a few cause some problems. Here's an example: www.tradesports.com This page allows you to place bets on various topics. I want to extract this kind of information, but the links trigger javascript functions so there appears to be no direct URLs to the resulting pages. I figure I need to open an HTTP port and post whatever the javascript function sends myself. Here's an example of a javascript function call in a link: <a href="#" onClick="javascript:trade(88190);return false;">Trade This Now!</a> And here's the trade function: function trade(conID) { document.POSTGSX.request_operation.value = "trade"; document.POSTGSX.request_type.value = "action"; document.POSTGSX.selConID.value = conID; document.POSTGSX.location.value = "TradeCentre"; document.POSTGSX.submit(); } I don't know much about javascript and HTTP post. From what I can gather I need to send the same information to the server as the submit() function above, but I have absolutely no idea of what information is sent or how to send it. Also, how do I receive the result? Can I open an http port to achieve this? Any help greatly appreciated! Cheers, Gisle

Dixit Gisle Dankel (15.10 30.01.2004):

>www.tradesports.com >Here's an example of a javascript function call in a link: > document.POSTGSX.submit(); >}

Oh, and here's two more links: Martin Johannesson has written a script to do the http posting for you: http://www.reboltech.com/library/html/http-post.html And you might find some of these scripts useful: http://www.oops-as.no/rix?q=HTTP+post&ct=rebol HY Dixit Gisle Dankel (15.10 30.01.2004):

Hi, To know what a browser is saying to a server I wrote a 'remote echo proxy' several years back and am slowly improving it. I recently changed to echos the request into a frame above the page and have not tested it very much at all but you are welcome to try. to try the current version, set your browsers http proxy to Proxy: bionix.cs.uoregon.edu Port: 3776 It is not really ready for prime time but often gets the job done. now that I have started playing with 'view I am tempted to make a 'local echo proxy' people could run on their own machines which would be an awful lot easier to make robust. when directed to your page and link returns: POST http://www.tradesports.com/ HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows XP) Opera 6.05 [en] Host: www.tradesports.com Accept: text/html, image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, */* Accept-Language: en Accept-Charset: windows-1252;q=1.0, utf-8;q=1.0, utf-16;q=1.0, iso-8859-1;q=0.6, *;q=0.1 Accept-Encoding: deflate, gzip, x-gzip, identity, *;q=0 Referer: http://www.tradesports.com/ Proxy-Connection: close Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Content-length: 151 request_operation=trade&request_type=action&contractBook=none&mdView=0&incpage=&isLive=true&selConID=6227&eventSelect=&location=TradeCentre&updateLis On Fri, 30 Jan 2004, Gisle Dankel wrote:

Tom Conlin wrote.. apparently on 30-Jan-2004/10:58:47-8:00

>Hi, > >To know what a browser is saying to a server I wrote a >'remote echo proxy' several years back and am slowly improving it. >

Dixit Graham Chiu (21.44 30.01.2004):

>Sterling also wrote a http proxy that you could use I guess > >http://www.rebol.org/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/rebol/view-script.r?script=proxy.r

Thanks for all replies! I managed to do what I wanted using Sterling's proxy script. Now, there is one remaining problem: Retrieving information from https pages. Since REBOL doesn't support https I assume this will be rather difficult... Cheers, Gisle

Gisle Dankel wrote.. apparently on 1-Feb-2004/23:34:43

>Thanks for all replies! >I managed to do what I wanted using Sterling's proxy script. > >Now, there is one remaining problem: Retrieving information from https >pages. >Since REBOL doesn't support https I assume this will be rather difficult... >