Getting information from a site

[Arkane]

Hey,

 

I'm trying to write a script to get data off of another site (with admins approval) but I'm having a bit of a problem to take the actual data.

 

I'm trying to use preg_match to find the data I need, but just cant get the thing to work for anything more complicated that telling me if there is a t in test.

 

   <td class="reltdd">Serial Code</td>
   <td class="reltdv">5445-9826</td>

This is the html that i am trying to scrape.  theres more, but its all the same pretty much.  What I'm looking to get is the '5445-9826' but since the td is a class that is referred to multiple times, the only thing unique to the date is the 'Serial Code' text.

 

I've gotten the site info via file_get_contents() and its all in the one variable - $raw .

 

I've tried

preg_match("/<td class="reltdd">(.*)</td>/", $html, $matches);
echo $matches;

but it had no return whatsoever.  i have also echoed $html so I know it got the data correctly.

 

I know that what I have there should only return 'Serial Code' but sinceI can't even get that to work I have no chance with the rest.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[Garethp]

'~<td class=\"*+\">Serial Code</td>\s<td class=\"*+\">([0-9\-]+)</td>~'

 

and you should print_r($matches); not echo, because it's an array

[Arkane]

thanks for getting back so quickly.

 

I've tried that, but I'm not having any luck with it.

 

Basically my entire code:

<?php
$url = "http://www.advanscene.com/html/Releases/dbrelpsp.php?id=1908";
$raw = file_get_contents($url);

preg_match('~<td class=\"*+\">Serial Code</td>\s<td class=\"*+\">([0-9\-]+)</td>~', $raw, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?>

I'm intending to take about 4 different pieces from the page and write them to variables, but obviously getting nowhere.  Even trying the bit you gave me displays nothing but "Array ( )".  What am i missing?

[Garethp]

Your problem is that $raw does not contain

 

   <td class="reltdd">Serial Code</td>
   <td class="reltdv">5445-9826</td>

 

The closest it comes is

 

   <td class="reltdd">UMD Serial</td>
   <td class="reltdv">ULUS-10457</td>

 

If you use this

 

<?php
$url = "http://www.advanscene.com/html/Releases/dbrelpsp.php?id=1908";
$raw = file_get_contents($url);

preg_match('~<td class=\"*+\">([0-9\-]+)</td>~', $raw, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?>

It'll match anything that's a number or a number with dashes in it. If you want something more specific, you need to know exactly what you're looking for, or atleast the pattern which you're looking for.

[.josh]

If you have admin approval, why not work with them to do something other than scrape the page?  Not calling you a liar, just saying...it would make your life easier if they could set something up for you...