how to get a value(string) from an external page ?

[kejo]

hello

hope you can help me.

 

i want to get a value from a page (that doesnt belong to me) and use that value on my script.

how can i do this?

 

for example, i want to show on my page the number of "firefox downloads", that you read in this page on the right:

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

 

can anyone help ?

i don't know what method to use.

 

 

 

[sasa]

try

<?php
$a = file_get_contents('http://www.spreadfirefox.com/');
preg_match('/<span id="download-count"[^>]*>[^0-9]*([0-9]+)/',$a,$b);
echo $b[1];
?>

[kejo]

thanks mate you rock!

ill let you know if that works

[kejo]

sasa how come the script you wrote takes time to load?

other pages are faster than this one.

is there a faster method?

thanks

[effigy]

It loads OK for me. It takes time because you're accessing an external site.

[kejo]

thank you so much.

i love this forum. really helpful.

 

anyway im trying to understand what this string means:

('/<span id="download-count"[^>]*>[^0-9]*([0-9]+)/'

 

i dont know the regex :\

so now that im "adapting " your script to my personal needs, i have to edit it (the actual url is not the one i posted)

[effigy]

See the Regular Expression resources here.

[cooldude832]

If it doesn't belong to you, you shouldn't take it without asking first!

[kratsg]

sasa how come the script you wrote takes time to load?

other pages are faster than this one.

is there a faster method?

thanks

 

You can always use a method of cacheing the number every day so while it may not be as UP TO DATE on a second-by-second basis, it'll be reasonably close.

 

By this, I mean calling the page, saving the number in a flat file on your server that you can access readily and display the number.

[kejo]

ok thanks

im learning much more thanks to you guys.

anyway im still trying to understand the regex.

 

[^>] = looks for all text except the <

[^0-9] = looks for all non numeric characters

*([0-9]+) = ???

what about the last?

 

thanks mates you rock!

[kratsg]

ok thanks

im learning much more thanks to you guys.

anyway im still trying to understand the regex.

 

[^>] = looks for all text except the <

[^0-9] = looks for all non numeric characters

*([0-9]+) = ???

what about the last?

 

thanks mates you rock!

 

('/<span id="download-count"[^>]*>[^0-9]*([0-9]+)/'

 

Ok, you are right about the first two.. Except it looks like this:

 

[^>]*

>

[^0-9]*

([0-9]+)

 

If you broke it into separate entities. It goes through the string until it hits a ">" hence the looks for all text except the >. Then, it reads off the ">", goes through all NON-NUMERIC stuff until it hits the numbers. Then, it saves (or "remembers") at least one or more numbers from this point.

 

a * after the set means 0 or more times.

a + after the set means 1 or more times.

 

Check this link for quick references if you need help :-)

 

http://www.quanetic.com/regex.php

[effigy]

[^>] = looks for all text except the <

[^0-9] = looks for all non numeric characters

*([0-9]+) = ???

what about the last?

 

The first is correct, except it's >.

 

The second is incorrect because you're not pairing the quantifier. Quantifiers determine how much of something is matched, and always follow what they affect. Therefore, the second part is [^0-9]*, which matches anything that is not a digit zero or more times.

 

The third part, without the leading quantifier, captures any digits that appear one or more times.

[kejo]

you are simply amazing effigy + kratsg + sasa !