Perl script monitors payments and feedback in eBay sales
Watchful Seller
We show how to use a screen-scraper and an application for the official eBay API to trigger an alarm on incoming eBay customer feedback and detect errors in the monthly billing statement.
If I ever get around to writing my memoirs, I am going to include a lengthy chapter about my life's motto, which is: "Anything you don't constantly monitor is guaranteed to go belly up when you least expect it." True to this motto, I wrote a script this month to receive an email immediately when one of my eBay customers has left feedback about a transaction.
Simply Scraping
As a quick and dirty solution, and to first avoid having to register as a developer with eBay, I wrote a screen-scraper that extracts the current feedback score from the slew of HTML on the feedback page, before saving the counter and raising the alarm during subsequent runs if the value has increased.
When I click on my username on eBay.com, the browser lands on the feedback page in Figure 1. Selecting view-source in the browser shows the HTML code from Figure 2, and a text search for the string 362 (the current feedback score) shows that this number is found in a markup tag of the mbg-l class:
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.