Code Appendix for “Digital Ethnography”
Wendy F. Hsu
require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'
require 'geokit'
include Geokit::Geocoders
# intitialize agent and open page
agent = Mechanize.new
# create a .txt file to save the results of the program in
filename = 'MyspaceFriendListnew.txt'
File.open filename, 'w' do |f|
f.puts "lat\tlon\ttitle\tdescription\ticonSize\ticonOffset\ticon"
friend_pagenumber = 1
# Fill in the starting page number of friend result pages
BandName = 'thekominas'
# Fill in the friendId of the band
band_url = 'http://myspace.com/' + BandName + '/friends/all/page/' + friend_pagenumber.to_s
page = agent.get(band_url)
count = 1
# loop through all the pages by clicking the 'next page' button as long as one exists
begin
next_flag = FALSE
count += 1
# find each friend
page.search('div[@class = "details"]').each do |friend|
geodone = FALSE
# print each friend's name
# make sure that each friend has an actual name
if friend.search('a[@class = "msProfileTextLink"]').first
friend_name = friend.search('a[@class = "msProfileTextLink"]').first.text
else
friend_name = ""
end
# print each friend's profile id
friend_url = friend.search('a[@class = "msProfileTextLink"]/@href').first
puts friend_name
begin # begin find friend page and geolocate
friend_page = agent.get(friend_url)
if friend_page.search('//p[@class="even Location"]//text()').text
friend_page.search('//p[@class="even Location"]//text()').each do |item|
unless(item.content.include?('Profile Views') || item.content.include?('Last Login') ||
item.content.include?('years old') || item.content.include?('Male') ||
item.content.include?('Female') || item.content.include?('jello') ||
item.content.include?('coming soon') || item.content.include?('BANG BANG!') ||
item.content.include?('MyHot') || item.content.include?('View My') ||
item.content.include?('One Foot On') || item.content.include?('new beginning') ||
item.content.include?('padia') || item.content.include?('recording') ||
item.content.include?('grave') || item.content.include?('http://') ||
item.content.include?('RIP') || item.content.include?('Haad?') ||
item.content.include?('Hello.') || item.content.include?('OPA!') ||
item.content.include?('Here and Now') || item.content.include?('i, am') ||
item.content.include?('Kveldubach') || item.content.include?('Tiger baby') ||
item.content.include?('Misanthrope') || item.content.include?('D.I.Y.') ||
item.content.include?('Thrashing') || item.content.include?('Fire mares') ||
item.content.include?('studioAKT') || item.content.include?('Aloha!') ||
item.content.include?('Lost') || item.content.include?('3rd world') ||
item.content.include?('ane amma') || item.content.include?('deux') ||
item.content.include?('Millennium') || item.content.include?('realest') ||
item.content.include?('........°L°......') || item.content.include?('original') ||
item.content.include?('760') || item.content.include?('dead') ||
item.content.include?('~~~') || item.content.include?('One people!') ||
item.content.include?('Yeah!') ||
item.content.gsub(/[\s,\n]/,'').eql?('') || geodone)
loc_info = item.content.strip
loc=GoogleGeocoder.geocode(loc_info)
if loc.success?
f.puts loc.lat.to_s + "\t" + loc.lng.to_s + "\t" + friend_name + "\t" + loc_info + " " + friend_url + "\t21,25\t-10,-25\thttp://www.openlayers.org/dev/img/marker.png"
geodone = TRUE
end # end if loc...
end # end unless
end # end if friend_page...
else
begin
loc_info = friend_page.search('//li[@class="adr"]').first.content.strip
rescue
puts "*** Failed page search for geoinfo on alt page ***"
end
loc=GoogleGeocoder.geocode(loc_info)
if loc.success?
f.puts loc.lat.to_s + "\t" + loc.lng.to_s + "\t" + friend_name + "\t" + loc_info + " " + friend_url + "\t21,25\t-10,-25\thttp://www.openlayers.org/dev/img/marker.png"
geodone = TRUE
end
end
rescue
puts '*** Error!!! ***'
end # end find friend page and geolocate
end
puts '*** This concludes friend result on page ' + friend_pagenumber.to_s + ' ***'
# Retrieve next page if one exists
if page.search('a[class = "pageBtn nextBtn"]')
next_flag = TRUE
friend_pagenumber = friend_pagenumber.to_i + 1
band_url = 'http://myspace.com/' + BandName + '/friends/all/page/' + friend_pagenumber.to_s
page = agent.get(band_url)
end
# keep looping if there's a next page and we haven't surpassed the max number of hits
end while next_flag
end
About Wendy F. Hsu
