Can javascript do this..?

[Chris W]

I need to have java script open a URL, and look for various patterns,
then display them on the page the javascript is running on. Is this
possible? What functions or objects should I look into to figure out
how to do this?

If you want to be more specific, let me give some background. My web
site maintains a wish list of items each user wants. I have a simple
java script bookmark that the users of my site can set in their links
tool bar. Then when they are viewing an items on some on line retailers
web site they click on the bookmark in the tool bar and it sends the URL
and Page title to my web site and pops up the "Add to Wish List" form
with web store URL and description already filled in. What I want to do
is scan the page and attempt to determine the price of the item as well
as the URL of any image for the item. Then all of those fields can be
filled in automatically. Obviously it won't work with every site but it
will be a big time saver for my users. I could do it server side with
php, but I think I would rather do it client side since the user already
has the page I want to scan already loaded in their browser. If you
want to try out the site to see what I am talking about the link below
will take you there.

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Chris W

Gift Giving Made Easy
Get the gifts you want &
give the gifts they want
http://thewishzone.com

 

[kaeli]

I need to have java script open a URL, and look for various patterns,
then display them on the page the javascript is running on. Is this
possible?

Using "normal" javascript alone? No.
Using a helper, such as COM, ActiveX, Applet, or xmlhttprequest, yes.

But none of those are completely cross-browser, cross-platform solutions.

Since you have PHP as an option, use that. It is MUCH easier and will work
for all users, since it runs on the server. You won't have to contend with
cross-domain security issues of javascript, either.

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