Reading data from web pages
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg6465] Reading data from web pages
- From: penny at suu.edu (Des Penny)
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 23:00:42 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Hi: I'm teaching a class in Mma next quarter. In preparation for this class I'm creating a demonstration on how to read data from web pages. As an interesting example I decided to read the financial data from the CNN Financial page: http://cnnfn.com/markets/us_markets.html If you look at this page you will see that the financial data consists of the many indices available to track the market. Using Netscape 3.0, I saved multiple editions of this page as raw HTML text. Each edition had different values of the financial indices. I then wrote a Mma program to read these files and to plot the various indices as a function of the time throughout the day. The resulting plots show how the markets behaved during the given day. Everything went smoothly and the program works beautifully, however, I would now like to go to the next step. So, here's my question: ======================= Is it possible to have Mma directly access a web page and read the raw HTML code? Would I have to use MathLink to do this? If this is possible and not too difficult, could someone give me step-by-step instructions on how to do this with a Mac. BTW, if anyone is interested in the program I've written, I'll be glad to supply a copy. Slight changes in the program would allow plots of market activity from day to day. Moving averages could be added to the plots to generate buy/sell prompts etc. Cheers, Des Penny ------------------------------- Des Penny Physical Science Dept. Southern Utah University Cedar City, UT 84720 VOICE: (Office): (801) 586-7708 (Home) : (801) 586-2286 FAX: (801) 865-8051 e-mail: penny at suu.edu -------------------------------