[kadad]

i tried searching for this but couldn't find anything..but that might be because i'm very new to all of this and didn't know exactly what to search for...but i did try.

i want to be able to run one search from my site and query results from several sites (i.e. kayak.com, other travel sites, etc.) i assume its just a script but again, i really dont know..if it is just a simple script, is it something that i could find online at hotscripts.com or a similiar site? or is it something that i have to get a programmer to develop for me?

thanks a TON guys!

[kadad]

or would it be easier to use the Oodle API ( <<Link Removed>> ) and have a programmer/web developer customize for my needs? (if that's even possible..i don't know how customizable their API is..or what an API is for that matter..)

[shabbir]

Google does not provide that option and the option that google provide is from one site or not from one site search.

[kadad]

^ I don't want to do it from google..sorry, maybe I was not clear.
What I want is from my own website users would select attributes (i.e. used car search: zip code, make, model, etc.) and then it would search the listings posted at cars dot com, autotrader, etc.) Is that more clear?

[shabbir]

Then you need to be accessing the database and running a select query on all the databases (if they are in different database) or tables (if they are on the same database) for all the sites and just show the results.

Nowadays the word search has become equivalent to Google.

[jwshepherd]

Without being able to directly connect to each database ( username and password) and have database tables and fields, you are left with searching tha web pages manually.

For autotrader do a search and place that in your form with the data from your site

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/searchresults.jsp?num_records=&search_lang=en&page_location=findacar%3A%3Aispsearchform&search_type=used&distance=0&address=

    
Quote:
    

        
            
zip code
        
    
&marketZipError=false&style_flag=1&make=

    
Quote:
    

        
            
DATSUN
        
    
&model=

    
Quote:
    

        
            
280Z
        
    
&make2=&start_year=

    
Quote:
    

        
            
1981
        
    
&end_year=

    
Quote:
    

        
            
2008
        
    
&min_price=&max_price=&transmission=&engine=&drive=&doors=&fuel=&max_mileage=&color=&keywords_display=&sort_type=priceDESC&body_code=0&certified=&advanced=&default_sort=priceDESC&awsp=false&keywordsrep=&keywordsfyc=

from there you can place your data in the above text line and use perl possible asp to get the web page. Once you write that file to a text file on your server or site, you can have perl or asp scan the code... Have it delete everything before the

Quote:

<!-- POSITIVE FYC RESULT -->

tag and there should be another tag ending it. the items left would be the card ads and pictures you want.

[kadad]

thanks a lot man...i didn't really understand most of that so i'm thinking this is all way above my head...how much do you think it would cost to get that done for me?

[jwshepherd]

depends on how well you want to remote searches to be

[kadad]

Oh, I didn't realize there were degrees of how well it works..I want it to work as well as if you were on the other site itself..what's a ballpark of what I might expect to pay?

[jwshepherd]

It will never work that well because we do not have full database access. The best we could do to resolve it is create a spider to collect and post things to your database containing all of the search criteria, images and specs of each car. but this spider would have to run all of the time to make sure when the database is updated when the items are no longer available.

Your best option may be to start working with a few local owned car places first and then start advertising to get other people to post their cars on your website.