How can I grab text from another site on the fly?

**ericdfields** · 05-30-2006, 02:26 PM

I am trying to develop a system where if a user hovers over a particular link, a little tool-tip box (just a div) will show up, show a 'thinking' graphic if need be, and grab a specific chunk of text from our wiki. I've got the text in the wiki in a unique wrapper, I just don't know how to execute the actual grabbing process. Is this possible with j/s? What else should I look into from here?

**phpnovice** · 05-31-2006, 08:50 AM

Don't know what wiki is, but you'll need a DHTML Tooltip Popup script and perhaps you're looking for Ajax to retrieve the information from the server?

http://jibbering.com/2002/4/httprequest.html

**Ultimater** · 05-31-2006, 01:59 PM

Wiki is an online encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Since Wiki is an external website and JavaScript is very limited, requesting a page from wikipedia.org would cause a cross-domain permission denied security error within your own personal domain. Ajax is supposed to only be used for requesting pages within the same domain. Read up on the work arounds available for cross-domain http requests:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/11/09/...d-harmful.html
I’d personally use PHP or an Apache Proxy (page 2 in the above link).

**phpnovice** · 05-31-2006, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by Ultimater

Wiki is an online encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Since Wiki is an external website ...

I know what WikiPedia is, but are you sure that is what the OP is talking about? The OP said:

Originally Posted by ericdfields

...grab a specific chunk of text from our wiki...

**Ultimater** · 05-31-2006, 04:35 PM

Nope, I'm not sure if he is talking about wikipedia.org or not. Now that you bring it to my attention, I admit I'm probably wrong in regard to that. However I do know he's working with an external domain as it is mentioned in the thread title so therefore the rest of my post should still be of some additional guidance on top of your initial post.

**phpnovice** · 05-31-2006, 05:49 PM

True, but are the following considered cross-domain? ...or, not?

www.domain.com
wiki.domain.com

Two sites -- one domain, yes?

**Ultimater** · 05-31-2006, 06:07 PM

Two subdomains would encounter a permission denied security error. "Two sites" is a better way to word it. Should I call it a cross-site permission denied security error in the future? It sounds funny but defiantly more accurate

**phpnovice** · 05-31-2006, 06:10 PM

OK, so you're saying that it is not really a cross-domain security restriction.
Instead, it is a cross-server security restriction.

**Ultimater** · 05-31-2006, 06:12 PM

That is correct. Ok, I'll call it a "cross-server permission denied security error" in the future.

**ericdfields** · 06-01-2006, 08:05 AM

Wow... an abundance of information. Thanks a lot.

For the record, this would be happening within the same domain. I want my site at xyz.com to pull info from wiki.xyz.com.

In my own research, i found that wiki's do not identify paragraphs or sections in any particular way, so i think i'd also have to wrap the text i want to grab in an id'd div.