Question

I would like to spider a few blogs and programmatically analyze their html and css-based layouts to see e.g. if the sidebar is to the left or right of the main content, how many columns and how wide they are.

How would I do this the best way? Are there any tools or libraries I can use?

(I would prefer a solution in Python or PHP.)

Answer 1

It seems like this could be achieved via PhantomJS, with a Javascript something like this:

phantom.viewportSize = { width: 1024, height: 768 };

var page = new WebPage();

page.open("http://mashable.com/", function(status) {
    if (status === "success")
    {
        page.includeJs("https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js", function() {
            var position = page.evaluate(function() {
                return jQuery('#sidebar').position();
            });

            // Now position.left and position.top contains the
            // position of the #sidebar element. Use other
            // jQuery functions to calculate the relative position.

            phantom.exit();
        });
    }
});