WinInet - Just want to verify it will do what I want

Started by jtrask, April 16, 2015, 11:46:03 AM

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jtrask

There is a web page I access that has links to other pages (obviously) that each play an .MP3.  On these pages, there is a link that I right-click on to Save target as.  There's also information I want to retrieve from each page that I will use to name the .MP3 file as well as enter as metadata.

I've never used the WinInet extender, so I just wanted to make sure it will do what I want before it turns into a lot of wasted time.

td

The WinInet extender can do what you describe but as with any attempt at Web automation that doesn't rely on the web services APIs there are caveats.  So nothing can be guaranteed.   It all depends on how the site is implemented.   

Your other alternative is using COM objects like the IE browser object or the MSXML object.  The advantage of using the extender is that it is less vulnerable to both OS and IE changes than IE.  However, the extenders learning curve is likely steeper.   

You might want to look as the various Web scraping examples and tutorials on our Tech Database site (link is at the top of this forum) to get some idea of what is involved.     

One of the many articles on the subject can be found here

http://techsupt.winbatch.com/webcgi/webbatch.exe?techsupt/nftechsupt.web+Tutorials+Working~With~Web~Pages.txt
"No one who sees a peregrine falcon fly can ever forget the beauty and thrill of that flight."
  - Dr. Tom Cade

jtrask

Thank you.  That's exactly what I needed to know.