README

 - actual content
4squatterrc-sample.txt
 - misc. documentation and notes
foursquatter.pl
 - misc cleanup and usage notes

4squatterrc-sample.txt

@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
+# since this stores your foursquare password in clear text, make sure that you
+# put the appropriate permissions in place.  
+# foursquare account username - can also be the registered phone #
 esquare_user = "[email protected]"
+# foursquare account password
 esquare_pass = "secretpassword"
 esquare_host = "api.foursquare.com:80"
+# the user-agent 
 esquare_agent = "foursquatter 0.01"
+# if you're going to use the batch check-in functionality this is where we
+# would store the file containing the list of venues you'd like to update en
+# masse
 esquare_vfile = "/path_to_home/squatter-venues.txt"

README

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+* overview
+
+warning - this is an anti-social script.  i'm not recommending its use, but i
+can see the utility.  if you must have the mayorship of your local
+bar/coffeeshop, etc. you might find it useful.  this exercises a very little
+bit of the foursquare API and allows you to interact with the API.
+
+* requirements
+
+ - libwww-perl - this has the HTTP client functionality, commonly available.
+ - JSON - used to parse the responses from foursquare
+
+* configuration
+
+you'll want to make sure that you create the appropriate .4squatterrc file
+with the right username and password, etc. put into place.  
+
+* seeding the process
+
+in order to seed the process you should dig up the latitude and longitude of
+the area where you'd like to poke around.  then get the list of the venues
+that are nearby.
+
+
+ZenDoggy[sulrich]% foursquatter.pl --action=disp_venues --geolat=44.9116 \
+  --geolong=-93.329
+
+# vid   venue name              geolat  geolong
+#---------------------------------------------------------------------
+19098   Edina Grill     44.9116 -93.329
+993195  Bone Adventure  44.9116893      -93.3290071
+477665  Normandale College      44.9117382      -93.3290307
+358183  il vostro boutique      44.9118158      -93.3290075
+31532   Salut Bar Americain - Edina     44.9115 -93.3294
+1450348 Julia Bretey Salon      44.9119001      -93.3290077
+691615  Gyropolis       44.9114999      -93.3294
+1025052 James Loren Salon       44.9118 -93.3294
+493299  New China Wok   44.9120019      -93.329008
+52142   Premier Cheese Market   44.912  -93.329
+
+redirect the output to the file that you'd like to use to be the see for batch updates.
+
+
+ZenDoggy[sulrich]% foursquatter.pl --action=disp_venues  --geolat=44.9116 \
+ --geolong=-93.329 --vcount=30 > foo-venues.txt
+
+edit this file to add/remove the venues that you have in the mix.  note that
+the fields are tab delimited.  make sure you don't rip out the tabs when you
+save the file.
+
+batch file format: 
+vid <tab> name <tab> <geolat> <tab> <geolong> <newline>
+
+lines starting with a hash are ignored as comments.
+
+
+
+
+* single shot check-in
+
+for this, all you need to provide is the 
+
+ZenDoggy[sulrich]% foursquatter.pl --action=checkin  --vid=31532 
+checkin success: 31532 - <note this will be blank in the single shot mode>
+
+* batch check-in
+
+ZenDoggy[sulrich]% foursquatter.pl --action=checkin-batch
+checkin success: 19098 - Edina Grill
+
+... elided for brevity ...
+
+checkin success: 227616 - Starbucks
+checkin success: 701995 - Bella Salon and Spa
+

foursquatter.pl

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/opt/local/bin/perl -w
+#!/usr/bin/env perl 
 
 use LWP::UserAgent;
 use HTTP::Request::Common;
@@ -26,34 +26,14 @@
 
 my $debug = 0;
 
-# valid actions
-# 
-# checkin-single [--vid]
-# checkin-batch  [--file=filename] 
-# disp_venues --geolat=s --geolong=s [--vcount=#]
-#
-#
-# misc. notes
-# 
-# to get a comprehensive list of venues near the specified coordinates
-# 
-# http://api.foursquare.com/v1/venues?geolat=44.914128&geolong=-93.329555&l=50
-# 
-# checking in:
-#
-#  % curl -d "vid=19098&geolat=44.9116&geolong=-93.329" -u \
-#   "username:password" "http://api.foursquare.com/v1/checkin" 
-# 
-#
-
 # parse the options and determine the action that we're going to take
 if ( $opts{action} eq '' ) {
 	&printUsage("no action specified");
 	exit;
 } else { $opts{'action'} =~ tr/A-Z/a-z/; } 
 
 
-# parse the various CLI opts to make sure we have what we need
+# parse the various CLI opts
 if ($opts{action} eq "disp_venues") {
 	if ($opts{geolat} eq "" || $opts{geolong} eq "" ) {
 		&printUsage("missing coordinates (geolat or geolong)");
@@ -200,12 +180,38 @@ ()
 	print STDERR $message . "\n";
 
 	print STDERR <<EOF;
-usage: edina-square.pl
+usage: foursquatter.pl
 
 you need to set some options and variables. check the code to see what you
 need to setup here.  
 
+
+foursquare.pl --action=<action>
+
+valid actions: 
+	 
+checkin 
+ --vid=
+
+example: 
+   foursquatter.pl --action=checkin --vid=XXXX
+
+checkin-batch  
+ [--file=filename] 
+
+example: 
+   foursquatter.pl --action=checkin-batch
+
+disp_venues
+ --geolat=s --geolong=s [--vcount=#]
+
+example: 
+   foursquatter.pl --action=disp_venues --geolat=xx.xxx --geolong=yy.yyy \
+   --vcount=NN
+
+
 EOF
+
 	return;
 }
 
@@ -216,6 +222,7 @@ ()
 	my %config = ();
 	open(INFILE, $file) || die "error opening: $file";
 	while (<INFILE>) {	
+		next if /^#/;  # skip comments
 		my ($key, $value) = /(.*)\s+\=\s+[\"|\'](.*)[\"|\']/;
 		$key =~ s/ //;  # rip out any white space from the key
 		$config{$key} = $value;