nisim777

This question doesn't only pertain to PHP. How do I pull information from other sites without having access to their databases? Obviously I know that if the site is broadcasting through an RSS feed you can do it, but what about those that aren't? For example, I'll actually us an Android app. I have an app on my G1 called Craigsphone, which basically pulls all listings from my local craigslist and formats them in the app. Unless I'm wrong, craigslist is not broadcasting each post via RSS. Do they have a specific API that they allow use of, or is there a way that people are pulling this information?

The reason I ask in the PHP section, is because I would like to practice doing this on my site (I won't be stealing anyone's copyright information, I'm going to practice between two sites I own).

Thanks

paul_norman_81

If you own the sites then I would suggest formatting the data in an xml file somewhere on server 1 (export it) and then using an authentication system grabbing it with server 2 (and parsing it).

If you don't have control of the servers then you are down to screen scraping. This isn't too hard and Perl has plenty of tools for the job (Mechanize and Toke Parser spring to mind). You can also write these tools in PHP without too much hassle - I did!

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