automator / scripting

Question

automator / scripting

Hello everyone,

I need to go over 2500 configfiles that are saved on a website and I have to put them in a list in Excel, with my MacBook Pro.

The Excel needs to be in a certain layout, and the data is for every 2500 completely different.

Does someone know how to automate / script this?

To do this manually it only takes 5 minutes, but, everyone can do math if there are 2500 more to go...

Thank you all in advance for (sharing) (you help / tips)!

Regards,

Nils

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), 3,6 GHz - i7, 500GB SSD, 8GB, 15'

Posted on Mar 4, 2015 2:28 PM

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Answer 1

Arkouda

Level 4

3,365 points

Mar 4, 2015 3:35 PM in response to Nils Hellemans

It's certainly possible, but it's difficult to be specific with advice unless you provide examples of the desired input and output.

If there is private data, just overwrite it with something of the same type before posting.

Basic questions I would ask you:

When you say 'saved' is there a page (pages) with links to the files?

Are you able to share a URL?

Does the input data come from file contents or is it from the file name?

What is the structure of the output file?

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Answer 2

Mar 4, 2015 10:50 PM in response to Arkouda

Hello Bernard Harte,

thank you for answering.

The data that has to come in an Excel-file is data from a website with a certain account, which I for that reason cannot share (I'm not permitted to share passwords). But the layout is comparable with the tables of the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_trees/.

So the data indeed has to come from the website, for example:

the Excel-file needs to have for each tree a tab, and each tab needs to has a table with 'name', 'age', 'species', and so on...

And for example the coordinates of the location also needs to be in the Excel, so for each row you need to click on the location and copy the coordinates and go back to your list...

it's really like copying all the existed text and putting it in a different way in a table in Excel.

I hope that I answered all you questions?

My list also has 158 pages so that will be later again another problem...

Do you maybe need a print screen with my specific examples, I will ask if I may share that information.

Thank you!

Regards, Nils

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Answer 3

Arkouda

Level 4

3,365 points

Mar 6, 2015 12:04 PM in response to Nils Hellemans

I think you are going to find it difficult - although that doesn't mean that someone else won't come-along with a simple solution!

Getting the data from the web will be the challenging part.

If the tabular data is like that in the wikipedia page, the table itself has no id - although it does have a class name so it might be possible to grab the data using that. (Your page may well have a more straightforward layout, but without being able to see its source I don't really know how to go forward.)

I have not had a chance to experiment, but wanted to let you know that I will have a better look at the weekend.

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Answer 4

Arkouda

Level 4

3,365 points

Mar 8, 2015 6:45 AM in response to Arkouda

Sorry. If the format of your input is really like the Wikipedia page, then I'm out of ideas.

Real problem here is that without being able to see the actual source structure, it's near impossible to determine whether there's something that one can get a handle on via JavaScript or is isolateable with text item delimiters or similar.

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Answer 5

Mar 8, 2015 7:35 AM in response to Arkouda

Hello Bernard,

thank you for trying, I really appreciated it.

Thank again.

Regards,

Nils Hellemans

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