Requesting and Storing Web Page Info

[tcompguy]

I don't know where to even begin with this and I hoped some of you more tech savy TechIMOers could help. I use online databases to search for people's addresses. This is a true pain when I have to type each address indiviually and then record the results. I want to design something where I can search all names and store the results in a database. I have been using various online databases to find these people, but I have heard of really great databases out there. Are there any databases that will let me interface in some way other than a web browser or is there an easy way to interface with a web page? Also, I have seen a lot of services that tell you they will give you "the people search key" and access to tons of databases if you pay a one time $15 fee. Do any of these work or does anybody know have a secret to finding addresses and phone numbers for people? (any private Is out there willing to share a secret?) Any help is greatly appreciated.

[tcompguy]

Anyone have any ideas? Anybody use online resources to find people?

Does anyone have an interface to enter data to/receive data from a web page?

All and any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[elmers]

You sound like a spammer.

[survivalhero]

yeap

[tcompguy]

I knew people would think that. I am doing this for a legitimate purpose. I don´t want email addresses, but I am sure the methods I am asking about are used to strip email addresses from any and every web page. I asked about finding specific names and entering these into a web page or interfacing with a web page. Do you think I have some massive database of random names? I think it would be easier to guess random email addresses then search based on random names.

I can HONESTLY tell you that I do not have any interest in spam and never will. I work for a company that needs me to find current addresses for specific people. The company deals with real estate and it has something to do with land they own. I do not know the specifics, because the only task I handle is finding the address.

I know that no one knows me from Joe, so please ask questions if you do not believe me and please give me some help. If you cannot give me specifics, please point me in the right direction. Thank you for your help.

[jkrohn]

Well, this is a fairly simple project.

First you will need to look at each database and see how it encodes the query string. Once you figure it out, you can use pretty much any web programming language to grab these pages, parse them, and grab the info you are looking for.

Jkrohn

[tcompguy]

I have been looking at a lot of the online databases and it is fairly easy to see how they encode the query string. I have that down and I have created a simple program to display the pages, but I am having trouble parsing them and saving them to my disk. I am not an experienced programmer, but I have done some research.

Microsoft had the following on MSDN.com:

Dim hElm As IHTMLElement
Dim htmltext As String
Dim fso As Object
Dim file As Object

Set hElm = WebBrowser1.Document.all.tags("html").Item(0)
htmltext = hElm.outerHTML

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set file = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\test.htm", 2, True)
file.write htmltext
file.Close

Set file = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing

What library is IHTMLElement part of and how do I add libraries to VB.NET? I also found a JavaScript, but I was not able to make this work either.

Any help is always appreciated.

[tcompguy]

I forgot to mention that the above code is Visual Basic. The MSDN.com site also had some code in C++ and I have seen code in JavaScript. I have not been able to mkae any of it work.

Does anybody have a web programming lanuguage they prefer? What is possible? Would it be best to use VBScript, JavaScript, use XML to grab the information, etc.? I am kinda lost here.

Please help.

[tcompguy]

Please!

How do functions wok in JavaScript? I loaded a script I found, but there were errors on the page. Any crazy Java people or VB people out there?

[tcompguy]

I found the link for the JavaScript that I could not get to work.

http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/sh...threadid=45784

Does anybody have any ideas?