From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <a4e6962a0510070431x1235c176k5ae35fd9d9dc0c55@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Fri,  7 Oct 2005 06:31:14 -0500
From: Eric Van Hensbergen <ericvh@gmail.com>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [9fans] webscript
In-Reply-To: <ee9e417a0510070001r4a2eb88fx263c748a2bdcfb94@mail.gmail.com>
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Seems like I recall seeing an Expect derrivative that worked with
websites - can't seem to google it now.  Not sure it worked as easily
as you are describing, but it might be a step in the right direction.

         -eric

On 10/7/05, Russ Cox <rsc@swtch.com> wrote:
> I would like to be able to write scripts like this:
>
>         load "http://apc-reset/outlets.htm"
>         find "yoshimi"
>         nearest option, set "Immediate Reboot"
>         submit
>
> or like this:
>
>         load "http://www.fedex.com/Tracking"
>         find form
>         enter "792544024753"
>         submit
>
>         if (find "No information") {
>            select enclosing td
>            print
>         } else if (find "Ship date") {
>            select enclosing table
>            select enclosing table
>            print
>         } else {
>            print ">>> Unexpected Results\n"
>            print
>         }
>
> Does anyone know of programs/languages that let you
> script web sessions like that?  Searching around finds lots
> of mentions of web scraping but no actual programs.
>
> I have a rough idea of the general structure of the language
> and grammar, and I think that libhtml does most of the
> heavy lifting already.
>
> Anyone interested in working on this?
>
> Russ
>