5 replies to this topic

[User222]

Hi everyone

Im new here Trying to discover some Autoit function added by default (full) installation. Im not a programmer so I can afford to test only what got installed by itself.

Been discovering the specific function for a while. Actually I would just like to ask if the following what I will describe is possible to do or not. If yes, I will try to search for some tutorials to see this because youtube is not too helpful when it comes to specific needs about this software. So what Im trying to do is:


Starting out with this link: click

The link is randomely chosen, there could be billion of other possibilities. So I have the folder with no specific syntax given but with the name lets say ''si - umek - vice grip ep 2008-beatport'' and inside of it i have three files (positions doesn't matter because its all about automatical searching of keywords):
01-vice_grip-bbt
02-combine_fragments-bbt
03-combine_fragments_dachshund_edit

As you can see the folder and the files have some totally unnecessary words added, even changes (''edit'' instead of ''remix''). To go to the page that I showed above and to get it there are 3 steps required to do:
1. go to the site - in our case click (the process about which we speak is the same for each site, with bigger database of whatever, with search box)
2. in the search box i need to type some of the words from folder, and some from the file. In this example the keywords would be ''vice fragments'' (also ''umek combine'' or even ''combine grip'' would be fine) . Of course the search need to be started with one single click - on the button ''Search''
3. the result need to be chosen (with just a few results, lets say three, this step could be done in maximum two seconds with well working server)

I don't need to get on the page to have it opened but my purpose is to get, from the link Discogs, through the link click, as soon as possible this link: click
AutoIt would see the keywords from folder and files (it can be only one file inside too) names automatically, also the search would be automatically. The reason for this is; I need the link for copy / paste process for further needs. Number of gathered links would equal to number of folders added (or number of lines in the text file if this would be made through DIR command). So I would be also able to switch from previouns link to next link (on purpose to copy it for, later, pasting it) as soon as possible.

Could this be done? Its all about automatical reading folders' (that I choose inside the program) and files' names, taking out random words and use them as a Search Keywords.

Best wishes to all.

[BrettF]

Welcome to the forums!

This task is achievable and should be fairly simple once you put your mind to it... It might be challenging in parts, but you should be able to do it!

Really the best way to do this would be to parse the HTML of the page, but before we can parse it, we need to get it right? Few ways you can do this.

Using the IE UDFs. You can find the functions in the helpfile (under UDFs). They are included with AutoIt.
Using HTTP.au3.
Using WinInet.

The last two might be a little harder to grasp, but could prove easier to getting the data... Then again IE does have some functions that are helpful. For a beginner like yourself, its probably simpler to go with IE.

The next step is to get the HTML of the page. Now before we start that let me make an observation. The search page is like so:

http://www.discogs.com/search?q=vice+fragments+umek&type=all

That makes it extremely easy to search. All we do is seperate the search terms with "+" and we can go (virtually that simple... Obviously you will need to enforce URL encoding, but there are plenty of functions floating around for that.

Then you have to parse the results. You could go with StringInStr, StringLeft, StringRight etc, or StringRegExp (the harder option, but could be easier in the end.)

Basically you have some experimenting to go do... If you can't work a part of it out, search for it as well as play around with ideas, or possible solutions. If still you need help, then post your code here and we'll have a crack at fixing it or pointing out whats wrong.

Cheers,

Brett

[User222]

Thank you for reply. You mentoined 3 ways to do this. Are all of them related to AutoIt? No matter if your answer is "yes" or "no"; Could the process be through Firefox instead of IE?
You said its easy to search. Its probably possible (but for me, still hard to do - will keep trying) to automatically copy the folders' and file(s)' (note: we are talking about the unlimited amount of folders. Those amount will be equal to links gathered) words to the search bar and to do the Search process automatical and also to choose the result that has been found. All of those 3 steps that I just mentoined could be possible as you said - I will try to do them but for now, I have no idea how this could be done. I just cannot imagine how could be the process designed to get chosen the correct words - the software doesn't have "human's brains" and it cannot know which words in the names can be used and which are unnecessary (shouldn't be even in the file/folder name).
You told me to post the code if I will need help. If your answer on my first question in this post is "yes" then I would also like to know; Am I able to do this with the software by its default options, as they came with installation? Im not a programmer (yet)...

[User222]

BrettF are you still here?

[User222]

While discovering this a bit more closely I think I can just dream about my idea - Its all about programming and Im not really a programmer

[Manadar]

I can give you some pretty straight forward advice:
You're not going to accomplish this, without being a fully fledged programmer.

BrettF pretty much s p e l l e d it out completely so that anyone with a bit of a programming mind could be able to do it. If you don't understand that, then I recommend you get started with some very basic tutorials.



Edit: Also, we're not a programmer for hire or consultancy agency. We'll help you as much we want, and to make us help you you have to ask specific questions. I don't mean questions like "code specifically this for me" for me, but questions along the line of: How do I implement function X to do Y for me?

Edited by Manadar, 01 December 2009 - 09:31 AM.