Perl help

[SMN]

Hi guys,

I am dreadful at scripting and i am normally a "script editor" rather than a writer I have had a look around and cant find anything so thought i'd check here.

Im basically looking for a Perl script to grab a .html web page, and output the value after a string, i.e. "Users: ", or "Price (£): " for example. I used to have a script bookmarked for this but i cant find it anywhere; can anybody point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance,
Sam

 

[JHeaton]

I can't point you in the direction of something that already exists, but if you want to throw up a set of requirements I might take a bash at putting one together. I've been looking for some little projects to keep me going.

 

[AHarvey]

They covered this in Python over on Udacity in their "How to build a browser", searching web pages for strings etc

 

[robbalmbra]

I would use a bash script, 'wget' the file then use some string functions to strip out the required fields from the downloaded file.

 

[SMN]

Basically, i want to monitor some forums for example, where there is a string at the bottom called "Users:" or "Accounts:" etc. After this there will be a integer, 25000, which is what i'd like to output in my script so i can plug this into my conky installation.

I am pretty pap at scripting so any help would be appreciated

 

[robbalmbra]

ok shouldnt be that hard. Phpbb forum or vBulletin forum?

 

[SMN]

If we did it using OcUK for example, it would be a wget on http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/ and then search for "active members:" and then output the integer. Its not for specific site, I'm looking to bodge once i have the framework, for thinks like monitoring prices on Amazon, etc.

 

[robbalmbra]

surely you could loop through an array of predefined websites and then execute a wget on each website and then the integer script.

 

[SMN]

I am pretty pap at scripting

I wasnt lying!

 

[robbalmbra]

sorry?