I’m trying to build an android app that will log into a website, scrape the website for data specific to the user, then format that data nicely on a mobile screen.
I’ve noticed that there are several similar questions to my own, and after reading some of the documentation, I am still very confused as to how I should go about this.
Here’s what I know
The site that I want to log into utilizes asp.net and the login.aspx uses POST for the login form.
There is no API for this website
There is also no single sign on
I’m very new to Android and a novice JAVA programmer at best. Will someone please help me carve the path of research that I need to do in order to write this app? I feel that I mostly need help with connecting to the website and getting the data, I’ll be able to figure out the layouts and formatting myself.
I am more than willing to research and read whatever is necessary, but I would like to minimize any irrelevant information that would ultimately lead to more confusion.
Thank you in advance for the help
For the purpose of accessing the website all you need to know about is HTTP. It doesn’t matter whether your target website is built with PHP or ASP etc. As you’re only concern is how to communicate with the website through HTTP which is independent of technology used by the website. You can try wikipedia for descriptions of these methods.
It might be worthwhile reading the Java URL tutorials for how to use Java classes. As regards extracting the data itself you might want to read up on Parsers. This link might give you some first ideas.