A script language for generating Internet-bots

Many Internet information and service sources (such as search engines and online ordering) only provide a conventional Web-page interface instead of an application program interface or via XML. In order to automate their access, the current approach generally requires writing low-level programs in sending and receiving HTTP messages. The paper presents a novel approach to using a high-level script language to automate the dialog with Web-based service agents. Such a script is easier to understand, debug and maintain. These scripts can also be stored in a repository for reuse. Our target code in Perl or Java (in essence a generated agent) can further be downloaded to other platforms for execution. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach with examples in automating online ordering in e-commerce environments and also for processing distributed information over the Web.