Programs like iMacros that create data dumps (xls or csv) (1 Viewer)

[lateefx]

I use iMacros do automate the downloading of data off of some online data services - is there any other tool that you use to do this sort of thing...

I'm pulling data based on 100 different search criteria (i.e. different countries, different keywords, etc.) -- and it would take WAY too long to do each of the hundred manually...since I do this every month. I need a program that will do what I tell it to do, in autopilot mode - this includes running the search, then dumping results to excel or .csv using the website's built in export to excel/csv feature.

What would be icing on the cake...a program that can also run queries on the data and filter it out for me so I don't have to edit the spreadsheet before running it through Crystal Reports.

 

[HiTechCoach]

For the Icing on the cake ....

I wold import the downloaded files into am Access database. Use VBA code to clean up the data. Use an Access report to print the data. All of this can be automated so that once the files have been download, open the database and the report(s) are printed! No hands!

NOTE: I use Access a lot as a report write over Crystal for things like this.

 

[lateefx]

Agree 100% on using VBA code to clean up the data in Access - and I would rather keep the data in Access as well - especially since report creation has become easier in 2007 - but Crystal Reports is still a lot more intuitive and lends itself to better report design - you can also set loads of filters on the fly and create crisp charts/graphs in Crystal Reports...a lot easier than in Access.

 

[HiTechCoach]

Crystal Reports will work with data in an Access database. You could use Access to do everything else an CR to generate the report.

 

[mark-davis]

lateefx,

I routinely use imacros to do my screen scraping and I too ran into this problem. I downloaded over 3400 sets of data in csv format. I asked Iopus several times for a solution to be able to merge the data since I needed to filter the list in its entirety. They had no real solution, unfortunately.

I ran into bulk file merger. This nice little app combined the csv files in a matter of seconds. It sure beats doing this manually. There is also a Mac version called Excel File Merger.

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

It's a remarkable stroke of luck you were passing by, Mark.