HTTPConnectAndMatch()

Description

Connects an HTTP URL, reads in the page, and returns the first match of the specified regular expression. Accepts a URL and a regular expression. As an option, you can specify the request method (GET or POST). If the method is POST, the last parameter is the content to send to the server. If you do not specify a method, GET is assumed. The regular expression should contain at least one parenthesized expression. Do not include the /-delimiters in the regular expression.

Synopsis

require 'HTTPClient.pl';
...
&AppUtils::HTTPConnectAndMatch($url,
    $regExp, $method, $postArgs);

Arguments

Argument	Meaning
$url	The URL to use, of the form http://[host[:port]]/[path].
$regExp	The regular expression to match (without the /-delimiters).
$method	The request method.
$postArgs	Arguments for the POST method.

Returns

An array that contains the matching values. The array will be undefined if there is an error or no match.

Example

The following code retrieves the KPIX traffic report and prints the line describing conditions on the Carquinez bridge:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.001
#
require 'HDMLUtils.pl';
require 'HTTPClient.pl';
$url ="http://www.kpix.com/traffic/ALL.html";
@strs = &AppUtils::HTTPConnectAndMatch($url, "(carquinez.*)");
print @strs;