postal codes - they broke it!

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postal codes - they broke it!

Daniel Haran
Hi folks,

The page to find you MP by postal code has changed:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Language=E&Menu=HOC&PostalCode=B2W2X6

This breaks my lookup function. It also breaks links on sites for
numerous advocacy organizations. Some have error messages revealing
they were doing the same thing as me.

The positive is that the information is contained in the URL, so you
can search for a postal code, and actually send the link to someone.
The person receiving the page won't be greeted to an empty form, but
to the actual information that was meant.

This could be a sign of clued-in behaviour. Unfortunately, the page
doesn't work properly in Firefox. That's 40% of people on this list.
Sigh. You're only entitled to see information if you use a
monopolists' insecure browser.

I'll see how much work needs to be done to repair my lookup
function... hopefully not too much!

Cheers,

Daniel.

PS: Who is moderator for the list? I've got a letter stuck in limbo :)

--
Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how


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Re: postal codes - they broke it!

Daniel Haran
It's fixed.

To those of you that are connected to many advocacy NGOs: all old
links to the MP lookup page on parl.gc are broken. Scrapers too.
Please let webmasters know :)

If anyone is using the source code of my application, a new revision
is live on rubyforge.

I have the sneaking suspicion some countermeasures were taken to
prevent scraping, but I'm not going to put any time in actually
proving it. The software is now even more robust in the face of future
changes.

Back to actually paying work.

Cheers,

Daniel.

On 4/15/07, Daniel Haran <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> The page to find you MP by postal code has changed:
> http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Language=E&Menu=HOC&PostalCode=B2W2X6
>
> This breaks my lookup function. It also breaks links on sites for
> numerous advocacy organizations. Some have error messages revealing
> they were doing the same thing as me.
>
> The positive is that the information is contained in the URL, so you
> can search for a postal code, and actually send the link to someone.
> The person receiving the page won't be greeted to an empty form, but
> to the actual information that was meant.
>
> This could be a sign of clued-in behaviour. Unfortunately, the page
> doesn't work properly in Firefox. That's 40% of people on this list.
> Sigh. You're only entitled to see information if you use a
> monopolists' insecure browser.
>
> I'll see how much work needs to be done to repair my lookup
> function... hopefully not too much!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Daniel.
>
> PS: Who is moderator for the list? I've got a letter stuck in limbo :)
>
> --
> Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how
>


--
Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how