Can I automate ad posting on Craigslist using the Fake browser?

Question

I just purchased Fake yesterday thinking I could use it to help automate my Craigslist ad postings. Unfortunately I am at a loss (I'm not very technical) on the actual ad description/posting screen. I've attempted to use the "Set Values of HTML" form to populate the price, number of bedrooms, ad title, location, and the ad's body. The problem I am finding is that the id names in Craigslist seem to change every time the screen refreshes so Fake has an error when I run my completed task.

Does this make sense? Can I use this with Craigslist or is their system too smart? What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

After snooping a bit on the Craigslist-form, it seems the IDs are randomized, as you said, and there is definitely a reason for this (to avoid spam). I'd say Craigslist most likely have pretty secure websites and forms to prevent spam and scams, but you might be able to get around it if you were experienced with JavaScript.

I see Fake can run JavaScript, so if you have some experience with that already, you might want to try a follow-up question on Stack Overflow.

As a side note, I would advice against doing this, Craigslist have their reasons for making it harder for you, and nobody likes spam! :)