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This Wiki site will also no longer be moderated from the Progress side.
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Sincerely, The Progress Team
Form Filling
Introduction
Are you tired of filling out the same form over and over again? Then let iMacros help you. Simply put all data to be input into a very straightforward and easily understandable text file and iMacros can read the data from there and submit it to the web site - completely automatic, without your interaction!
The data source can be in either of two different formats: a text file with a list of variables and their values of the form key=value or as a comma separated text file (CSV format). A text file in CSV format can be generated and edited by Microsoft Excel and many other applications.
As a rule of thumb the "list of variables" format is recommend if you have many different variables but only one or a few value(s) for each variable (for example, your detailed address data that you use to fill out online forms). The CSV format is most appropriate for use with a few variables with many different values (for example, a long list of CD's that you want to submit to an auction web site).
More advance users might connect directly to databases to retrieve the data.
(Related example macros: Demo-Datasource, Demo-Loop-CSV-2Web) (Related example script: Datasource-2-web.vbs, File-2-web.vbs, File-2-web-Method2.vbs, Database-2-web.vbs)
Variables
(Related example macros: Demo-Datasource, Demo-Slideshow )
Variables are, as the name suggests, constructs that allow you to dynamically, usually during runtime, hold different values. This is very helpful when you are trying to follow links that contain changing words or when you want to use the same macro for entering different values into a search engine.
The values (content) of all variables in iMacros are accessed by putting two curly brackets around the variable name. The values of !VAR1 is thus accessed by {{!VAR1}}.
Variables can be part of anything inside the macro (except the commands themselves). For example, you can add them as part of the ATTR string in a TAG or EXTRACT command or as part of the URL statement:
URL GOTO=https://www.onlinestore.com/?shoppingcart={{!VAR1}}&item={{!VAR2}}
You can assign almost any value to a variable. However, when assigning a value to a variable with SET certain characters need to be escaped or substituted because they imply a certain behaviour to iMacros. When assigning values to variables all whitespaces in the value part must be substituted by <SP> and all newlines must be substituted by <BR>; double curly brackets must be escaped with #NOVAR# ie. #NOVAR#{{. Note this this only applies inside a macro, e. g with the TAG, SET or ADD commands. If you use the iimSet command of the Scripting Interface, it replaces " " with <SP> and newline with <BR> automatically.
There are two kinds of variables in iMacros:
Built-in variables
These variables are used to define certain properties of the macro's behavior, for example the macro timeout value:
SET !TIMEOUT 33
There are three special built-in variables, !VAR1, !VAR2 and !VAR3. These variable can be set to anything you like. They are also defined with the SET command
SET !VAR1 hello<SP>world
Alternatively, you can prompt the user to input a value:
PROMPT Please<SP>enter<SP>text !VAR1
User-defined Variables [PRO and Scripting Edition]
These variables are created during runtime ("on the fly") by two different mechanisms. Either one uses the command line switch -var_MYVAR value like so:
imacros.exe -macro myMacro -var_ITEM 15
creates the variable ITEM during replay of the macro myMacro and gives it the value 15.
The second options is to use the iimSet function of the Scripting Interface. In a Visual Basic Script example this would look like:
iret = imacros.iimSet("-var_ITEM", "15")
Note that the user-defined variables should not have a prefixed "!". Only the built-in ones do, like e.g. !LOOP.
Data Input
Input from Comma Separated Data (CSV) File
(Related example macros: Demo-ReadCSV) (Related example script: CSV-2-web.vbs, Database-2-web.vbs)
iMacros allows you to specify a text file with comma separated values (CSV) to be used as input. Imagine, for example, that you want to submit a list of CD's to an online auction. Here is the list of the CD's in the comma separated format:
"ARTIST" , "ALBUM TITLE" , "PRICE" "Beatles", "Abbey Road", "13.49" "Beatles", "The Beatles 1,2,3" , "25.49" "Mozart" , "Symphonies No.40 & 41", "9.98" "Mozart", "Requiem", "7.50"
Note: Quotation marks are optional in most cases. They are only required if the value itself contains a comma.
We now need to tell the iMacros macro where the data input file can be found. For that we use the built-in variable !DATASOURCE
SET !DATASOURCE OnlineAuction.csv
If you do not use any path information (like C:\myPath\) in the !DATASOURCE value the file is assumed to lie in the standard datasources directory, which can be specified in the Paths tab of the Options dialog. The default directory is in the datasources\ directory of your iMacros installation (e.g. C:\Program Files\iMacros\datasources\).
We then need to tell iMacros how many columns the CSV file has in each line. We do that by using the !DATASOURCE_COLUMNS variable:
SET !DATASOURCE_COLUMNS 3
This number must match the exact number of columns in the input file, even if you do not use some columns.
Since we want to insert all datasets into the form we need to loop over the macro, each time inserting the next CD. Therefore, we need to tell iMacros in which line of the datasource we currently are. We do this using the built-in variable !DATASOURCE_LINE. By cunningly using the built-in variable !LOOP we let iMacros take care of the counting. And since the first line is just the header, we would like to skip it and start counting from 2:
SET !LOOP 2 SET !DATASOURCE_LINE {{!LOOP}}
Now we can have the macro fill out the online form with the values from the current CD dataset. We use the built-in variables !COLn, where n represents the number of the columns to put into the form element.
TAG TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=Listing ATTR=NAME:Name CONTENT={{!COL1}} TAG TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=Listing ATTR=NAME:Album CONTENT={{!COL2}} TAG TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=Listing ATTR=NAME:Price CONTENT={{!COL3}}
During the execution of the macro the constants in parentheses {{..}} are replaced by the value specified in the data sources.
For reading huge files cf. "Use scripting for accessing > 30 columns"
Input from List of Variables File
(Related example macros: Demo-Datasource) (Related example script: Datasource-2-web.vbs)
You can also use data from a list of variables input file. The information in this format is saved in the form of key-value pairs, like
key1=value1 key2=value2
To use input in that format create a plain text file that contains the information you want to submit. The first line in this input file must be
[iOpus]
In this example we create a file that contains the information on ordering "lunch". lunch.txt could look like this:
[iOpus] name=Mr.<SP>Tester main=2 drink=2 smallsizedrink=NO myremarks=Deliver<SP>to<SP>home<SP>address:
1629<SP>4th<SP>Avenue
Thanks!
Tom
We now need to tell the iMacros macro where the data input file can be found. For that we use the built-in variable !DATASOURCE
SET !DATASOURCE lunch.txt
If you do not use any path information (like C:\myPath\) in the !DATASOURCE value the file is assumed to lie in the standard datasources directory, which can be specified in the Paths tab of the Options dialog. The default directory is in the datasources\ directory of your iMacros installation (e.g. C:\Program Files\iMacros\datasources\).
After we have specified the location of the input data it is ready to use! iMacros creates variables called after the key part of the key-value pairs. The value of this variable is the value of the key-value pair. You can now use these variable to fill the form:
TAG TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:Name CONTENT={{name}} TAG TYPE=SELECT FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:main CONTENT={{main}} TAG TYPE=SELECT FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:drink CONTENT={{drink}} TAG TYPE=INPUT:CHECKBOX FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:C8&&VALUE:ON CONTENT={{smallsizedrink}} TAG TYPE=TEXTAREA FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:Remarks CONTENT={{myremarks}}
During the execution of the macro the constants in parentheses {{..}} are replaced by the value specified in the data sources.
Multiple Sets of Key-Value Pairs If you want iMacros to read different sets of key-value pairs for each loop add a number at the end of the key and add !LOOP to the end of the name inside the macro. The datasource input.txt could then look like this:
[iOpus] name1=Tom<SP>Tester name2=Ann<SP>Smith name3=Nicole<SP>Frank main1=2 main2=1 main3=3
The complete macro would then look like this:
SET !DATASOURCE input.txt TAG TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:Name CONTENT={{name!LOOP}} TAG TYPE=SELECT FORM=NAME:TestForm2 ATTR=NAME:main CONTENT={{main!LOOP}}
Input from Database
(Related example macros: Wsh-Submit-2-Web) (Related example script: File-2-web-Method2.vbs, Database-2-web.vbs)
This example only works with the Scripting Edition.
iMacros can read data directly from any Windows database using the Scripting Interface and a few lines of code.
This example code in Visual Basic Script connects to an Microsoft Access database:
' open database set rs = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") rs.Open("DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" _ & mypath & "IIM-TEST-SUBMIT.MDB") ' use SQL to select information sql = "select * from table1" set rs = rs.Execute(sql) ' start iMacros set iim1= CreateObject ("iMacros") iret = iim1.iimInit iret = iim1.iimDisplay("Submitting Data from MS ACCESS") ' loop through result dataset do until rs.eof 'Set the variable iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_FNAME", rs.fields(0)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_LNAME", rs.fields(1)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_ADDRESS", rs.fields(2)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_CITY", rs.fields(3)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_ZIP", rs.fields(4)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_STATE-ID", rs.fields(5)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_COUNTRY-ID", rs.fields(6)) iret = iim1.iimSet("-var_EMAIL", rs.fields(7)) 'Run the macro 'Note: This is the SAME macro, as in the FILE-2-WEB-METHOD2.VBS example script!!! iret = iim1.iimPlay("wsh-submit-2-web") If iret < 0 Then MsgBox iim1.iimGetLastError() End If rs.movenext loop iret = iim1.iimDisplay("Done!") iret = iim1.iimExit WScript.Quit(0)
Tabbed Browser
(Related example macros: Demo-Tab )
The iMacros Browser [PRO and Scripting Edition only] includes a tabbed browsing interface that makes managing web sites with multiple open pages a snap. When a web page opens a new window iMacros automatically opens it in a new tab in the background. If the user changes to another tab a TAB command is automatically added during recording.
You can close tabs while browsing by right-clicking on the tabs (not the browser window itself!). This will open up a context menu with the options to close the tabs. The following example shows the basic actions you can do with the TAB command
' open a webpage in the first tab URL GOTO=http://www.iopus.com ' open a new tab TAB OPEN ' get new tab to foreground TAB T=2 ' load another page URL GOTO=http://www.google.com ' close the second tab TAB CLOSE TAB T=1
Frames
iMacros handles pages with frames automatically. It inserts FRAME statements that indicate to which frame the following TAG and/or EXTRACT command refers. Please note that TAG and/or EXTRACT will fail if they are not directed to the correct frame. To avoid this error please do the following:
- EXTRACT command: if the object that needs to be extracted is on a framed page make sure that you use the correct FRAME statement. You generate such a FRAME statement by clicking on any element of any kind within the frame prior to performing the extraction.
- If a TAG error occurs because the pages are not completely loaded: normally iMacros waits until the browser sends a "Page Loaded" signal before it continues. On framed pages iMacros sometimes gets confused and continues with the macro too early, i.e. before all frames have been loaded. If the content of a frame is not yet loaded the following TAG commands will generate an error. You can resolve this problem simply by adding a WAIT SECONDS=#DOWNLOADCOMPLETE# command to your macro.
Background information
The number n in the FRAME F=n command is the position of the frame in the object tree of website.
Fine Tune TAG Commands
Normally the TAG commands work the way they are recorded by iMacros, but sometimes you need to manually fine tune them. If an error occurs during replaying a TAG command it might be due to one of the following problems.
Wildcards
Some web sites are created dynamically from databases and the links contain unique numbers - the so-called session ID - each time you visit a page. While this technique helps the web site owner it poses a problem to iMacros. This is because during recording the session ID, which is often part of links, was written into the macro as part of the TAG command. During replay the session ID is different, thus iMacros does not find the exact link and produces an error. The solution is to replace the changing part of a link (or extraction) with the * symbol, which is read by iMacros as a wildcard. The wildcard causes iMacros to accept any character where the * is placed.
Example
Tag line as recorded by iMacros:
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=ACTION:/kb/ki.dll/ke.kb.gz?kbb;532452&&2&&&&&nc ATTR=NAME:zipcode CONTENT=85250
If you record the same macro a second time you will see that we get the same TAG line except one number - this is the session ID the website is using.
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=ACTION:/kb/ki.dll/ke.kb.gz?kbb;532244&&2&&&&&nc ATTR=NAME:zipcode CONTENT=85250
Replace the session ID with *:
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=ACTION:/kb/ki.dll/ke.kb.gz?kbb;*&&2&&&&&nc ATTR=NAME:zipcode CONTENT=85250
Actually, you could also remove most of the static parts of the FORM information as well. Exactly how much you can remove depends on the website. You still need enough information for iMacros to uniquely identify the page element. In our example, the result looks like:
TAG POS=1 TYPE=INPUT:TEXT FORM=ACTION:/kb/* ATTR=NAME:zipcode CONTENT=85250
Note: TXT:* is not the same as TXT: (without *). If only TXT: is used, this means you are looking for an element where the text attribute is "", if you are using TXT:* this means that the text attribute can have any value (= same as omitting the text attribute altogether). This applies to any attribute, not just TXT.