Using search results in my website from another website 2

[golcarlad]

Is it possible for me to incorporate in MY SITE, search results from another website - in this case

http://www.yell.co.uk?

I think its called a mash-up or something, if so can someone give me some pointers about how I would do such a thing?

 

[BabyJeffy]

Use a server-side solution (assuming the search site doesn't already offer an API for your needs). I would refer to a server-side solution as "page scraping" - where the page that is requested is "scraped" (parsed) server-side for the information you want to then display. I typically do this in PHP - check your ISP for what options you have available. Oh... and check with the website to make sure they are OK with you doing this - nobody wants to get a nasty letter from a law firm

Cheers,
Jeff

[tt]Jeff's Page @ Code Couch

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http://www.coedit.co.uk/

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What is Javascript? FAQ216-6094

 

[Stretchwickster]

Just so that you're aware, a "page scraping" script will nearly always come unstuck when the design/structure of the target page changes because the technique involves retrieving the HTML source of the target page then hunting for appropriate tags from which to strip data. The HTML source/structure changes and your script will likely break.

Another reason why it's best to make them aware of what you are doing is that, if they are planning a site redesign, they could potentially give you some advanced warning (although it would be exceedingly kind of them to do that of their own accord) so that your server-side script wouldn't be "broken" for too long and you'd have some idea why your script suddenly wasn't working.

I had a quick look at yell.com and it doesn't look like they have any API you can tap into. These pages might be of interest to you, but you've probably already found them:

http://search.yell.com/tools/home.html

and

http://affiliates.yell.com/affiliates/terms.do.

The "Tools" page lists various ways to link to Yell, maybe that's another option if you don't want to go down the page scraping route.

Clive

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"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." (Paul Ehrlich)
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[golcarlad]

Guys - thanks for all that, it was more than I could have hoped for - very kind of you - thanks