The Widget is basically HTML and Javascript, and the smarts that fetches the data from the AFL site and parses it is in the Javascript.

The script basically grabs the web page with the ladder data then parses through the page source for the actual ladder table then reads in the ladder data from there. I suggest you look in the widget code itself for a more detailed run down of what it is doing.

You should be able to do a similar thing in perl or PHP or whatever you put in your website.

The only thing you might want to keep in mind is that a while back I read somewhere on the internet about a link on the AFL site where you can directly request information, like last weeks results or results for any given round etc, and it gave you back an XML formatted data with the information you requested.

This might be more use to you (and easier to parse too) because the way I do it, everytime the AFL changes the layout of the website it can potentially break the widget code….

I have since lost the reference to the link, but you might find it with some expert Googling.

Good luck!

I’m developeing(for uni) an online footy tipping site, and I was trying to work out how to get the data of the afl’s site so i could use it on my own.

If you could give me a run down on how you managed to use the afl’s data I would really appreciate it.

thanks.

The widget downloads the latest ladder from the AFL website from the ladder web page (http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=ladder) so it will automatically update once the 2006 season starts.

Every now and again the AFL changes the structure of the ladder web page and the widget breaks because it can no longer find the ladder data on the page – give me a shout if that happens and I’ll fix it.

Tom

Great widget….

Does the AFL Ladder automatically update to season 2006 or will I need to download it as the season begins.

Also, will the widget automatically update results each week or will I need to refresh/download after each round.

Apologies if this sounds a dopey question!

All the best

Regards

Brian
Rozelle, Sydney