IE.au3 - Reading/Displaying Table Contents

[litlmike]

Background:

1) I Use IE.au3 a lot for mostly simple routine tasks.

2) I don't know a great deal about HTML, but I am not without hope either.

3) New to using _IETableGetCollection instead of _IETableByIndex

Problem:

1) Whenever coding for a new webpage, I have a hard time determing the table index that I want to work with. Often, I just end up using trial and error until I get the result I am looking for (adding 1 to the index everytime). Up to now, that brute force tactic has worked for me.

Solution:

1) Would like to know a method that will work for most webpages. My ultimate goal is to know how to do this everytime, so I don't have to post questions in the forums, but instead answers.

2) So, if I wanted to get the info in a table I see on a webpage, what is the best way to get that info?

3) It would be nice to display the information of a given Table Index, does anyone have a WYSIWYG? (what you see is what you get)

Example:

For instance, let's take this webpage with 60 different tables:

Example Page

1) Let's say I want to read and display the contents of the gray colored table on the top right. How would I know the table index?

2) Once I determine that, how would I save the following data in the table as $By, $Size, $Price?

By: ProSource Performance

Size: 60 Tablets

Price : $59.95

Thanks In Advance

[Valuater]

a good start, IE.au3 Builder

here....

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...c=19368&hl=

8)

[litlmike]

a good start, IE.au3 Builder

here....

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...c=19368&hl=

8)

Thanks for the feedback and making a great tool for us. I acutally already use Builder whenever I am using IE.au3. Sometimes when I go to HTML elements I am able to find what am looking for right away, because it is labled. But like in this example, there is nothing distinguishable.

My guess is that there is a process that most of you good programmers use to find your answers efficiently. I would like to know that process.

Thanks again.

[DaleHohm]

There is no pat answer to this. One way us to View Source. search for <table and count starting at 0 until you find the one you want. You can employ some of the techniques used in IE Builder to automate some of it however.

I'll give you a quick function taht will return table index values based on innerText matches... note that since tables can be nested you will often get multiple matches on the same string and you'll typically use the highest index value.

You can enhance this to do something better than write the indexes of the table to the console...

Func _ShowTableIndexes($oIE, $matchString)
    ; $oIE = browser object, $matchString = text string in table to match
    Local $i = 0
    $oTables = _IETableGetCollection($oIE)
    For $oTable in $oTables
        If StringInStr($oTable.innerText, $matchString) Then
            ConsoleWrite("Match found.  Table Index: " & $i & @CR)
        EndIf
    $i += 1
    Next
EndFunc

Dale

Edit: changed AutoIt 1-2-3 reference to IE Builder

Edited September 19, 2006 by DaleHohm