Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!news.glorb.com!npeer01.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post01.iad.highwinds-media.com!newsfe22.iad.POSTED!83aa503d!not-for-mail From: Daniel Pitts User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:6.0.2) Gecko/20110902 Thunderbird/6.0.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Phht! on screenscaping References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 30 Message-ID: <4Xmhq.126$x14.66@newsfe22.iad> X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsrazor.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:24:16 UTC Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:24:15 -0700 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:8421 On 9/30/11 9:04 AM, Roedy Green wrote: > All his would be so much easier if the bookstores would offer an > alternate computer-friendly api. You could give them an ISBN, and > they could give you back some XML, JSON, CSV etc, with a single Yes/No > instock field. It would take them all of an hour to cook something > up. Sometimes they do it, but make it so complicated and so volatile > you might as well screenscrape. > > Ditto companies that sell posters, or sell anything else via > affiliates need that sort of API. As an employee of a company that has introduced an XML API (which is used both internally and externally) , I can speak with experience that it takes far more than an hour to cook up. Not only that, but it requires constant maintenance and operational support. It *is* worth it for the company because it provides benefits (easier to support an front-end webapp which doesn't connect to databases, easy to provide data to partners, etc...), however for an average book-store, providing that data through an API may actually cost them money, rather than save them. The data itself probably has value, and the maintenance of the system to provide that data has a cost. I would love it if all data was available freely (as in free speech and free beer). I would also love it if all data could be standardized and normalized appropriately. I'd also like a unicorn and world piece. I think all of those things come together, but I'd expect to see a unicorn before any of the others. Genetically engineer a narwhal crossed with a pony. The rest is much more complicated.