scraping website that uses ajax

We have a site that was scraping a site to gather all models available of a product. The 3rd party site recently changed the website so it now uses ajax for users to select the manufacturer and then once they select that it loads a dropdown with products using ajax.

I currently was using httpwebrequest for all requests (see below).

Code:

---

Public Function fnRequest(ByVal sPOSTData As String, Optional ByVal bAutoRedirect As Boolean = False) As String
        Dim uriSite As Uri
        Dim sReturn As String
        Dim srReader As StreamReader
        Dim sTemp As String

        sReturn = String.Empty
        Try
            ' Setup request
            uriSite = New Uri(m_sURL)
            m_hwrRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(uriSite), HttpWebRequest)
            m_hwrRequest.Referer = m_sReferer
            m_hwrRequest.UserAgent = m_sUserAgent
            m_hwrRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = bAutoRedirect
            m_hwrRequest.AllowWriteStreamBuffering = True
            m_hwrRequest.KeepAlive = False
            m_hwrRequest.Accept = "image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, */*"

            If Not (m_ccCookies Is Nothing) Then
                If m_ccCookies.Count > 0 Then
                    m_hwrRequest.CookieContainer = New CookieContainer()
                    m_hwrRequest.CookieContainer.Add(m_ccCookies)
                End If
            End If
           
            If Not (sPOSTData Is Nothing) AndAlso sPOSTData.Length > 0 Then
                Dim stWS As Stream
                Dim aeEnc As ASCIIEncoding
                Dim baBuf As Byte()

                aeEnc = New ASCIIEncoding()
                baBuf = aeEnc.GetBytes(sPOSTData)

                m_hwrRequest.Method = "POST"
                m_hwrRequest.ContentLength = baBuf.Length
                m_hwrRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

                stWS = m_hwrRequest.GetRequestStream()
                stWS.Write(baBuf, 0, baBuf.Length)
                stWS.Close()
                'm_hwrRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = True
            End If

            m_hwrResponse = DirectCast(m_hwrRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

            srReader = New StreamReader(m_hwrResponse.GetResponseStream())
            sReturn = srReader.ReadToEnd()
            srReader.Close()

            '------------------------------------------------------------------
            ' capture the redirect location from the header
            '------------------------------------------------------------------
            Try
                Dim wbHCol As WebHeaderCollection = m_hwrResponse.Headers
                Dim i As Integer
                For i = 0 To wbHCol.Count - 1

                    Dim header As String = wbHCol.GetKey(i)
                    Dim values As String() = wbHCol.GetValues(header)

                    If values.Length > 0 AndAlso header.ToLower = "location" Then
                        Location1 &= values(0)
                    End If
                Next
            Catch
                Location1 = String.Empty
            End Try
            '------------------------------------------------------------------

            If Not m_hwrResponse.Headers("Set-Cookie") Is Nothing Then
                Dim ccContainer As New CookieContainer()

                ccContainer = New CookieContainer()
                ccContainer.SetCookies(m_hwrResponse.ResponseUri, m_hwrResponse.Headers("Set-Cookie"))
                sTemp = m_hwrResponse.Headers("Set-Cookie").ToString
                m_ccCookies.Add(ccContainer.GetCookies(m_hwrResponse.ResponseUri))
            End If

            Me.Referer = m_hwrResponse.ResponseUri.AbsoluteUri

            'close response connection
            m_hwrResponse.Close()

        Catch ex As Exception
            lblError.Text &= ex.Message.ToString
        End Try

        Return sReturn
    End Function
#End Region

---

Now in fiddler the post appears to be done with ajax. I tried to send the post data the normal way but it didn't like that.

Does anyone have an example of how to do this? To get an idea go to http://www.chiefmfg.com/ and see Mount finder and select Projector.

Thanks to any info in advance.

When you say that it didn't like it, what exactly do you mean? Can you elaborate?

Gary

This is the response I get

1|#||4|58|pageRedirect||%2fApplicationError.aspx%3faspxerrorpath%3d%2fDefault.aspx|

I can pm code if you like or post online somewhere.

Thanks.

Here is the code I have so far.

Code:

---

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Data

Partial Class chief_ss
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

#Region " Instance variables "
    Private m_sUserAgent As String
    Private m_hwrRequest As HttpWebRequest
    Private m_hwrResponse As HttpWebResponse
    Private m_ccCookies As CookieCollection
    Private m_sReferer As String
    Private m_sURL As String
    Private m_sLocation As String
#End Region

#Region " Properties "
    Public ReadOnly Property Cookies() As CookieCollection
        Get
            Return m_ccCookies
        End Get
    End Property

    Public Property URL() As String
        Get
            Return m_sURL
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            m_sURL = Value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Property Referer() As String
        Get
            Return m_sReferer
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            m_sReferer = Value
        End Set
    End Property


    Public Property Location1() As String
        Get
            Return m_sLocation
        End Get
        Set(ByVal Value As String)
            m_sLocation = Value
        End Set
    End Property
#End Region

#Region " Constants "
    Private Const CS_URL_LOGIN As String = _
    "http://www.chiefmfg.com"

    Private Const CS_URL_POST_GET_PROJECTORS As String = _
        "ctl00%24ctl00%24ScriptManager1=ctl00%24ctl00%24Content%24Content%24ctrlMountFinder%24upMountFinderCascading%7Cctl00%24ctl00%24Content%24Content%24ctrlMountFinder%24radProductType%241&__EVENTTARGET=ctl00%24ctl00%24Content%24Content%24ctrlMountFinder%24radProductType%241&__EVENTARGUMENT=&__LASTFOCUS=&__VIEWSTATE={0}&__EVENTVALIDATION={1}&ctl00%24ctl00%24ctrlNavBar%24txtSearchBox=&ctl00%24ctl00%24ctrlNavBar%24hfKeywordValue=&ctl00%24ctl00%24Content%24Content%24ctrlMountFinder%24radProductType=Projector&ctl00%24ctl00%24Content%24Content%24ctrlMountFinder%24ddlManufacturers=&ctl00%24ctl00%24Content%24Content%24ctrlMountFinder%24ddlModels=&__ASYNCPOST=true&"
#End Region
   
    Public clsE As clsSendEmail = New clsSendEmail

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        m_sURL = String.Empty
        m_sReferer = String.Empty
        m_sUserAgent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"
        m_hwrRequest = Nothing
        m_hwrResponse = Nothing
        m_ccCookies = New CookieCollection()
        m_sLocation = 0

    End Sub

    Protected Sub btnRun_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnRun.Click
        m_sURL = "http://www.chiefmfg.com"
        Dim sHTML As String = fnRequest("")
        Dim sViewState As String = fnExtract(sHTML, "__VIEWSTATE")
        Dim sEventValidation As String = fnExtract(sHTML, "__EVENTVALIDATION")

        sHTML = fnRequest(String.Format(CS_URL_POST_GET_PROJECTORS, sViewState, sEventValidation))

        txtOutput.Text = sHTML
    End Sub

#Region " Public Request Functions/Subroutines "
    Public Function fnRequest(ByVal sPOSTData As String, Optional ByVal bAutoRedirect As Boolean = False) As String
        Dim uriSite As Uri
        Dim sReturn As String
        Dim srReader As StreamReader
        Dim sTemp As String

        sReturn = String.Empty
        Try
            ' Setup request
            uriSite = New Uri(m_sURL)
            m_hwrRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(uriSite), HttpWebRequest)
            m_hwrRequest.Referer = m_sReferer
            m_hwrRequest.UserAgent = m_sUserAgent
            m_hwrRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = bAutoRedirect
            m_hwrRequest.AllowWriteStreamBuffering = True
            m_hwrRequest.KeepAlive = False
            m_hwrRequest.Accept = "image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, */*"

            If Not (m_ccCookies Is Nothing) Then
                If m_ccCookies.Count > 0 Then
                    m_hwrRequest.CookieContainer = New CookieContainer()
                    m_hwrRequest.CookieContainer.Add(m_ccCookies)
                End If
            End If
           
            If Not (sPOSTData Is Nothing) AndAlso sPOSTData.Length > 0 Then
                Dim stWS As Stream
                Dim aeEnc As ASCIIEncoding
                Dim baBuf As Byte()

                aeEnc = New ASCIIEncoding()
                baBuf = aeEnc.GetBytes(sPOSTData)

                m_hwrRequest.Method = "POST"
                m_hwrRequest.ContentLength = baBuf.Length
                m_hwrRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

                stWS = m_hwrRequest.GetRequestStream()
                stWS.Write(baBuf, 0, baBuf.Length)
                stWS.Close()
                'm_hwrRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = True
            End If

            m_hwrResponse = DirectCast(m_hwrRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

            srReader = New StreamReader(m_hwrResponse.GetResponseStream())
            sReturn = srReader.ReadToEnd()
            srReader.Close()

            '------------------------------------------------------------------
            ' capture the redirect location from the header
            '------------------------------------------------------------------
            Try
                Dim wbHCol As WebHeaderCollection = m_hwrResponse.Headers
                Dim i As Integer
                For i = 0 To wbHCol.Count - 1

                    Dim header As String = wbHCol.GetKey(i)
                    Dim values As String() = wbHCol.GetValues(header)

                    If values.Length > 0 AndAlso header.ToLower = "location" Then
                        Location1 &= values(0)
                    End If
                Next
            Catch
                Location1 = String.Empty
            End Try
            '------------------------------------------------------------------

            If Not m_hwrResponse.Headers("Set-Cookie") Is Nothing Then
                Dim ccContainer As New CookieContainer()

                ccContainer = New CookieContainer()
                ccContainer.SetCookies(m_hwrResponse.ResponseUri, m_hwrResponse.Headers("Set-Cookie"))
                sTemp = m_hwrResponse.Headers("Set-Cookie").ToString
                m_ccCookies.Add(ccContainer.GetCookies(m_hwrResponse.ResponseUri))
            End If

            Me.Referer = m_hwrResponse.ResponseUri.AbsoluteUri

            'close response connection
            m_hwrResponse.Close()

        Catch ex As Exception
            lblError.Text &= "ERROR in fnRequest:" & ex.Message.ToString & vbCrLf
        End Try

        Return sReturn
    End Function
#End Region

    Function fnExtract(ByVal sHTML As String, ByVal sVariable As String) As String
        Dim options As RegexOptions = RegexOptions.IgnoreCase Or RegexOptions.Multiline
        Dim sRE As String = ""
        Dim sReturnVal As String = ""

        Try
            sRE = "<input type=""hidden"" name=""" & sVariable & """ id=""" & sVariable & """ value=""(?<qval>.*)"" />"

            Dim rx As Regex = New Regex(sRE, options)
            Dim mMatch As Match = rx.Match(sHTML)
            If Not mMatch.Success Then
                Return ""
            End If

            'to view the whole string: mMatch.Value
            sReturnVal = mMatch.Groups("qval").Value

        Catch ex As Exception
            lblError.Text = "ERROR in fnExtract: " & ex.ToString
        End Try

        Return sReturnVal

    End Function


End Class

---

Here is the full POST header taken from Fiddler:

Code:

---

POST / HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Accept-Language: en-us
Referer: http://www.chiefmfg.com/
x-requested-with: XMLHttpRequest
x-microsoftajax: Delta=true
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8
Cache-Control: no-cache
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; InfoPath.3; .NET4.0E; .NET4.0C)
Host: www.chiefmfg.com
Content-Length: 47622
Connection: Keep-Alive
Pragma: no-cache
Cookie: ChiefClientLocation=USA; ASP.NET_SessionId=shyamptgqrjapqrf5dni3g01; Coyote-2-c0a81e9b=c0a81e83:0; _mkto_trk=id:095-PKU-280&token:_mch-chiefmfg.com-1321195982578-59922; __utma=69283138.1293993264.1321195983.1321739035.1322020166.4; __utmz=69283138.1321195983.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utmb=69283138.1.10.1322020166; __utmc=69283138

---

How would I set the x-requested-with and x-microsoftajax doing it the way I am doing it?
x-requested-with: XMLHttpRequest
x-microsoftajax: Delta=true

Hi,

I managed to solve this using two options. The first option is to use the Webbrowser class which is a bit
slower,however this class inherits the behavior of IE browser. The drawback is that,it's a bit slower compared to traditional webrequest.

The other solution is to get the correct post data and pass it to the webrequest object. Have you checked the post data showed by Firebug?

Best Regards,


Greg