Screen Scraping - how to get AJAX based filtered data

Question

hi, I am working on screen scraping, its easy when filteration in query string, but the problem in AJAX based filteration,

e.g. here is an sample URL When you open this page, enter hotel name and click Go, Ajax filter work and show the result accordingly or you click on Next Page, it will shown next record using AJAX based.

please suggest me, how to handle these kind of issues when working in Screen Scraping?

Thank alot

Answer 1

Do a http request as you normally do for any link or form sumbit but use the url used with ajax. Sometimes you may need to read the javascript source to determine how the url is built.

Answer 2

You may want to try 2 Firefox add-ons. They are "Firebug" and "Tamper Data".

The "Console" window of Firebug shows the AJAX request and response.

You can then write scripts using the PHP/cURL library to mimic the request.