Getting web information

[Brudderman]

I have a database of several hundred names (local) and need get addresses. I expect that most names can be found in on-line directores such as anywho.com or whitepages.com. Is there any way I can query directories like that and pull down matching addresses? And if so, how?

Thanks!

[Wim Decorte]

see if they offer a "web service". That's a query engine that will return XML data based on your search string. If they do and if they support HTTP GET then you can make this work.

Their web service description will tell you how to construct an URL with your search string and will detail how the XML looks like that they will send back. You will then need to write a small XSLT stylesheet that will transform their XML into a grammar that FM understands and can import. See filemaker.com/xml for more info and examples.

[Brudderman]

Thanks, Wim! I'll check on the web service feature. Because of time constraints, I've had to procede for now with the brute force method: construct proper URL in FM calc field, open web page, copy proper information, paste to FM text field, parse out address, city, state, etc. It works, but it's slow.

Thanks so much for the pointer!