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[Sootchucker]

Bloody hell Bill, you got nothing to do 

[Bill_the_Bear]

Bloody hell Bill, you got nothing to do 

Shush, keep it quiet would you.  And don't tell my boss! 

Now then.  I pulled the source code from my order tracker result.  Lines 811 to 839 are the ones we want.  Here they are:

                        <h3 class="sIFR-ignore title">Your car details</h3>
                        <div class="vw-box list-details">
                            <div class="item">
                                <h4 class="label">Your car:</h4>
                                <p class="description">New Golf GTI Performance 2.0 TSI 230 PS 6-speed DSG 5 Door</p>
                            </div>
                            <div class="item">
                                <h4 class="label">Colour:</h4>
                                <p class="description">Pure White</p>
                            </div>
                            <div class="item">
                                <h4 class="label">Upholstery:</h4>
                                <p class="description">Titan Black</p>
                            </div>
                        </div>
                        <div class="contact-details" data-retailer-id="00317">
                                <h4>Listers Nuneaton</h4>
                                <p>phone:<br><span>02476 321 400</span></p>
                                <p>email:<br>
                                        <a href="mailto:vw.nuneaton@listers.co.uk">vw.nuneaton@listers.co.uk</a>
                                </p>
                        </div>

Now I'm pretty sure I can code something to automatically access my page and find and save this data (cleaning out all the html tags of course).  Presumably its a simple matter to then create a For x = 2317xxxx to 2318xxxx loop to then grab everything.  Just need something to filter out null results.

I think this might actually be dooable.  I might test it out on something like a 10 number range because I'm guessing if I run it on 10,000 numbers VW might get suspicious and adjust the order form to stop anyone accessing everyone else's orders!  And we don't want that to happen.

[matchboy]

Is your name really Neo?! 

[Bill_the_Bear]

Is your name really Neo?! 

No this is actually terribly basic stuff.  I'm a total noob.

[matchboy]

Is your name really Neo?! 

No this is actually terribly basic stuff.  I'm a total noob.

Looks like rocket science to me! 

[matchboy]

Also, in English, what does that all mean?! Cause it sounds interesting!

[Bill_the_Bear]

Also, in English, what does that all mean?! Cause it sounds interesting!

I just used a ~15 line subroutine in BASIC to access the VW site and retrieve the phone number of my dealer.

Principle proved I think.

Next steps:
- Access car info data instead
- Insert into a loop that sequentially accesses each order number
- Apply some annoying stuff like waits to allow the website to respond, filters to ignore non GTD/GTI orders and error handling for cases where the order number returns an error
- Generate a .csv file with the output paired with the order number used


This might totally work.

In English:

A list of every 23xxxxxx order number in the country associated with a GTI or GTD together with the colour, dealer, transmission, doors and if it has the PP.  And HOPEFULLY come week 22 the confirmed BW as well.  Now that would give us a sample big enough to properly analyse.

I think I have a new pet project.  Might all fall flat on its face mind you, as I said I'm a total noob.

[Gryzor]

I think I have a new pet project.  Might all fall flat on its face mind you, as I said I'm a total noob.

We need to use the word "noob" in context here!  I'm by no means an IT noob, done systems design and business analysis for years, but this ain't no trivial stuff that bloggs joey can knock up! 

Good work though Bear!

[matchboy]

Sounds like an excellent project to me! I await the results with baited breath, will be very interesting to see the data summarised.

[Bill_the_Bear]

I'm doing it in excel using the in built visual basic editor (cause I'm too lazy to break out the C++) so when its working (maybe tonight if the wife lets me play) I can probably upload it so you can plug your own number in and see the output.

I'll keep the "grab everything" version private for now.  If a dozen people start bombarding the VW website with hundreds of requests they're gonna get irritated and probably block us all from accessing it at the very least so lets not do that!

I'm sure there are many people on here who are actual professionals and can do this better than me so feel free to jump in and take over if you are.