I've probably used the wrong terminology, highlighting the level of non-adeptship in my possession regarding network programming.

I'm trying to learn how to write a web parser or scripter. This would be something which can go to a web site, scan (or "scrape", as we used to call it in the old days) through the data that comes back for keywords and so on, parse for HREF links for the options necessary to accomplish things in a scripted manner that otherwise have to be done by hand.

Problem is, I haven't a clue where to begin, and poking around sites for HTML, HTTP and SOCKET keywords don't seem to be helping because waaay too much stuff qualifies for such general terms.

Can someone either point me at a good tutorial, basic info on how this is done, or provide a code snippet to demonstrate the use of some Perl module to accomplish this?

I have no problems with digging through the documentation to learn how to do this myself, but I can't even seem to find the right library, much less the right reference manual.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

_______________
Steven K. Mariner
marinersk@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~marinersk/

In reply to HTTP Scripting by marinersk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.