Mechanize question -- need to periodically check a site for assignments

[swampyankee]

I've been away for a while, and I've been less than actively programming, so I'm begging for some help.

Here is what I'd like to do:

Right now, I'm working as a substitute teacher (I just earned my teacher certificate for Connecticut, so I can try to teach high school kids some science. Mwahaha...).

The agency through which I get my subbing assignments puts them on a web site. What I would like to do is write a perl program, probably using WWW::Mechanize (but please tell me if there's a better choice), to check the web page for new assignments, then send me a text message (for when my laptop is not nearby) and, possibly, pop a message up on my screen (for when I am nearby). It doesn't have to do anything else -- it's basically replacing my mechanically pressing the "refresh" button until a job shows up.

I don't want (although I may need 8-)) any code, except generic "how do you do this" samples; I just want some hints, just like this was a homework assignment.

Thanks

[JavaFan]

Or you could just use an existing service. Or a list of services and programs. Or yet another service. These are just the top 3 hits on Google.

[Anonymous Monk]

... so I'm begging for some help. ... I don't want (although I may need 8-)) any code, except generic "how do you do this" samples; I just want some hints, just like this was a homework assignment.

Dang teacher, where are the beggin' pics? :)

See Re: Scraping Ajax / JS pop-up or Re^5: can't get WWW::Mechanize to sign in on JustAnswer or Web Testing with HTTP::Recorder or WWW::Mechanize::Firefox

extracting data from html using xpath

extract data from html with xpath

extract a substring between two emements, its css/xpath time again

WWW::Mechanize, WWW::Mechanize::Firefox, WWW::Scripter, HTTP::Recorder, Web::Magic, htmltreexpather.pl, getting data out of html with xpath, Re: Formating a HTML document to show certain text., Re^2: HTML::TreeBuilder:: identifing xpath-expression - first attempt, Re: Help With Online Table Scraper, Re: Formating a HTML document to show certain text.