Loop after Query or Login

From iMacros

Sometimes you do not want to loop a full macro, but only parts of it. E.g. if you need to login or to run a query before looping through the results.

To tackle this issue, you need to use the Scripting Interface, which means that you will need to write a small script that controls the loop and calls the macros. In the example below, we use VBS which is available on almost any Windows system.

Contents 1 Example 2 Creating the macros 2.1 Recording the Google Query 2.2 Recording the macro to be looped 3 The VBS script 3.1 The Skeleton 3.2 Adding the Query 3.3 Adding the loop 4 The Full Scripting Code

Example

Our aim, here, is the following:

• Query Google.com for some keyword (Please note that we are not affiliated with Google, but just use their website for this example)
• Loop through the Google results performing the following steps
  • follow each result's link
  • take screenshot of that page
  • return to the Google result page

Creating the macros

Recording the Google Query

(In case recording a macro is new to you, please cf. our "First Steps" tutorials for an introduction)

• Open the Google URL in the TAB
• Start the recording
• Enter a dummy keyword to run the query on
• Start the Google query
• Stop the recording
• Save the macro as "query.google"

Here's the macro's code:

VERSION BUILD=6221002     
TAB T=1     
TAB CLOSEALLOTHERS     
URL GOTO=http://www.google.com/webhp?     
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=NAME:f ATTR=NAME:q CONTENT=test<SP>keyword 
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:SUBMIT FORM=NAME:f ATTR=NAME:btnG 

Recording the macro to be looped

• Start recording
• Use HTML click mode (if you already know that the POS attribute is what changes between links, you can stick with the "Auto" mode)
• Follow the first link
• Save the resulting page
• Go back to Google result
• Do the same for links 2 and 3 (in order to find the system behind the links)

With the URLs removed we get essentially this:

TAG POS=1 TYPE=A ATTR=CLASS:l&&TXT:*&&HREF:*
SAVEAS TYPE=CPL FOLDER=* FILE=+_{{!NOW:yyyymmdd_hhnnss}}   
BACK      
TAG POS=2 TYPE=A ATTR=CLASS:l&&TXT:*&&HREF:*
SAVEAS TYPE=CPL FOLDER=* FILE=+_{{!NOW:yyyymmdd_hhnnss}}   
BACK      
TAG POS=3 TYPE=A ATTR=CLASS:l&&TXT:*&&HREF:*
SAVEAS TYPE=CPL FOLDER=* FILE=+_{{!NOW:yyyymmdd_hhnnss}}   
BACK   

So the looped macro (with the POS value being replaced by the variable "loopNumber") would look like that:

TAG POS={{loopNumber}} TYPE=A ATTR=CLASS:l&&TXT:*&&HREF:*
SAVEAS TYPE=CPL FOLDER=* FILE=+_{{!NOW:yyyymmdd_hhnnss}}   
BACK

We save it as "google.follow.link".

The VBS script

The Skeleton

Here's how a plain VBS script looks like that simply opens a single iMacros instance.

Option Explicit
Dim iim1, iret

'initialize iMacros instance
set iim1= CreateObject ("imacros")
iret = iim1.iimInit()

'here comes the code



' tell user we're done
msgbox "End."

' exit iMacros instance and quit script
iret = iim1.iimExit()
Wscript.Quit()

Adding the Query

Just add

iret = iim1.iimPlay("query.google") 

to make the script run the "query.google" macro.

Adding the loop

For calling the "google.follow.link" macro with a specific POS value, iimSet() is needed to set the variable "loopNumber" before calling iimPlay(). For using loopNumber with the value "2" we would use:

iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_loopNumber", "2")
iret = iim1.iimPlay("google.follow.link")

As we want to loop through the positions, we put these commands into a VBS loop construct performing the following additional changes:

• We added a loop counter "recentLineNumber"
• We made the iimSet() use the "recentLineNumber" counter
• We made the loop repeat until the macro fails (i.e. until the end of the Google result links is used)

Dim recentLineNumber
recentLineNumber = 0

do while not iret < 0 
	recentLineNumber = recentLineNumber + 1
	iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_loopNumber", Cstr(recentLineNumber))
	iret = iim1.iimPlay("google.follow.link")
loop

The Full Scripting Code

And here we are:

Option Explicit
Dim iim1, iret

'initialize iMacros instance
set iim1 = CreateObject ("imacros")
iret = iim1.iimInit()


'here comes the code

'query
iret = iim1.iimPlay("query.google")

Dim recentLineNumber
recentLineNumber = 0

do while not iret < 0 
	recentLineNumber = recentLineNumber + 1
	iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_loopNumber", Cstr(recentLineNumber))
	iret = iim1.iimPlay("google.follow.link")
loop

' tell user we're done
msgbox "End."

' exit iMacros instance and quit script
iret = iim1.iimExit()
Wscript.Quit()