Date:         Mon, 28 Jun 2004 12:45:50 -0500
Reply-To:     Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Subject:      Re: Interacting with the web
Comments: To: lpogodajr292185@COMCAST.NET
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I had a similar problem, and ended up using VBA to automate the
extraction.  I had a series of 7 web pages I wanted to read into a SAS
data set.  I used Excel VBA to open IE, navigate to the page, fill in
the form, submit the form, and save the results to a CSV file.  My SAS
program then reads the CSV file.

This works only in MS Office, but there are probably similar
capabilities on other platforms.




--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Manager, Technical Development
Metrics Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA

>>> Lou <lpogodajr292185@COMCAST.NET> 06/26/2004 5:46 PM >>>
I need to regularly get data via the web.  To do so, it's necessary to
call
up a particular url, log in the a user name and password, click on an
entry
in a drop down menu  to choose a role (eg data entry or administrator,
etc),
fill in some parameter information in a couple of text boxes, and click
on a
"Go" button.

This initiates an extract operation on the remote server, ultimately
resulting in a bunch of spreadsheet files that can then be saved to
the
local workstation.

The whole thing is dull and repetitious and what's worse, time
consuming.
Any suggestions on how to automate the operation would be more than
welcome.

Thanks
Lou