I would like sample C# or VB .NET code.
A few questions:
1 - Can you tell me where I can get some sample C# or VB.NET code that runs as an external program, and uses the RemoteScrapingSession.dll class library? I think there must be some, because someone had to test out the class with a .NET program. I would like to downlod it if possible, or possibly a developer or tech person could e-mail it to me? I'll probably get this to work just fine, but could I have the name and e-mail address of a support person who is familiar with writing external .NET programs?
2 - I am using Visual Studio 2008 with Framework 3.5. Does the RemoteScrapingSession.dll class library work with it? If not, does it work with VS 2005?
3 - I have been under the impression that I would only be able to access screen-scraper by using a desktop .NET program. But is there any reason I can't write a web-based ASP.NET 3.5 program that uses screen-scraper?
There is some C# you can
There is some C# you can download on tutorial #3: http://community.screen-scraper.com/Tutorial_4_page_3_Invoking%20screen-scraper%20from%20C%2523.NET
Most of the time we're writing web-apps, and it works fine.
How to use screen-scraper with web apps?
Great, I'd like to write web apps that use screen-scraper. So is my understanding right -- I can run screen-scraper in server mode on any server that is connected to the web. I would probably have the service start running automatically on that server so that it is always available. The ASP.NET program can then be hosted on ANY web server on the Internet. The ASP.NET program is able to communicate with the screen-scraper service by instantiating a RemoteScrapingSession class and specifying the name of the scraping session, the internet address of the SS host, and the port the host is listening on.
Must a program establish communication with screen-scraper once for every scraping session? In other words, if I have 5 web sites to scrape, does the program have to instantiate RemoteScrapingSession, get the data, and close the session for each web site? Or can you establish a session between SS and the program, and then keep feeding it scraping session names one by one?
You could actually set it up
You could actually set it up either way if you wanted, but the latter is more generally used.
I don't know how to do it the
I don't know how to do it the latter way. I don't see a method that allows you to switch from one scraping session to another. How do you do that?
Your web-app would just call
Your web-app would just call each scraping session individually.