From: "Michael W. Ryder" <_mwryder@...>
Date: 2008-05-19T07:45:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Using Mechanize and hpricot  to get property taxes

Cy Gar wrote:
> after reading about hpricot, mechanize and htree gems, I made an attempt
> to write a simple code to grab property tax info for homes in Los
> Angeles.  i wrote this fragment which goes to the assessor's website,
> finds the form entries and correctly puts in an apn number (property
> parcel number) but fails at the submit line.  I tried page =
> agent.submit(form) also to no avail. What am I doing wrong?
> 
> Two side questions: How do you auto-indent ruby code?  I am using SciTe
> editor and i find myself using my old matlab editor every once in a
> while to beautify the codes. 

With Scite once you name the file name.rb or select Ruby from the 
language tab it should automatically handle the indentations.


  Hw could ruby not have auto-indentor?
> Also quick way of turning an html table into a matrix, array of arrays?
> thanks in advance.
> 
> 
>   require 'rubygems'
>   require 'hpricot'
>   require 'mechanize'
>   agent = WWW::Mechanize.new
>   apn='2264-011-027'
>   page =
> agent.get('https://ttc.lacounty.gov/secured_asp/vcheck_new/index.php')
>   form=page.forms.with.name("pageform").first
>   form['mapbook']=apn[0,4]
>   form.page=apn[5,3]
>   form.parcel=apn[9,3]
>   page = agent.submit(form,form.buttons.first)  #gives error
> 
> error:
> 
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize/page.rb:104:in
> `bases': undefined method `search' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
>   from
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:440:in
> `to_absolute_uri'
>   from
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:659:in
> `fetch_page'
>   from
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:466:in
> `post_form'
>   from
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mechanize-0.7.6/lib/www/mechanize.rb:269:in
> `submit'