Four Fingers

Hey guys,
Me and my friends have a web-site which is running phpbb. We'd like to delete about 600 threads, but phpbb only lets you delete individual threads through the web-interface (that's what we want to use).

So we want to write an automatic script that accesses a desired page via the HTTP protocol, parses the page and detects the 'delete' button, and then submits an HTTP response signaling the button was pressed. Then load the confirmation page, detect the 'confirm' button, and signal it was pressed too.

We've collected the ids of these threads (i.e. we have their url). Now we just have to write the code that aquires the page, parses it and sends action replies. We can do this in Java or perl, but it'll take a lot of time, because we'll have to learn the HTTP protocol and possibly even handle cookies and stuff.

We're wondering if there's some code library or scripting language designed specifically for this goal. That is, a langauge that offers specific HTTP functionality. Like a 'getCookie()' function, or a 'sendButtonPressedResponse()' function.

Thanks

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"Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the rest."

MrFlux

Edit: wait my idea won't work, nevermind.

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flux (n.)
Medicine. The discharge of large quantities of fluid material from the body, especially the discharge of watery feces from the intestines.

Silvy

keep in mind that phpbb might do some additional checks and balances before, during and after deletion, so just deleting rows in the DB will not be a good idea.

Most likely you will only need to call the corresponding URL for each delete-confirmation (i.o.w. you don't need to go through the whole process of deleting, you just need to submit the confirmation)
How to go about doing that is beyond my direct knowledge however...

/I don't know anything about phpbb internals so my thoughts may be off...

Edited for changes in surrounding posts...

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"Do not kill. Do not rape. Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. "
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SinisterMotives

If you have the thread IDs, why don't you just write a PHP script that deletes those rows?

MrFlux

That was what I thought of originally but then that might leave orphan records in the database.

__________________
flux (n.)
Medicine. The discharge of large quantities of fluid material from the body, especially the discharge of watery feces from the intestines.