I wanted something that I can use with jQuery selectors, and I came across a very cool node js plugin called node.io. The plugin is a screen scaper records the source and lets you query using jQuery like selectors.
Let's have a look at the code shall we?
File: server.js
var http = require('http');
var URL = require('url');
var nodeio = require('node.io');
var port = 8081;
var gigParkSearchJobOptions = {timeout : 10};
var gigParkSearchJob = {
input: false,
run: function (keyword) {
var phone = this.options.args[0];
this.getHtml("http://www.gigpark.com/?search=" + phone + "&commit=Search&city", function (err, $) {
var results = $('h3 .search-results b').text.toLowerCase();
this.emit('Results found: ' + results);
});
}
};
/**
* Main http serve method.
*/
function serve() {
var serv = http.createServer(function(req, res) {
var url = URL.parse(req.url);
if (req.method == 'GET' && url.pathname == '/gigpark_search') {
res.statusCode = 200;
//query looks like this: 'q=1234567890, so we split it.
var phoneNum = url.query.split('=')[1];
console.log('query is: ' + phoneNum);
nodeio.start(new nodeio.Job(gigParkSearchJobOptions, gigParkSearchJob), [phoneNum], function(err, output) {
console.log('result is: ' + output);
res.write(JSON.stringify(output));
res.end();
}, true);
} else {
res.statusCode = 404;
res.end("Sorry, page not found.");
}
});
serv.listen(port);
}
console.log("Starting server...");
serve(); Basically this code create an http server with a path of /gigpark_search which takes a query parameter. We then parse the parameter value, and then send it in as a paramter to a node.io job. It then fetches the search page and parses the html and gives me the value of var results = $('h3 .search-results b').text, which is an integer.
So if one makes a query with this url: http://localhost:8081/gigpark_search?q=7788911331
One would see a response like this: ["Results found: 1"].
Of course, my next step is to make it into a JSON response, but for illustration I just wanted to put some result in.
