Creating a program to compare ticket prices

[Zanduar]

Forgive me if this is in the wrong spot. If it is, please move it to the correct location.

Hello all,

I am at square one of a very large project. I understand it will be a great undertaking and I'm not expecting miracles. In fact, I'm not expecting code of any sort and I discourage posting of it.

What I'm looking for is a push to get me started. I need a language recommendation and any advice towards the "blue print" of the project.

What I want to do in a nutshell is parse ticket prices from different websites such as stubhub.com and ticketmaster.com. Think of the same thing that travel websites like kayak.com do but with ticket prices for sporting events, concerts, etc.

Thank you for any help.

[Momerath]

First I'd like to say that these sites most likely won't like you doing this. You will have to make a lot of requests on their servers to keep prices up-to-date and they'll see this as either a DOS attack or contrary to their business desires (they don't want you comparing prices, they want you buying from them). At best they will block your IP, at worst they will sue you out of business.

That said, pretty much any language will work, but I'd choose Python or C# as they both have easy-to-use web requesting. Even VB.NET would work, but who wants to program in VB? (I kid, you VB users :))

[happypanda]

Actually, this already exists. Check out http://seatgeek.com.

With that said, I recommend .NET.

[Zanduar]

Thanks for the link happypanda. They've done basically what I want to do. However I'd still like to try my own hand at it.