I'm working on an university project where I need to write a program that can access Firefox internal data & events to create stats about user actions. What I would like to have access to is:
have access to HTTP and HTML data
be able to listen to HTTP + HTML + Client side scripting events
I've already done a bit a research and found few interesting things (XPCom, Mozilla ActiveX, MozRepl, directly putting Javscript files into Firefox software folder...) but my concern is to start working on this project whilst having missed something and ending up using the wrong tool.
Can you provide me with the name of the tools you know with a brief description of what they do, and what their pros and cons are?
Hopefully with enough replies we'll be able to consolidate all the useful info given into 1 authoritative edit/post/comment on this matter.
Thanks.
I believe the best way to do so will be writing your own Firefox extension. This tutorial is the best one I found to get one started with extension developement.
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I'm not a developer but an internet marketer - so forgive me for what is I'm sure a very basic question. In my career, it's useful when looking at website marketing to better understand what tools are used, such as Google Analytics for example. Most of the time this is quite simple - just view source and you'll see in the source code the javascript snippet.
I use the ghostery plugin to make this a bit easier, but what I don't understand about http requests is how ghostery reports a technology as being used, such as the ad server DoubleClick for example, but I can't see any code in the source code that references Doubleclick. This happens a lot but it's most often with ad server technologies.
When I look using Chrome Dev Tools, I do in fact see that the call was made by viewing the Source tab.
My question is this and it's really a general question where I'm trying to better understand how calls are made back and forth between the browser and all the various servers and services:
How, in Chrome Tools do I find what code made the call to load the resource, such as DoubleClick. I can't find anything in the source code, which tells me I don't fully understand how interactions are working.
I think from search StackOverflow that is is a xmlhttp call but I'm not sure about that, maybe it's cookies - I just don't know how this is working. At the end of the day, I don't like not understanding how this all works, so I'm hoping someone can point me in the write direction.
Thanks.
In the Network panel, find your request of interest. The Initiator column will contain a reference to the code that has initiated loading the associated resource.
I am having a problem here. I am totally new to this concept of servers and web services and being able to get data uploaded and retrieved on different devices, but I want to learn it, say if I want to create an app like Instagram.
But that is EXACTLY what I dont want, a link to a long tutorial on the internet on how to create the most complex app ever, I want to start slow. After doing extensive power searches on Amazon there are basically no books that will help me. So I want to start slow, here is my goal:
Get a great understanding of how web service backends and servers work and be able to apply it in other app ideas I have and want to start developing
I would like to start by being able to create an app that allows a user to enter some text into a field, it uploads to the server, another device can press a button to retrieve the text and display it in a text view.
I do not know php, and every single tutorial I have entered on this website is literal mindeff, the reason for this is because everyone has a different solution, sync web service backend with Core Data, MySQL, parse, Rails and it truly overwhelms me because I do not know which one to pick! And even worse some people provide code but I have no understanding whatsoever, and its like looking at a totally new language!
I am not asking for code, in fact that is the exact opposite. I am asking for someone to really lay out their knowledge, how does it all work? What is the best tool? Some resources and links. Nothing too complex...
I hope you can truly understand my extreme confusion and frustration. I think the reason might be is I might not be ready yet for all this, but I want to push forward and carry out my app idea!
Thank you...
Update:
I have finally decided on a web service I would like to use, it is the Amazon S3 web service, I am still not fully comprehending the full process though, any help or ideas!?
Since you wanted to create an Instagram-type app, look at this: http://www.raywenderlich.com/13511/how-to-create-an-app-like-instagram-with-a-web-service-backend-part-12
This is a good link to servers: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC71D7CFB6AF935E6&feature=plcp. Watch the list to get an understanding of servers.
Maybe you want to read up on sql. Understanding sql will help.. Again: http://www.youtube.com/course?list=EC32BC9C878BA72085&feature=plcp. Watch the list to get an understanding of sql...
I can pass you the link and you got to do the work....
Hope this helps...
I'm working on a tool in C# that interfaces the JIRA SOAP API. I have read the documentation but I can't find what I'm looking for. Does anyone know if it is possible to link an issue to another one via this api?
PS : Actually, my real need is to convert an issue as a subtask of an issue...
Last time I looked, JIRA's web service wasn't really actively supported or encouraged by Atlassian. It's very much a second-class citizen compared to the web front end, with very basic operations.
Also, it's not a WSI-compliant web service (it's an old Axis-based RPC_encoded service), and so modern web service stacks won't even bind to it. You might want check that your client can perform basic query operations before diving into the depths of the API.
You can actually go pretty far with Jelly scripts, but converting an issue to a subtask then linking it as a subtask... I'm not positive that you can go that far.
Would a script that sets display messages for instant messengers be simple or complex? After some searching, there doesn't seem to be any information about this at all.
For the sake of an example, if I had a text file of quotations, would it be possible to have the google talk display message change to a different quotation hourly?
Depends on which client you're using. As far as I know, Google's client doesn't offer any interface for plugins, but the open source instant messenger Pidgin does. I think there already is a plugin for what you want to do, but you can write your own using the documentation and examples they give you.
The complexity of writing something like this is based on how much C or Perl you know, since you can program in either of those for Pidgin. Reading code from other people's plugins, you should be able to figure out the Pidgin API.
You can use Kik API to programmatically send rich content and files between mobile applications. It is available for iPhone and Android platforms and takes only about 5 lines of code to integrate into your app. There is more info at the API website: http://www.kik.com/dev
Disclaimer: I'm on of the developers behind Kik API :)
I'm building a utility that will hopefully keep my wife in tune with how much money we have available.
I need a simple secure way of logging into my bank account and retrieving the balance.
Something like mechanize is the only method I can think of. I'm not even sure if that would work given the properly authenticated https that banks use.
Any ideas?
Write a perl script using LWP::UserAgent. It supports HTTPS connections. The only issue might be if the site requires javascript.
Web Client Programming with Perl has a few examples to get you started if you're not too familiar with perl.
If you really want to go there, get these extensions for Firefox: Live HTTP Headers, Firebug, FireCookie, and HttpFox. Also download cURL and a scripting language that can run cURL command-line tasks (or a scripting language like PHP or Perl that has access to cURL libraries directly).
I've started down this road for some idempotent GET tasks like getting PDFs of the S&P reports (of the stocks I track) from my online brokerage, and downloading the check images for my bank account. Both tasks are repetitive and slow ways of downloading data to my computer that the financial institutions don't provide any way of making it easier.
Here's why you shouldn't: (as a shortcut I'm going to call the archetypal large bank, brokerage, or other financial institution "BloatBank")
BloatBank is not likely to make public their API for accessing this kind of information. So it can change any time and all your hard work will be for naught. Whenever they change their mechanism, you'll have to adapt.
If BloatBank finds out you've been using automatic scripting to try to access your account information, they may ban you because you've violated their terms of service.
You might screw up, and the interaction between the hodgepodge of scripts on BloatBank's server, and your scripts that access your account, might cause a Bad Thing like closing your account. Testing this kind of script is tremendously difficult because you don't have any documentation about how their online service works, and you don't have a test account you can mess with.
(a variant of the above) You think you're safe because you're issuing GET requests. But BloatBank is just a crazy bank that doesn't know anything about REST, so there are some GET requests that can mess up your account.
If someone else does use your script to maliciously sniff your online password or mess with your account, any liability coverage from BloatBank may disappear because you've opened a security hole.
Why don't you teach your wife how to login to the bank herself? Or use Quicken (or Mint, etc) and teach her how to use the auto-download feature?
Have you checked out Watir? It is fantastic for automating web-browser actions. And since it's written in Ruby, you can take the results and store them in a DB (or email them to yourself) if needed.
If you are open to AIR, I'd say build an AIR app. I have worked with mechanize and I think it's cool. AIR gives you similar features with a richer GUI (see HTMLLoader and DOM manipulation of webpage).
If I were you, I'd simply pull the page and manipulate the DOM to suit my visual needs.
Please, if you find this easy to do for your bank please post your bank's name. If I have the same one I'll be closing my account.
More to your question. The process of loading a web page inside of your code rather than in a browser can be a black art, especially if their is any javascript involved. Your best bet would probably be embedding the IE Web Browser control in your app and then simulating key strokes and mouse clicks to arrive at your balance page. Then scrape the HTML for the balance.
I could try paying for Quicken and letting it do the balance downloading. Then I'd just need to find a way to get the number out of the software automatically.
This way I'm not violating any terms of service and I'm also reducing security risk since all "hacking" goes on locally.