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04-11-2011 , 01:07 PM

GodSmackJack

old hand

Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 1,904

I'm testing some new software (kind of an aggregator of search results) and I need to set up an external connector to a search engine. One of the precursors that I need to do is find the root id/class that encompasses the entire search results portion of the page in the source code. I'm not totally familiar with XML/HTML and trying to find that info in the basic source code is not easy on the eyes. Somebody suggested there are web tools out there to show the hierarchy of a web page in a more user friendly manner.

Anyone have any suggestions or how these things work? I'm not a web developer so this stuff isn't very familiar.

Thanks

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04-11-2011 , 01:30 PM

guids

banned

Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 16,996

I use chrome -> developers tools -> network to figure out what needs to be sent to the server and in what way it needs to be sent, once I have that figured out, I use perl to do the call/and parse the data, one of the simpler things to work with is PERL with XML::Simple, Data:: Dumper and LWP::Simple; if you have a concrete example of what you are doing it may be easier to help

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04-11-2011 , 01:45 PM

jjshabado

Carpal Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,732

Definitely +1 the developer tools in Chrome. Firebug is an add-on for Firefox that does something similar. I haven't used Firebug for a few months but the developer tools in Chrome seem to me to be a bit nicer than what I remember in Firebug.

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04-11-2011 , 02:18 PM

_dave_

_Pooh_Bah_

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,146

Firebug on Firefox is perfect if you need to find the name of the div holding all the search results text. it's basically point and click. I have not used chrome so no idea if it's developer tools are similar.

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04-11-2011 , 02:34 PM

rt1

adept

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1,126

Quote:

Originally Posted by _dave_

I have not used chrome so no idea if it's developer tools are similar.

try it and you'll never use firebug again.

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04-11-2011 , 03:02 PM

GodSmackJack

old hand

Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 1,904

I've got firebug installed and am testing it out now. I think this should do the trick. I'll probably fire up Chrome too and see how that works. I haven't played much with it.

Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes.

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04-11-2011 , 03:32 PM

Zurvan

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 36,255

Firebug is much better than Chrome Developer tools, imo, if just for the Net tab

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04-11-2011 , 03:44 PM

jjshabado

Carpal Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,732

What's the net tab do? I though the Developer Tools were pretty comprehensive when it came to doing everything Firebug did.

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04-11-2011 , 03:53 PM

Zurvan

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 36,255

The net tab tracks all http requests. It's great when you're doing ajax development - you can see what URL it's calling, it shows your POST data, all the headers and the response you get back from the server.

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04-11-2011 , 03:54 PM

#10

guids

banned

Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 16,996

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjshabado

What's the net tab do? I though the Developer Tools were pretty comprehensive when it came to doing everything Firebug did.

I dont use FB much, but as of like 3-4 months ago, chrome did not have the network tab, I know that I had to upgrade to the beta version to get it, so its possible he used chrome when it did not have that functionality built it.

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04-11-2011 , 03:57 PM

#11

Zurvan

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 36,255

Oooh, I've never seen the network tab in Chrome. That's new

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04-11-2011 , 04:03 PM

#12

jjshabado

Carpal Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,732

Ah ok. I thought the net tab was similar to the network tab but I wasn't really sure.

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04-11-2011 , 04:25 PM

#13

rt1

adept

Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1,126

chrome has had the net tab forever. it was called resources or something before, but now its called network. it shows everything, request/headers, post data, return headers, content.

in the end both chrome dev tools and firebug are really the same thing. however, chrome i find chrome more pleasant to work with.

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