Download URL generator

[sliverjazz]

Would it be possible to program a random URL generator and then have it list what would have been downloaded? To clarify, take rapidshare for example. It would generate those URLS that a video is assigned and make a text fle that says the title of what you would have viewed, but for my program downloaded.

 

[ameoba]

Sure. I wouldn't bother, tho - screen scrapers are no fun to write & break every time the page layout changes.

 

[mikeblas]

It's possible. But what do the Rapidshare TOS say?

 

[Dyslexic_Dog]

I think I'm reading your question a little differently, so you want a random url to call a file to download?

If yes, then yes it's very possible. you could handle this quite a few ways some easier then others.

 

[fluxion]

I think I'm reading your question a little differently, so you want a random url to call a file to download?

If yes, then yes it's very possible. you could handle this quite a few ways some easier then others.

i think he means taking a bunch of "random" urls, like the ones assigned to videos on rapidshare, access the page, and scrape data like the title etc from the fetched page.

as stated, its possible, but your parsing will depend on the layout of the html, and it'll be hard to do it in a manner robust enough that a site redesign wouldnt break it.

what you want is an api for getting this type of data, but its likely rapidshare doesnt offer such a thing. it would help to look it up though, and also, as stated, check their guidelines as they might filter out IPs that they see as unauthorized bots