[REQUEST/HELP] Switch Netflix region through unblock-us.com

[mariotr87]

Hi all,

 

I've been trying to figure out where to start from for 1 hour with no luck, so I've decided to ask for some help (or maybe if someone knows how to do it quickly I'd appreciate it too, I can learn from the code).

 

For those who don't know, unblock-us is a service that allows you to switch the Netflix region or use it in a country where it's not available. It's paid for but you can get 1 week for free without even giving any payment details.

 

They have a very nice switcher in the website, two clicks and you are done. However I don't know how that's done, and therefore I can not replicate this behaviour from my own script. I don't even know where to start from, basically.

 

Any help will be highly appreciated, it should be fairly easy to do.

 

Thanks!

[jdfwarrior]

Hi all,

 

I've been trying to figure out where to start from for 1 hour with no luck, so I've decided to ask for some help (or maybe if someone knows how to do it quickly I'd appreciate it too, I can learn from the code).

 

For those who don't know, unblock-us is a service that allows you to switch the Netflix region or use it in a country where it's not available. It's paid for but you can get 1 week for free without even giving any payment details.

 

They have a very nice switcher in the website, two clicks and you are done. However I don't know how that's done, and therefore I can not replicate this behaviour from my own script. I don't even know where to start from, basically.

 

Any help will be highly appreciated, it should be fairly easy to do.

 

Thanks!

 

"It should be fairly easy to do" ? Careful.. Those projects will bite you in the butt and turn out to be the most complicated 9 times out of 10

 

As for accomplishing this... I'm not sure. Unless it's a simple POST, it could be a good bit more complicated than you think. Most workflows that retrieve data from a web service are using a data API that makes interaction much simpler. There are a few exceptions but they generally more complicated or potentially slower.

 

I'm not a user of unblock-us but from a quick glance at the site, the "two clicks" your referring to, I'm assuming this is after you log? If so, that adds an additional layer to this. Also, depending on how the subsequent page is set up, this workflow may not be as easy as you think.

[mariotr87]

"It should be fairly easy to do" ? Careful.. Those projects will bite you in the butt and turn out to be the most complicated 9 times out of 10

 

As for accomplishing this... I'm not sure. Unless it's a simple POST, it could be a good bit more complicated than you think. Most workflows that retrieve data from a web service are using a data API that makes interaction much simpler. There are a few exceptions but they generally more complicated or potentially slower.

 

I'm not a user of unblock-us but from a quick glance at the site, the "two clicks" your referring to, I'm assuming this is after you log? If so, that adds an additional layer to this. Also, depending on how the subsequent page is set up, this workflow may not be as easy as you think.

 

Thanks for the input David

 

You're right, that's assuming you're logged in. I'm always logged in so I didn't even notice this . That's one extra step, and maybe a complicated one.

 

And no, it's not a simple POST (I wish!). The problem is that I don't know exactly what it is, probably some type of script (to be honest I don't know much about web development). I have plenty of time during the weekends so I wouldn't mind working on this for some time. But if anybody knows where to start from please let me know!

 

Thanks,

Mario.

[jdfwarrior]

Thanks for the input David

 

You're right, that's assuming you're logged in. I'm always logged in so I didn't even notice this . That's one extra step, and maybe a complicated one.

 

And no, it's not a simple POST (I wish!). The problem is that I don't know exactly what it is, probably some type of script (to be honest I don't know much about web development). I have plenty of time during the weekends so I wouldn't mind working on this for some time. But if anybody knows where to start from please let me know!

 

Thanks,

Mario.

 

If there's anything else I can do to help, let me know.

[mattsson]

I took a quick look in their source code, and it looks it's just an AJAX call to a PHP script. The Javascript function called:

 

function setCountry(e)
{
  rcode = e.toUpperCase(), serviceStatusSpinner(!0, "Saving New Settings..."), window.setTimeout(function ()
  {
    $.ajax(
    {
      url: countryUrl,
      dataType: "jsonp",
      data: {
        code: e
      },
      success: function (e)
      {
        h && (serviceStatusSpinner(!1), rcode == e.current ? (showBar("dialog3", "country-set"), $("#messages #new-country").text(e.current_full)) : showBar("warning1", "country-set-error"))
      }
    })
  }, 1e3)
}
 

And the countryUrl variable points to 

http://realcheck.unblock-us.com/set-country.php

[mattsson]

I looked more into this (I have an Unblockus account, too), and I can change my region by simply running http://realcheck.unblock-us.com/set-country.php?code=<country_code> (e.g. "us") in the browser. However, this does not work from my separate Alfred PHP script, probably because it can't see I'm logged in. Any suggestions on how to circumvent this?

[tschoof]

Oh yeah I'd be really interested in this too! The availability for movies varies greatly between the different countries, so that'd be really useful