Java and Webpages

[maniaco]

A java programmer brought to my attention a program that impressed me.

What the program did was "test" pages like "index.php" or something. Otherwise, it went to that page (without actually opening it in a browser format, it was invisible). Anyway, it went through random pages. Like say it "tested" index.php, and index.php actually existed, the program would list the page. Say it went to index.html, and that was an invalid page, it wouldn't list it.

Basically, I think that it searched for certain strings then decided if it was valid or whatever.

Im interested in how this can be done. I, myself am not a java programmer. Although, I am interested in learning it.

Is it possible someone can give me an example script similar to this? Im interested in java, but this is all i need now. I dont see a reason to learn just for this. Its for personal use of course.

Also, when I get time, where would I start learning java? And about how long would it take to get an understanding?

I do know html, javaSCRIPT, and php.

[Seemster]

This is above someone who doesn't have java experience. You would set up an collection containing the urls to check. Then you'd look through the list, open a URL connection and read the content. If the read bytes were not null, you got yourself a page otherwise the page doesn't exist. This can be written in about 10 lines or so but you would need to have prior Java experience.