Hi,

This is my first attempt to use Perl so I'm sure my problem is something simple.

I am attempting to scrape data from realestate.com.au but am running into problems when I include a particular bit of code. For the life of me I can't understand why this is so as the code is very similar to code above it which runs perfectly. When I use HTML::TokeParser to go to a new tag, the script is freezing. However, it works perfectly well in other parts.

My code is below, the block that is causing me trouble is just below the =pod part. Basically, the first line beneath the pod (so if I move the pod below that statement) causes the script to hang.

If you look at this in depth you will see that there would be no result for the auction details, which is fine, I want to use this over multiple pages. In the case in the script the if statement will evaluate to false and all would be well... at least in my thinking.

Thanks for any light you could shed on this.

An example of an auction page is this: http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=106137557

#!/usr/bin/perl
use WWW::Mechanize;
use HTML::TokeParser;
use Switch;

my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new( autocheck => 1 );

#set url
my $url = "http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=1060238
+87";

#$mech->get("http://search.cpan.org");
$mech->get($url);

#pass the stream to tokeparser
my $stream = HTML::TokeParser->new(\$mech->{content});

# go to first p tag
my $tag = $stream->get_tag("p");

# loop through p tags until we find classes
until ($tag->[1]{class} eq "officeFax") 
    {
    
    switch ($tag->[1]{class}) 
        {
        case "propertyID"        
            {
                $propid = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/p");
                
                # now get data straight after this tag
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("h1");
                $address = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/h1");
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("strong");
                    if ($tag->[1]{class} eq "price") 
                        {
                            $price = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/stron
+g");
                        }
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("h2");
                    $header = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/h2");
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("h2");
                    # make sure it's correct part of source
                    if ($tag->[1]{class} eq "propertySummary")
                        {
                            $summary = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/h2"
+);
                        }
                # Due to information not appearing all the time replic
+ate tag and stream for status
                $tag2 = $tag;
                $stream2 = $stream;
                $tag2 = $stream2->get_tag("h3");
                    # Check for under contract/offer etc
                    if ($tag2->[1]{class} eq "highlighted")
                        {
                            $status = $stream2->get_trimmed_text("/h3"
+);
                        }

                # Do the same for auction details
                $tag3 = $tag;
                $stream3 = $stream;
               
=pod
                $tag3 = $stream3->get_tag("span");

                    # Get "Price Authority" - at the moment seems to b
+e only auction
                    if ($tag3->[1]{class} eq "price authority")
                        {
                            $priceauth = $stream3->get_trimmed_text("/
+span");
                        }
                $tag3 = $stream3->get_tag("span");
                    # Get Auction time
                    if ($tag3->[1]{class} eq "price auction")
                        {
                            $auction = $stream3->get_trimmed_text("/sp
+an");
                        }
=cut
                
                # Loop down to description
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("div");
                until ($tag->[1]{class} eq "description") 
                        {
                            $tag = $stream->get_tag("div");           
+             
                        }
                $description = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/div");
                # Get Agent Name
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("div");
                until ($tag->[1]{id} eq "contactAgentDetails") 
                        {
                            $tag = $stream->get_tag("div");           
+             
                        }
                $tag = $stream->get_tag("p");
                $agent = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/p");
            }
        case "officePhone"
            {
                $officephone = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/p");
            }
        case "officeFax"
            {
                $officefax  = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/p");
            }
       }  
    # go to next p tag
    $tag = $stream->get_tag("p");
    }

# Loop down to property summary
until ($tag->[1]{id} eq "propertySummary") 
        {
            $tag = $stream->get_tag("div");                        
        }
        
$tag = $stream->get_tag("dt");
$mycat = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dt");
# Get property summary details
until ($mycat eq "Close to:")
    {
        switch ($mycat)
            {
                case "Category:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $proptype = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd");
                    }
                case "Bedrooms:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $bed = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd");
                    }
                case "Bathrooms:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $bath = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd");
                    } 
                case "Land:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $land = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd");
                    } 
                case "Carport:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $carnumport = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd")
+;
                    }
                case "Garage:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $carnumgar = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd");
                    }
                case "Municipality:"
                    {
                        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dd");
                        $municipality = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dd
+");
                    }
            }
        $tag = $stream->get_tag("dt");
        $mycat = $stream->get_trimmed_text("/dt");
    }
    
print "$propid \n";
print "$status \n";
print $mech->title;    
print "Address: $address \n";
print "Price: $price \n";
print "Type: $proptype \n";
print "Bedrooms: $bed \n";
print "Bathrooms: $bath \n";
if (length($carnumport)>0)
    {
        print "Carport: $carnumport \n";
    }
if (length($carnumgar)>0)
    {
        print "Garage: $carnumgar \n";
    }
print "$header \n";
print "$summary \n";
print "$description \n";
print "Agent Details: \n";
print "$agent \n";
print "$officephone \n";
print "$officefax \n";
[download]