>> I have written a few scripts using Rexx Regina + rexxcurl with the help
>> of liveHTTPHeaders extension of FireFox.
>> It is not so easy and there is the problem of some servers that pay
>> their services by imposing to the user to look at some advertising
>> screens. Apparently there are 2 URLs : the main to the application
>> domain and the other to the people that manage advertising. Curl seems
>> to log and show only the sources of the pages to an from the application
>> and nothing of the messages (cookies) to or from the other URL.
>
> Curl only downloads what you explicitly ask it to download.
> It does not download images in an html page. It doesn't even
> parse HTML or interpret JavaScript...
>
How can I ask Curl to put in variables the cookies to or from the URL
that manage advertising so that I can parse them with my program?

>> At some
>> stages I have to click on an image to choose the advertising,
>
> You "have" to?? Why?
>
This the "click to proceed" sort of thing sent by the main application.

>> at this
>> point 2 URL messages are sent one to the application saying "proceed",
>> the consequence of the other being that I receive a screen for a company
>> that try to sell me something (obviously I just close this screen in 99%
>> of the cases...). This 2nd message often include variable informations
>> (e.g. text=1234) that seems taken for the cookies that I have not seen
>> with curl (only with liveHTTPHeaders), so I cannot simulate this
>> message. For my purpose the first message is sufficient. BUT I assume
>> that the application server says to the advertising server "I have
>> generated n clicks to you, pay me x $" but the other answers "I have
>> just received m (with n>m because mine are missing!)" They may discover
>> that I have used an automate that does not look at their advertising
>> and be very unhappy!
>
> How they reckon impressions and clicks shouldn't be your problem.
>
It is my problem because the application server give to the the
advertising manager many information on me a number, my birth date, my
town (not my name and address it will be illegal), if the advertiser
think that I fool the normal process he can complain to the application
that can revoke my userid...

> Besides curl users, indexing bots and CUI browsers (e.g. lynx) avoid
> downloading images. Browsers with no enabled JavaScript engine are also
> quite common.
>
They will receive a message that they cannot work without cookies and
Javascript enabled...

>> Is there a solution with cURL to send the message to the advertising
>> server to make it happy ?
>
> Telling curl to send a request will let it do so. Happiness is beyond
> its reach...
>
I have the URL to send a request but not the information to put after it
(in the format xyz=1234 with xyz fixed but 1234 variable) that I have to
  find by parsing a cookie see upper. Without this I cannot simulate a
genuine message...
Received on 2007-11-12