RE: [PHP-WIN] DOM

Send a url that points to the page you want to strip the info from. Or look into another service or site that may give you the quotes in a raw text format. Also look into the http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strip-tags.php function in PHP. Michael On Saturday, January 13, 2001, at 03:11 PM, James Duncan wrote: > Hi again, > > Thanks for your help so far. I will explain what I'm trying to achieve. I > want to pull down a web page that contains share prices, extract those share > prices, and update a database with the new prices. What I want is a nice and > neat solution that runs like a service (i.e. I can stop and start it from a > web browser, change the update interval (how long it waits before it repeats > the process)), etc. > > I know a little PHP and Javascript (what I've taught/learnt over the last > few weeks). The process I have so far (not implemented at all yet): > > 1) PHP script that pulls down the relevant web page to my server > 2) Data extraction from HTML web page > 3) Updating of database with data from step 2 > 4) Running step 1 again after a certain period of time > > Step 2 is the most complex by far. I was hoping to use PHP to access the > #text value via DOM but obviously this isn't possible because the DOM > doesn't exist server-side but only after the HTML has been rendered > client-side. Like you say, I could create a form and hidden fields in the > HTML file and use Javascript to read the #text node values into the hidden > fields. Then trigger a POST operation, where I can read in all the values > but I don't like the sound of this because then I would have to have a > browser interacting with my PHP scripts!?! I'm trying to create a > self-contained "service" that doesn't have any external dependants. > > Is there any other way of accomplishing this without involving a browser? > The only other way I can see is to use PHP to strip all HTML tags, leaving > just the text? I could then write PHP code to read in the remaining text, > etc. > > What is the best way to accomplish this? Is there a PHP command that strips > all HTML tags (and Javascript, etc) from an HTML file? Example code would be > great ;) > > Thanks > > James > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Michael Stearne [mailto:mstearne@entermix.com] > Sent: 13 January 2001 18:40 > To: James Duncan > Cc: mstearne@entermix.com; php-windows@lists.php.net > Subject: RE: [PHP-WIN] DOM > > No, actually I think that using PHP to insert the FORM and then use > Javascript to get the #text node values would be easier. Parsing Table > cells using RegExs is no fun. > > Michael > > On Saturday, January 13, 2001, at 01:06 PM, James Duncan wrote: > > > But surely if I'm using fopen to insert a hidden form and fields I might > as > > well use fopen to extract the data from the HTML page in the first place? > It > > just seems so much easier to capture the #text node values from the DOM, > > rather than using fopen to locate the same information!?! > > > > Another idea would be to use my Javascript to capture the text node values > > from the DOM and write it to a cookie file. The contents of the cookie > file > > could then by read by PHP to populate the database? > > > > Thanks > > > > James > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Michael Stearne [mailto:mstearne@entermix.com] > > Sent: 13 January 2001 17:32 > > To: James Duncan > > Cc: mstearne@entermix.com; php-windows@lists.php.net > > Subject: RE: [PHP-WIN] DOM > > > > > > On Saturday, January 13, 2001, at 12:20 PM, James Duncan wrote: > > > > > I don't think this will work in my case because I don't control the > layout > > > of the HTML page and hence can't add the hidden fields. I'm downloading > > the > > > HTML pages from a website. It would require as much work to insert the > > > hidden fields as trying to strip the HTML tags in an attempt to read the > > > data directly from the HTML page itself. There must be a way to access > the > > > DOM directly from PHP? I notice in the manual there is a section > regarding > > > XML DOM but not the DOM itself. > > > > > > Are the DOM values only available on the client? If that's the case then > > PHP > > > can't be used to read them because it's limited to the server side? > > > > Well by the time you are talking about PHP is out of the picture. PHP can > > be used to generate a DOM but once its generated PHP (or any server side > > language) is out of the picture, it then goes to the client-side stuff > like > > you said. You can use PHP's fopen() to grab the page and then add the form > > and hidden fields I was talking about. By doing this, you are setting up > > the page to be handled correctly by the Javascript code you inserted > through > > PHP. > > > > Michael > > > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > James > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Michael Stearne [mailto:mstearne@entermix.com] > > > Sent: 13 January 2001 17:06 > > > To: James Duncan > > > Cc: php-windows@lists.php.net > > > Subject: Re: [PHP-WIN] DOM > > > > > > Could you do something like: > > > > > > > > > myForm.myField.value=tablejames.firstChild.childNodes[1].childNodes[4].first > > > Child.firstChild.node Value; > > > > > > Set up a form of hidden fields. Extract the values from the DOM and > then > > > have the user hit a Submit button to get to the next page. At that > point > > > the values that were collected and put into the hidden form fields will > be > > > submitted and you next page (the PHP page) could INSERT the values into > > the > > > database, > > > > > > Michael > > > > > > > > > On Friday, January 12, 2001, at 07:30 PM, James Duncan wrote: > > > > > > > Hi folks, > > > > > > > > I'm still new to HTML, Javascript and PHP but learning (fast > hopefully). > > > > I've just started accessing DOM elements. I have worked out how to > > update > > > > the contents of table cells directly using this method, etc. In > > Javascript > > > I > > > > would use code like: > > > > > > > > alert("Value is: " + > > > > > > > > > > tablejames.firstChild.childNodes[1].childNodes[4].firstChild.firstChild.node > > > > Name); > > > > alert("Value is: " + > > > > > > > > > > tablejames.firstChild.childNodes[1].childNodes[5].firstChild.firstChild.node > > > > Value); > > > > > > > > This Javascript shows the name and value of the child element. > > > > > > > > Now I want to use PHP to extract data (values) from HTML pages like I > do > > > > with the above Javascript. Is this possible? Obviously with the > > Javascript > > > > the HTML page has already been rendered in the browser (i.e. all tree > > > > elements have been created). This makes extracting data a simple case > of > > > > finding the "#text" elements and reading in the values. Can I do the > > same > > > > thing with PHP and an HTML file I've downloaded from the Internet? > > > Obviously > > > > this file is sitting on my server and hasn't been rendered in a > > browser... > > > > > > > > The whole point of this exercise is so that I can extract values from > an > > > > HTML table and populate them into a database. Maybe it's easier to > > process > > > > the HTML file line by line and strip the unwanted HTML tags? However, > > with > > > > this approach I've got to hardcode each webpage... > > > > > > > > If this is a silly question then sorry but you only learn if you ask > ;) > > > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > James > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > > > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-windows-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > > > > For additional commands, e-mail: php-windows-help@lists.php.net > > > > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: > php-list-admin@lists.php.net > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-windows-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > > For additional commands, e-mail: php-windows-help@lists.php.net > > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net > > > > > > > > >