Auction House parsing

[Vlad]

First, the server I run the code on can go offline at times. Now, I made a PHP script that uses the new API feature to get the whole auction house and locally manage the data and store in a database.

Demo site:
http://ahawk.ziuo.net/

The idea first was to make a tool that anyone can use to be notified about when a certain item appears, even if the item price is below a certain threshold.
Now what I got since that idea is not quite yet like what I first planned. :P

In any case, I can image some team taking this seriously and making a service that allows better price analysis of the market and not to mention you can now do it outside of the game so it should be even more efficient!

You only need to code the programs efficiently, the armory is a huge plain text json file so you'd need to store it and manage all the data as fast as possible if you got a huge website that serves thousands of users per day.

Anyone else made some neat tools regarding the AH and the new API feature? Maybe someone already did make an AH site that I haven't yet heard of, if you have do share.

[Marthisdil]

Undermine Journal?

[Vlad]

The undermine journal is nice, but lacking in one aspect; player perspective. But still it is a powerful price analysis tool! I guess we will see several other types of AH related sites coming up from now on with different features aimed at different tasks.

[Marthisdil]

Originally Posted by Vladinator The undermine journal is nice, but lacking in one aspect; player perspective. But still it is a powerful price analysis tool! I guess we will see several other types of AH related sites coming up from now on with different features aimed at different tasks.

Guess I'm not understanding what you mean by "player perspective".

[Vlad]

I meant like on Wowhead, you can pin your main character and when you look after quests it weights the results based on that character, hides irrelevant data, shows you relevant information. Not saying Wowhead is the best either, but what I meant was "putting your character in the center and showing information relevant to that character" if you know what I mean.

In-game you can "show only items usable" but this could be extended even further with a website, it could consider current gear, content (based on achievements/gear), e.g. show the best possible item upgrades based on what you got and where you are at currently, hiding if you like items you already own*, quests done rewarding items you can't get again (if the gear improvements suggest item rewarded by quest you already did), known mounts and pets could be filtered out on the lists, e.g.

You could have filter options when browsing the AH so you can avoid seeing what you don't need if you are after let's say gear, pets, mounts, profession related reagents, achievement related items required by professions, e.g. You'd be able to make a shopping list based on the cheapest items you can find on the AH and such. It would be a very powerful system I reckon. The problem in-game is the query delay, the website can sync the AH (at a interval around 3 hours I believe) and nearly instantly update all available items and also it can sync character info, also with the new API.

Many many many possible features that can be implemented! ^^

Edit; oh, also sites like askmrrobot can make it so gear improvements that you need also provide a "AH buy list" of some sort. For example you need new gems for 6 items, it can check the AH for what items are available and tell you what to go and buy. I am sure there are other scenarios where the AH can be used to help tell the player what to do next, what to buy next.

When talking about achievement and professions earlier, for example you wish to get The Northrend Gourmet and you gotta make 45 recipes, it can check what you already got, what you need, your professions, tell you if the AH got what reagents, how many to buy, e.g. I keep getting ideas for features such a system utilizing the API can provide players with. They keep coming, make them stop!