Screen scraping – The Whats & Whys!

Screen scraping is used when data needs to be separated from its associated coding and other attributed elements. Screen scraping is done so that data can be further used as text into formats specified by the user. With screen scraping, focal information from a database can be retrieved.

Screen scraping is associated with data scraping, data extraction, web scraping and HTML scraping. Using screen scrape, structured or unstructured data from source can be scraped and stored into structured or unstructured formats.

Screen scraping is a technique in which a computer program extracts data from the display output of another program.

(Definition: Wikipedia)

Why use screen scraping application?

Web pages are mostly formatted in HTML and are available to users for plain viewing purposes only. At times, when information from a page is required, the page is downloaded and stored. But an optimal solution is needed when information from the web is to be regularly downloaded and converted to specified formats. Most web pages use HTML formatting and other scripting which is not often understood by common users.

Data retrieved form the web often consist elements that are not deciphered or required. There are several methods that need programming know-how to scrape the relevant data minus their codes. However, this is not a convenient option for users who are unaware about programming.

Screen scraping Software,
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Screen scraping Software : Automation Anywhere

What can you do with screen scraping application?

Screen scraping software offer the ease of reading data from the web and storing the required data. This data can be stored into formats or applications specified by the user. Screen scraping also enables automatic data download and compilation with minimum user input.

Automated screen scraping capability can be used to download and update data related to-

Mutual funds
Competitor information like pricing for marketing updates
Real estate details for comparisons

Tips for choosing a Screen scraping application

A suitable screen scraping software must have the following features:

User friendly Interface: An easy to use interface which is flexible to suit any format or technology.
Recording Capability: Recording capabilities to automate screen scraping with a one time input.
Download options: Options which enable the user to scrape data directly from an application or from the web into specified locations.
OCR Capability: Optical Character recognition or OCR for users who use screen scraping to covert images into text.
Non-intrusive features so that the software can run in the background while other applications are used.