Web Interaction - Extract Data - Retrieve Table from HTML DIV Element into Collection

[MarcoRamos]

Hello everyone,   REF: OS: Windows 10   BP Version: 6.5   Browser: Chrome   I am trying to extract data from some search results, Facebook Search specifically. The results are listed as DIV elements in the HTML code, not as TABLE Elements.   I've tried to change the Element Type, inside Application Modeller, from "Web Element" to "Table (Web)", to try and use "Get Table Items" in the Reader properties, but it always fails by timeout. I've also tried setting the Element Type as "List (Web)" and I got the same error.   My goal is to get the results as a Table and store it in a Collection, with the names and URL for each result, in order to be able to iterate through each item (search result). It is part of a KYC PoC.    I have done this with other RPA tools, but I can't figure out how to get a Table from a Non-TABLE Element, using Blue Prism.   For the moment I am using dynamic  Web Path, to Navigate to each result, but it is not as efficient as if I could store it in a Collection.   Any help and/or ideas or welcome.   As soon as I figure this out, I will post here the solution.   Thanks in advance!

[AndreyKudinov · Accepted solution]

Get inner HTML and parse it maybe. Depends what you need to do with it later. It is a downside of visual programming - it is supposed to be intuitive, but if there is no action to do a specific task, you can't just get an array of elements under some top element like with selenium and work with it.

[MarcoRamos]

Sorry @AndreyKudinov, I missed your reply.

That is a good idea indeed, although I would prefer taking the low-code route for these cases. It turns out there is still no other option for this, we still need to go with your idea, or the normal method of using Dynamic Attributes to loop and navigate through the tables from webpages if they are not compatible with the Table type in the Application Modeller.

Thank you!​

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Marco Ramos
Senior Automation Developer
KPMG Malta
Pieta
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[AndreyKudinov]

With XPath expressions properly working in Chrome, it is much easier now than it was in 2019 🙂

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Andrey Kudinov
Project Manager
MobileTelesystems PJSC
Europe/Moscow
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