Writing a scraping program is harder in the first place. Besides, if you use the scraping method, then it may stop working when the design of the website changes, unless be pure luck it will keep working.
So if you have the option to use an API, do use it, unless you actually see a problem with it.
Sometimes the website doesn't provide an API, though, and then you don't have a choice.
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Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
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Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
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Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
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Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
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