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Question

I know this software exists, but I can't find it.

Dec 30, 2014 2:04AM PST

Scenario: A popular restaurant chain allows you to search for availability and accepts reservations via its website. It can be nearly impossible to get a reservation unless you just happen to check at exactly the time when someone else cancels. The software I'm looking for allows you to provide info about the location, date, and a time you want then it notifies you by email/text when something opens. You can search for several locations and dates at once. You still have to jump in fast to snag the spot, but knowing a spot has opened gives you a fighting chance. More importantly, you aren't wasting time checking for space multiple times a day; the whole process is automated.

It was suggested to me that maybe this is "sniping" software, but all the snipers I see are specifically geared to auctions (usually eBay). Maybe what I need is a form of sniping software, but I can't find it. There are several online sites which provide the service I'm looking for, but I don't want to pay them per search since I have an ongoing need and it would get quite costly.

Any ideas? Search terms to use maybe?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
These are the terms I used.
Dec 30, 2014 2:10AM PST
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Thanks...
Dec 31, 2014 4:35AM PST

That search is similar to the ones I've been doing. You'll note that there are many references to the Disney reservations sniping sites - but what I need is the technology (software) that is running those sites, not the sniper sites themselves. This is the first time I've seen a link to the code for the UrbanSpoon snipe bot, though. If I had a lot of time on my hands I might be able to adapt that... but I have zero time. REALLY want to just buy the "ready to go" bot code.

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Ahh, well then you hit a site that has such and ask.
Dec 31, 2014 4:39AM PST

Where I work is a bunch of programmers (no, we don't share our apps, these are sold for 6 or more figures!) So given the work involved I wish you good hunting.

Are you noticing more and more folk think code is always out there for free?
Bob

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Sorry -
Dec 31, 2014 7:31AM PST

Not implying that I want it for free... I'm more than willing to pay, and I'll pay well. As a former programmer myself (20+ years ago) I agree that these things shouldn't be given for free, and was surprised I found a site that WAS giving such a valuable snippet away. While I may be able to adapt his code to what I need, I don't have the time. The sites that are already using it won't tell me where they got it because I'm (eventually) going to be a competitor to some extent. I need to find this code on my own. I could pay for a search on each site and snag the source code to look for clues, but I was hoping someone here might know of exactly the right thing and save me the trouble. Thanks for your effort!

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This should be more than a snippet.
Jan 1, 2015 12:50AM PST

The scale of the code required looks to cover many many pages. Maybe you can find it someday but imagine if they wrote it in Perl and your web host only did PHP. Or you use MySQL and they used dbForge. I've yet to find such things port over without a lot of work.
Bob

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You'd think, right?
Jan 2, 2015 1:41AM PST

But look how beautiful this is: https://gist.github.com/diogomonica/6076911

Sadly, while UrbanSpoon may not worry about bots, I suspect that the company behind the restaurants I need reservations at (Disney) is working on addressing that concern as I type. They apparently aren't using any type of captcha right now, so the snipes work - but when it becomes enough of a problem they'll be all over it. I make a dozen or more Disney dining reservations a day, and that's not at all unusual for high-volume agents. Multiply that by thousands of agents and you've got the potential for very big bot demand. The few companies that have it charge too much and/or limit the number of searches you can run at any given time. Thus my desire to get that technology for my own agency/agents. It will all be a moot point once Disney gets around to fixing their system's shortcomings, though, so maybe my inability to find the technology is for the best.

Anyway, thank you for your time and efforts!