Craigslist Search Utility (3 Viewers)

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I wrote a little search utility to make my life easier when I was searching for my 80, shopping for lenses, etc. on Craigslist. I posted this some time ago on the 80 tech page. I waited until I finally got the initiative to get a domain name and get it linked with my server to make the announcement here. And I added a third search field. Anyway, here is the link:

States

There is a writeup on the 80s tech page on how to use it here:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/243020-craigslist-search.html

Basically, I got tired of searching "Denver" for "Land Cruiser" and then "Landcruiser" and then "LX450" and then going and doing the same miserable thing for "Boulder" and then "Ft Collins" and then, well you get the idea.

This app lets you say what you want to look for and dispatches the queries and writes them back in one response. You can limit it so you don't have to see 56 when there are only a couple new ones per day. It also condenses the output with smaller font and packs the links a little which I like.

It will also let you search other categories other than cars, just look at the pulldown.

If there are any errors like some city doesn't work or Craigs has added a city since I last updated, go ahead and PM me and I'll fix it. Craigs has also changed the category variables from time to time so I have to tweak it every 6 mos or so.

Paul
 
Well it is fixed. Simple to fix but staging this test takes about 30 minutes. For those interested, here is what happened.

CraigsList added another hyperlink to their output. So that put another <A> ... </A> block in each listing. If you don't tell the pattern match, it will match "greedy". So, I had to go into my (.*) and make them (.*?) blocks which tells it to consume up to the first and not the last.

Should be good for a while.

Paul

And we had a great time out there in Moab. Did the family hikes and picnics in Arches and Canyonlands. Still found time for Elephant Hill and Salt Creek. I highly recommend Salt Creek down to Castle and Fortress arches btw with wives and kids (should that be wife and kids? Oh heck, it was Utah - leave it wives!).
 
sent a donation to paul - found 3 items with your utility that I would have not otherwise
 
So has the software been changed so you can only view the "car" results of the search list? I've tried to
search for other things and it shows me the number of items it found in a certain area but not the ads.

Just wondering. I really like the tool but this really cuts down its usefulness.
 
No, I haven't done anything but CL has. They change their output patterns and I have to parse the text to retrieve it. A coworker just told this AM about it so I'll see what I can do tonight.

I really wish they would just chill for a year or so.
 
Well, CL had replace <p> ... <\p> around listings for non-car items with <p attribute="some val"> ... <p>.

I tested the fix with cameras and bikes. Looks good.
 
So they changed the method of communicating with the server from POST to GET. Of course I assumed it was a parsing problem and spent two hours trying to find it.

Literally had to change 4 characters to 3 in the http request method.
 
This thing is great!

Thanks for this. What a time saver.
 
Awesome, time-saving tool!

Thanks for this very cool app!
I've been using it a ton looking for the 1997 40th Anniversary LC of my dreams!
:cheers: JPF
 
This is awesome! I was using searchtempest for awhile and that wasn't even close to as great as this. Thanks.
 
Thanks everyone. I just updated Idaho and Montana. I looked at the server and I haven't reboot since April! I'm getting 9,000 unique visitors a day; wish there was a way to cash in on that. Oh well, glad it is getting used.

Paul
 
This thing as handier than a pocket on a t-shirt! Really well done, however you do stuff like that.

Thanks for the help as I search away!!
 
Can somone PM me the link? Thanks NYQUIL

Can someone PM me the link? Thanks NYQUIL
 

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