HTTP Programming Recipes for Java Bots (Paperback)

by Jeff Heaton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) allows information to be exchanged between a web server and a web browser. Java allows you to program HTTP directly. HTTP programming allows you to create programs that access the web much like a human user would. These programs, which are called bots, can collect information or automate common web programming tasks. This book presents a collection of very reusable recipes for Java bot programming.

This book covers many topics related to Java HTTP programming. Both secure and insecure HTTP communications are covered, as well as HTTP authentication. Learn to interact with HTTP forms and support both HTTP POST and HTTP GET requests. Collect data from a wide array of HTML constructs, such as tables, and lists. Learn about advanced topics that complicate the life of a bot, such as AJAX and Javascript. Also learn about the ethical use of bots, and when bots should not be used.

This book also introduces the Heaton Research Spider. The Heaton Research Spider is an open source spider framework. Using the Heaton Research Spider you can create spiders that will crawl a web site, much like a real spider crawls the web. The Heaton Research Spider is available in both Java and Microsoft Dot Net form.

About the Author
Jeff Heaton is an author, college instructor, and consultant. Jeff lives in Chesterfield (St. Louis), Missouri. The author of seven books and over two dozen journal and magazine articles, Jeff specializes in Internet, socket-level/spidering and Artificial Intelligence programming. A Sun Certified Java Programmer and a Senior Member of the IEEE. Jeff holds a Masters Degree in Information Management from Washington University in St. Louis.

Product Details

• Paperback: 680 pages
• Publisher: Heaton Research, Inc. (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977320669
• ISBN-13: 978-0977320660
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #508,411 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HTTP Recipes for Java Bots, February 21, 2008

By	Peter V. Kasson (Gahanna, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is quite a complete book for anyone wishing to write bots in any language (if he knows Java well enough to understand the examples). It covers protocol, parsing and techniques of writing them along with good practices.

It offers a good introduction/foundation for beginners to intermediate developers. The chapter on HTTPS goes into good detail of the nuances of secure and non-secure interactions of HTTP communications.

Extracting data from the web is covered extensibly in various examples with well described reasons and approaches to technique and purpose. The examples are easy to understand and read.

For anyone wishing to start writing applications that automate web interactions, data retrieval or creating and automating bots, this is a good book for the job.