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The main Library we uses for our CURL PHP Book for writing webbots
and spiders is cURL and lib cURL.
Curl is a useful tool for webbot developers as it is
indispensible for transferring files with URL syntax.
With cURL you can easily get files using any of the
following protocols: FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, GOPHER, TELNET,
DICT, FILE and LDAP.
Curl also supports HTTPS certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT,
FTP uploading, kerberos, HTTP form based upload, proxies,
cookies, HTTP (basic) user/password authentication.
We helped numerous companies/ Developers by either developing cURL based applications in CURL PHP, or by
helping their developers use cURL in our PHP CURL Forum.
You can easily write
webbots, search engines, spiders and screen scrapers after reading this book.
Unlike web browsers from Microsoft and Netscape, a webbot,
spider (or agent) can automatically surf the Net and filter
data for relevance, and present the data within a unique
business context.
Spiders and agents can also automate a nearly limitless
number of processes, including: downloading information into
PDAs, completing web-based forms, and alerting people when
specific information is posted on the Internet. Spiders and
agents can also connect the web to nontraditional web
interfaces like pagers, fax machines and voice synthesizers.
Spiders and web agents are only limited by the imagination
of their developers.
Examples of what
spiders/web-bots can do:
- Search for the Internet for inappropriate use of
intellectual property,
- Receive real-time court records,
- Monitor the status of online auctions and automatically
make "rules-based" bids,
- Compare your online prices to the online prices of your
competitors,
- Poll information from online appliances, and
- Create an online digital "clipping service" on yourself,
or your competition.
If you have a cURL question, Please click here.
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