Tools of the Trade

So, you want to start writing some scripts to post to websites huh?

Well, to do this, you need to get the tools of the trade!

The first thing you’ll need is PHP. I prefer PHP 5 myself because I can write classes with it.

You’ll also need to have CuRL installed with PHP. Some hosts support this. Others don’t.

Make sure you’ve got some l33t scripting skills too. Actually, it’s not really that hard to do with CuRL. It just takes a bit of research on the net.

Anyhow, once you’ve got that you need to figure out how to do a post to the form that you’re looking at.

To help me with this, I use the Live HTTP Headers plugin for firefox. This jewel is very cool. not only does it show you the headers but it also shows you every variable that is posted. That can be invaluable.

Now, if I want to reverse engineer a program like RSS Submit, I use a good packet sniffer like EtherDetect. With this puppy you can watch all the traffic on your box and figure out exactly what’s getting posted to where!

If you don’t have any coding skills, you can simply go to ecoder, rentacoder or scriptlance and hire someone for $20-$80 to do the script for you. As long as you’ve got basic english skills and can describe what you want, you’ll be able to get it coded pretty easily.

Of course, finding a good coder can be difficult at times. Exactly how to do that is the subject of a different article at another time.

Happy scripting!

G-Man