shanda — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 11:07:14 +0000

Thanks everyone.

Mark, I implemented your solution and it works like a charm, Thanks a bunch!!

Mark Hensler — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 06:51:05 +0000

Well, it'll need to be a bit more than 2 lines. What I had in mind is a script with access to the database. You would pull up a hidden file on the remote server which would perform your query work, then print out the number of results.

on remote server:

<?php
if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']!=gethostbyname('your_server.com')) die('quit hacking, scum!');
$dbi = mysql_connect('host', 'user', 'pass');
mysql_select_db('database');
$result = mysql_query('SELECT COUNT(id) AS num_results FROM table_name');
echo serialize(mysql_fetch_array($result));
?>

on your server:

<?php
$remote = unserialize(file_get_contents('http://example.com/super/secret/file.php'));
echo $remote['num_results'];
?>

shanda — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 11:10:32 +0000

To avoid the parsing, initally, I will ask that they consider putting the script on their machine. I will have to assume that since this site will be sending major traffic to each member (based on the number of results returned), that they will allow a simple one or two line php script to be put on their server.

It will have to be simple though.

Mark Hensler — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 07:07:41 +0000

Do you have access to these site? I ask because the solution with the best performace would require that you can stick a file on their server.

Else, you'll likely be parsing html source for information. Even if the source doesn't say "X results found", you can pattern match and count the number of results displayed.

shanda — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 03:01:26 +0000

so, the google thing was only an example. I'll be querying personal smaller sites.

Mark Hensler — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 01:50:48 +0000

Google, and likely other engine, forbid the use of automated queries to their site. Google does have an API you can use in combination with a license (I believe its free for a limited number of queries per day or month) to perform queries on their database.