Sort MonarchComputer.com categories by price.

S

S_G

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 17, 2005
Messages
358
Not really a deal, but I figured I would post it here anyways. If anyone objects, just report the post and a mod will probably move it, no worries.

Anyhow, I always like to browse by price, and it's real easy on newegg.com. Monarch, on the other hand, doesn't have anything of the sort. So, since I haven't had a chance to use regular expressions for a while, I figured I'd brush up.

I wrote this little script today for myself, but since I'm such a great guy, I'll share it with the rest of the [H]ard|community.

Just head over to http://shahyar.net/monarch/ and enter the URL of a category at MonarchComputer.com. For example, this page lists all of the PCI-E video cards from their site:
http://shahyar.net/monarch/index.ph...tore_Code=M&Category_Code=VC-PCIE&submit=List

I only wrote it in two or three hours and haven't tested it much, so... Yeah.

For anyone who wants to know how it works, it basically grabs the page from Monarch's site and uses a single regular expression (a big one, I might add) to parse out everything. Because Monarch doesn't always use the same markup, there may be some times that it doesn't properly list an item (most likely won't list the MIR, IR and stock if this happens, but I haven't found anything that causes it yet - someone will).
 
Cool, I always am browsing by price for budget systems. This will come in handy :D

Have you considered asking Monarch if they want to incorperate yout script into their site? I am sure they would very grateful for it...
 
Awesome dude! Thanks for posting! That also makes it much faster (and no scrolling) to see an entire category.

You should offer this to monarch and see what they have to say.
 
very nice.. thank you for hosting that. I hope you guys also know you can do the same thing in Microsoft Access/Excel too. All you have to do is make an External Data Range query. In Excel its pretty much a little easier.. just go to Data --> Import External Data --> New Web Query. From there, you can select their main product tables from the URL's you want, then add them to a new sheet in Excel, then organize the layout how you want it. You can pull it in the same way with MS Access, then even make a menu with Switchboard to sort them by product category, part number, price, manufacturer, etc.. ;)
 
If I may give one tiny bit of constructive criticism: either change the background color or change the link color. Blue on black is tough to read.

Aside from that, I think it's a great tool and appreciate you making it available to all of us :)
 
nilepez said:
If I may give one tiny bit of constructive criticism: either change the background color or change the link color. Blue on black is tough to read.

Aside from that, I think it's a great tool and appreciate you making it available to all of us :)
Click to expand...
Click on the "colors" link in the top right corner, if you've got JavaScript enabled.
 
Very nice

Now i realize why i rarely shopped Monarch...it was inconvenient for me to sift through their prices!
 
S_G said:
Click on the "colors" link in the top right corner, if you've got JavaScript enabled.
Click to expand...

Was that there before? I didn't notice it. Definitely makes it easier to read (to me anyway). :D
 
Much appreciated! More websites should have good sorting features like newegg, thats what makes shopping online convenient.
 
nilepez said:
Was that there before? I didn't notice it. Definitely makes it easier to read (to me anyway). :D
Click to expand...
Yeah, it was always there; I figured someone would come along who prefers white backgrounds.
 
SJetski71 said:
Very nice

Now i realize why i rarely shopped Monarch...it was inconvenient for me to sift through their prices!
Click to expand...

there whole website is pretty ineffecient and so are there employees.. go fig
 
S_G said:
Yeah, it was always there; I figured someone would come along who prefers white backgrounds.
Click to expand...

I don't mind dark backgrounds, but dark on dark is tough to read. [H]'s link colors are pleasing to my eye (on black). I guess it probably wouldn't matter if I had a bigger monitor or ran at something lower than 19x14, but I like lots of realestate more than big letters :p
 
I just updated it again. I was testing it on Monarch's latest sale, and it wasn't picking up the $15 rebate on the Thermaltake Swing, because they keep switching around by adding strange tags.

Dammit, Monarch! Well, at least it works now.
 
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