About AbotX Javascript Rendering

[Christian LeMoussel]

Can you explain how Javascript Rendering is do with AbotX?
What method / principle is used?

[sjdi...@gmail.com]

AbotX uses AbotX.Core.PhantomJsRenderer. It is the default implementation of AbotX.Core.IJsRender. As the class name suggest, it uses PhantomJs to render the raw html already retrieved by Abot. It them updates all the context objects to make sure that if javascript modified the page source that all values/calculations are still accurate. If you would like to plugin your own implementation you can override it like so...

var config = AbotXConfigurationSectionHandler.LoadFromXml().Convert();
var impls = new ImplementationOverride(config);
impls.JavascriptRenderer = new YourRenderer();
var crawler = new CrawlerX(config, impls);

Hope that helps

Steven

On Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 12:28 AM, Christian LeMoussel <cnh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can you explain how Javascript Rendering is do with AbotX?
What method / principle is used?

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[Christian LeMoussel]

It's damage that AboX.Core.PhantomJs Render is not Open Source.

This would be a good foundation to build my own implementation.

[sjdirect]

I understand your frustration with it not being free and open source like Abot. The reality is that building Abot to where it is now took at least 1000 hours (of my free time) to build/test/maintain and that does not include the time it took to support/respond to the hundreds of forum and email questions/inquiries to help Abot users. And I did/do this for (...pause....wait for it.....) FREE?!! 

Problems:

1) I cannot continue to spend more and more time building new features and supporting existing users on a product that generates $0 revenue and consumes a LOT of my time.

2) Abot users want more features/improvements/support.

Solutions:

1) Abot users could all donate a few hundred bucks as a token of appreciation for the time/effort they would have spent building something comparable.

2) Host a kickstarter (or something similar) for every single feature/improvement to raise the amount of money it would take to build/test that feature

3) Create a commercial product/service for advanced users that can generate enough revenue to justify the time spent building/testing/maintaining/supporting it and Abot.

Obviously #1 solution above wont happen and I understand why. I don't run around donating to every open source lib that I use either. 

#2 Sounds appealing but I feel that it will not get far since most people wont pay ahead of time for vaporware. Also no one would pay above the raw development time that is needed for user support required for each major feature. 

However, #3 above is a proven model that supports most of the most successful open source projects today. Give away a very useful product (like Abot) and provide a commercial product and/or service on top of it. This generates revenue and ensures the life of the open source product it is built on. AbotX is that commercial product/service. I have big plans for big features/services beyond what's listed here. But I can't keep doing it for nothing. 

Thanks

Steven

[Christian LeMoussel]

Steven I understand you. 

However I can to buy a product if I can have sources code. 
Consider you to sell AbotX source code?

Best regards

Christian.

[k...@intellitech.net]

Good luck getting any type of benefit for your many hours of work.
You'll need it.

I quit my first tech job in 1992 because I had a shareware desktop utility that you could register for $20, and 2000 people registered it, so I quit my day job where I was earning $43,000 at the time.

'Thanks' to open source, only a few in a million developers will ever be able to support themselves as independent developers outside of the B2B space.

While there is no doubt that freely available software has helped spawn many, many products, at the same time, IMO because software is EXPECTED to be free by so many (instead of free being just one of several options), it is essentially impossible to get fair value for work that is hard to do, takes a lot of time to do, and very few people can do (well).

I have often commented that it is easier to make money putting up sheet rock (which almost anyone can do) than to sell software, and the same people who will act as if selling software is some sort of crime will spend more in an hour walking into a bar or Dunkin Donuts than they would spend on software in a year.

So when (not 'if') you end up doing something else because you cannot earn any money writing software (which IMO is the fate of 99.99999% of all open source developers), but your food, clothing and shelter still costs money, you can 'thank' the prophets of Open Source who ruined what could have been an amazing opportunity for millions of smart people to support ourselves via good old-fashioned hard work and creating value for others.