CraigsList Auto-posting

Question

I have searched high and low and have not been able to find a definite answer to this question.

Does anyone know how developers auto-post to CraigsList using PHP (or CodeIgniter)?

Answer 1

http://www.craigslist.org/about/terms.of.use:

... you agree not to:

y) use any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of postings on craigslist without each posting being manually entered by the author thereof (an "automated posting device"), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.

Answer 2

This may violate the terms of service for craigslist, specifically under the conduct section:

Additionally, you agree not to:

y) use any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of postings on craigslist without each posting being manually entered by the author thereof (an "automated posting device"), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.

Answer 3

Right, the only thing against the terms of service is the auto part, you can do all of it except hitting the submit for them. I have a reference opensource implementation of a tool that assists in Craigslist postings using the Catalyst framework for Perl. The tool's name is Craiglickr.

http://github.com/EvanCarroll/Craiglickr

The biggest thing is deciding what you want to assist with -- typically items in the For Sale category. Then you have to request a forum from CL, then utilize their tokens in an order-specific fashion when you serve out the page for the client to post to them.

My tool adds things like the ability to load the page from a template, and WYSIWYG editing of the post (via CEdit). It it almost fully configurable using the yaml configuration file it comes with.