SYNOPSIS

use WWW::Search;
my $oSearch = new WWW::Search('Yahoo');
my $sQuery = WWW::Search::escape_query("sushi restaurant Columbus Ohio");
$oSearch->native_query($sQuery);
while (my $oResult = $oSearch->next_result())
print $oResult->url, "\n";

DESCRIPTION

This class is a Yahoo specialization of WWW::Search. It handles making and interpreting Yahoo searches http://www.yahoo.com.

This class exports no public interface; all interaction should be done through WWW::Search objects.

NOTES

The default search is: Yahoo's web-based index (not Directory).

PRIVATE METHODS

If you just want to write Perl code to search Yahoo, you do NOT need to read any further here. Instead, just read the WWW::Search documentation.

If you want to write a subclass of this module (e.g. create a backend for another branch of Yahoo) then please read about the private methods here:

gui_query

Yes, Virginia, we do try to emulate stupid-human queries.

need_to_delay

This method tells the WWW::Search controller code whether we need to pause and give the yahoo.com servers a breather.

user_agent_delay

This method tells the WWW::Search controller code how many seconds we should pause.

preprocess_results_page

Clean up the Yahoo HTML before we attempt to parse it.

_result_list_tags

Returns a list, which will be passed as arguments to HTML::Element::look_down() in order to return a list of HTML::Element which contain the query results.

_result_list_items

Given an HTML::TreeBuilder tree, returns a list of HTML::Element, which contain the query results.

parse_details

Given a (portion of an) HTML::TreeBuilder tree and a WWW::SearchResult object, parses one result out of the tree and populates the SearchResult.

_where_to_find_count

Returns a list, which will be passed as arguments to HTML::Element::look_down() in order to return an HTML::Element which contains the approximate result count.

_string_has_count

Given a string, returns the approximate result count if that string contains the approximate result count.

_a_is_next_link

Given an HTML::Element, returns true if it seems to contain the clickable ``next page'' widget.

strip

Given a string, strips leading and trailing whitespace off of it.

AUTHOR

As of 1998-02-02, "WWW::Search::Yahoo" is maintained by Martin Thurn ([email protected]).

"WWW::Search::Yahoo" was originally written by Wm. L. Scheding, based on "WWW::Search::AltaVista".

LEGALESE

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

LICENSE

Copyright (C) 1998-2009 Martin 'Kingpin' Thurn

This software is released under the same license as Perl itself.