Using java to track auctions

Printable View

08-24-2009, 04:31 AM
powerful36

Using java to track auctions

Hi people,

I am trying to to write a auction tracking program to track swoopo auctions. I want to be able to keep track number of auctions with live update of current prices, and winning bidders, and time remaining especially.

After inspecting the source code, I found my original idea of just reading text from the page would not work as there is nothing to be read for time remaining. It only had something like this:

...
<div class="prd_countdown"><span id="counter_index_page_209566">--:--:--</span></div>
...

And now I believe I have to somehow get the information from the javascript file, which I have no idea how to do. I wonder if anyone can point me to the right direction.

Many thanks
08-24-2009, 04:43 AM
mrmatt1111

First off, just so you are on the same page as this forum... java is not at all the same as javascript.

Secondly, unless you want to be posting text files by hand with up-to-date info then you will probably need to look into using a database i.e. MySQL.

Lastly, if you do plan to use java and on a webpage then you will need to look into java applets and maybe JSP.
08-24-2009, 05:05 AM
powerful36

Thank you for the quick reply.

Yes, I am planning on writing this tracker in Java, that's all I know really.

I don't quite understand your second point.

I don't plan to use it on a webpage. For now, I just want to be able to read time remaining, and then output it in the console screen in Eclipse. I can achieve this with current price and winning bidder as they have them written as actual text in the source code.
08-24-2009, 05:19 AM
mrmatt1111

ahhhh, oops, sorry, I totally misunderstood your original post. I understand now, you want to gather information from an existing website and track it in a program. :)

Java will allow you to make calls to a webpage and you can get back the html, from there you can parse out the stuff you are interested in... i have done it before, but i don't have any tips or sample code. :(
08-24-2009, 05:49 AM
powerful36

Exactly!

Yes, I got as far as that. I can replicate the entire source code easily enough. However, when there is javascript involved, it's a bit more tricky. Sometimes, source code does not directly reflect what's shown on browser, and in this particular case the part which is related to the time remaining timer looks like:

<div class="countdown_nrs" id="countertime">-- : -- : --</div>

I managed to find "countertime" in one of the js file which html code imported between <head></head>. The question is how would I get java to interpret that as a normal browser would do?