You can use the web import wizard as a tool for collecting data from the Internet or an intranet by specifying a website to go to and what information to gather. The rule you create can be as simple as going to a single website, or as complex as browsing a number of web pages to find to the data you're looking for. The most popular web import rules perform manufacturer warranty look-ups. Web import rules can also be used for internal purposes such as pulling information from the web pages of devices.
Many of these rules install by default with Data Analytics and are ready for you to run. You can also copy and edit them for your own specific needs.
About this page
Use this page to enter information that will connect you to a website where you can import data into inventory.
URL: The start location for the web import rule. It's also possible to use an attribute value from the device you're running the rule against by putting the full attribute path with %% on both sides of it.
l Use anonymous connection: The normal option. If a website uses integrated security where a pop-up asks for a username and password, you'll need to enter the User and Password. If the website has fields where you log in, you still connect as anonymous.
Use proxy: If you're not using Internet Explorer, you may need to specify proxy settings. We recommend that you use Internet Explorer; it has the most comprehensive settings to handle the variety of proxies.
Use IE and its settings: Uses Internet Explorer as the browser. Most of the time you'll want to use IE, because it allows full website functionality. Many sites have scripts or cookies that need to be passed, and Internet Explorer allows those to work seamlessly.
l Timeout: Depending on how much data you retrieve and the speed of your connection, you may need to increase the timeout value. Values are listed in seconds.
About this page
Use this page to select and configure the forms containing data that will be passed to the website. In the pane, right-click and select Add web form. You can also define a condition for a form. To do so, first configure a form, then right-click it and select Add Condition.
From this page, you can also right-click the form name and select Add returns to specify the data that will be searched for and returned from the website.
When you're finished configuring all options, click the Finish button. Your new rule will appear in the Web Import > All Rules folder.
About this page
Use this page to define the data that is being passed to the website.
New URL: If it's necessary to switch URLs after loading the previous page, you can specify a new page to go to. Normally, you'll have a link on the page to click instead, which is preferred.
Send data to server as: When passing client data to a form, it can be sent on the URL line (query string) or in a form (form data). Query string performs a GET while form data performs a POST.
If needed, you can specify the data to be passed to the server, which requires both the field name and value to be passed. You can use a database attribute to populate the field.
Submit properties: Specifies how control is passed to the next page: by submitting a form, clicking a link, or just loading the page.
Form name: Performs a submit on the form. Enter the name of the form as it should appear on the page.
Button: Allows a link or button to be clicked.
l Tag: The type of object, such as “a” for a link, “button” for a button, or “input” for a text field.
l Type: Type of field. Use “a” for a link or “submit” for an input field of type submit.
l Field: Field name to search for; allows you to search a field to find the proper one to click on.
l Value: The value to search for in the field. For example, if you're looking for a link that
references a page called “computer.htm,” you would put “href” in the field and “computer.htm”
in the value.
l Look for inner text: Allows the text between the start and end tag to be searched instead of an attribute of the tag.
Only load page: Simply loads the page instead of performing any action on it.
Delete cookies with text in name: Necessary if information is kept that causes web pages to perform differently. For example, a web page may save the last serial number searched for its warranty and then bring up the warranty page by default instead of a page asking for the serial number.
Wait for initial page load: Because of performance or simply how web pages function, the browser may report the page as loaded when, in fact, only one of its sub-pages is. In this case, you may need to have DTS wait for the entire page to load before attempting to populate the form data.
l Text to appear: Text to search for in the return page. Putting WAIT here will simply cause DTS to wait.
l Max wait: Maximum number of seconds to wait for the page.
Wait after page load: Causes DTS to pause before moving onto the next step. If you're performing another post back step, this can be handled by waiting for initial page load on the next page. If you're not performing another post back step, then you may need to wait for the data to appear before searching for the return data.
l Text to appear: Text to search for in the return page. Putting WAIT here will simply cause DTS to wait.
l Max wait: Maximum number of seconds to wait for the page.
About this page
Use this page to add as many attributes as you want. You may only pull elements for one one-to-many component, however. Click the Add button to begin adding the attributes.
Treat dates as US format: Show dates in month/day/year format.
About this page
Use this page to add the attributes to the return page.
Attribute: The database attribute where the data will be stored. Click the ellipsis button (...) to open the attributes browser.
Use regular expressions: Use a regular expression to search the website for data (see Microsoft Regular Expression help for syntax).
Return as many instances as are found: Used for one-to-many attributes where multiple items are present. For example, certain hardware vendors list the parts that were shipped in the system.
l Every X: When finding matches, skip over X number of matches to find the next.
l Set item 0: Useful for setting the first value. Used in warranties to assign the first item (0) as the last expiring warranty.
l Return as item 0: Use the largest or smallest first value as item 0.
l End at: Stop searching the page when a certain text string is found.
VBScript text box: You can use a VBScript to perform certain operations on the value.
Search for string: The more commonly used method of searching a website is a value. Some of the options may not be useful in all situations. We strongly recommend that you use text in tags for these fields. Visible text may be localized depending on the website or OS language. Using the text in tags normally does not change for localization.
l Case insensitive: It's often useful to set this option, because different browsers and websites will return different cases.
l Header: The first text string to search for. Header is useful in cases of a one-to-many
component, a string that will either show up only once, or the next time it shows up, is past the point you want to search for.
l Search for header once: Only look for the header once for a one-to-many attribute.
l Find: A string to search for that is after the header.
l Look for: Another string to search for, either forward or backward. It can also be found a variable Number of Times. For example, if a table has a number of cells (<TD> tag), you may want to go to the fourth cell.
l Advance to: Similar to Look for, but the search only goes forward. Putting a "0" in Number of Times will stay at the Look for location.
l Capture until: Grab text until this string is encountered.