The data is only in the web page

FileToDB » Use cases » Import HTML tables

Download FileToDB Free Trial »     Buy FileToDB Now »

The situation

Some sources never offer a file. A supplier publishes a price list as a web page, a public statistics site shows a table, a report is saved as HTML, or an internal system exports "HTML" because that is what its report engine does. What you can see is a grid of cells; what you can copy is a mess of text and links.

What you do

1. Save the page (or the report) as an HTML file, or keep its address for the URL import.
2. Start an import in FileToDB and set the source type to HTML Table. Point it at the file.
3. Pick which table on the page you mean - one page often has several - and check the preview: the header row, the columns and the values as FileToDB reads them.
4. Connect to the database, choose the destination table (or let FileToDB create it from the columns), map the fields, and run.

The values arrive as data, not as markup: no <td> tags, no links pasted into the cell. Do this on a schedule with a saved session via the command line and a price list becomes a table that is updated without anyone touching a browser.

What it will not do

• It does not run JavaScript. If the table is drawn by the page's scripts, saving the page does not save the table. Take the data from a URL that returns it, or export it from the site properly.
• It does not untangle complex markup. Tables with merged cells, nested tables or a two-row header often need cleanup before the import, and the preview is where you find out.
• It creates a table, not a schema. FileToDB can create the target table from the file's columns, but only the columns - indexes, primary keys, constraints and defaults are not created for you.
• It reads the file you give it. If the page changes its layout next month, check the mapping again; the import will not notice on its own.

Related

Straight from a web address: import from a URL. One page with several tables: one file into many tables. The basic mode: file to table. A whole folder of pages: folder to table, sessions, command line.