Help Centre › Building Processes
This article describes the RPA Browser functionality to scrape table data across multiple pages.
For a full list of available functions, please read BROWSER functions.
Description
The BROWSER Scrape table data function allows you to scrape table data across multiple pages, clicking a ‘next’ button between pages to collect all data.
Setting it up
To use the BROWSER Scrape table data function, follow these instructions:
{{popups:rpas/add:action=browser-scrape}}
Once on a process map:
- Navigate to the process where you would like to add the BROWSER Scrape table data function
- Click on the green button’s drop-down (right side of the green button labelled “Process”)
- On the menu that appears, click on the “+ Activity” item
- From here you can select the BROWSER Scrape table data option
- Click "Add" once you are done
Input parameters
| Parameter | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Table element | Yes | Text | – | Selector to identify the table element to scrape. |
| Selector type | Yes | Select | XPath | Method to locate the table element. |
| Next page button | No | Text | – | XPath of the next page button. If omitted, only scrapes the current page. |
| Max pages | Yes | Number | 10 | Maximum number of pages to scrape (1–100). |
| Wait (seconds) | Yes | Number | 1 | Seconds to wait between page navigations (0–30). |
| Variable | No | Text | scrape | Variable name to store the scraped data. |
Output variables
| Variable | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | Array | A list of dictionaries, where each dictionary is a row with column headers as keys. |
Errors
| Error | Description |
|---|---|
| Browser not open | No browser session is active. |
| Element not found | The table element could not be found. |
| Not a table | The selected element is not a valid HTML table. |
Tips
- If there is no pagination, leave the next page button empty to scrape only the current page.
- Increase the wait time if the next page takes longer to load.