Screen Scraping

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Separating the Web Wheat From The Chaff: Top Four Myths of Screen-Scraping Decoded!

De facto standards for user interfaces have changed with time as modern Application Modernization Solution, Screen Scraping, grabs the limelight.

Picture this for a moment: This is the first day of your job. You have been newly appointed as a claims officer at an insurance firm or even a customer service manager in a reputed bank.

And then…

Your supervisor impromptly asks you to learn business-analytical computer application, green-scraping (or text based) solution.

Oh … How unappealing, difficult and intimidating – we can imagine!

Green-screens have been a universal business problem and so 1980s technologically speaking.
After all, how can your organisation stay competitive if it requires you to learn green-screens in say three weeks’ time?

Today, replacing tedious green-screen method, host-based applications, such as screen scraping are reliable and secure enough to deliver information in a timely, modern and flexible way.

What are the advantages in Screen Scraping:

Screen scraping software helps to comb through tons and hundreds of websites and process it in order to infer the data into an ‘easy to utlitise’ excel format. The application mines the data across the internet, and all you have to do is sit back and relax. Also,

1. You can integrate Windows-based apps with a mainframe by making use of screen scraping software. In a session with LoginWorks Software, you can send the data and gain insights from specific locations on the screen using screen scraping.

2. Advanced screen scraping software with HTML lets you interact with mainframe programs at your scheduled time, as if it were a linked terminal. It can be accessed whether from the web or from the traditional IT server application.

3. The top-brass statisticians automate the whole process in order to uncover where the premium content resides, digging the information and uniting it with the data to generate a content feed, which contains robust data, such as user guides, videos, and high-resolution pictures.

However, having listed the advantages, one cannot entirely ignore the buzz in the IT and technology world regarding the negative connotations attached to screen scraping. A few of them even consider it as a quick fix and uncoordinated way of developing applications or services. On the other hand, if one considers modern application and modernised technology, a screen scraping tool can solve business and technology problems at-large.

Decoding Top Four Myths of Screen Scraping

Myth #1: Screen scraping and Web data extraction are synonymous to each other.

Here, one needs to understand that screen scraping is the procedure to extract data by making use of scripts and applications that are in close proximity to how a human would view a website using a browser. Web data extraction, on the other hand, goes much more beyond web or screen scraping. Screen scraping gets hold of unstructured data and transforms it into an actionable insight for the business and technology processes, business intelligence systems and big data applications. Screen scraping can excerpt case-specific, desired data by accessing websites in a quick manner and monitor millions of web points, accurately.

Myth #2: Screen scraping is a maintenance nightmare for the IT and technology department.

Even though this myth is well-earned, it does not hold any truth for the modernisation tool in screen scraping. Gone are the days when while using traditional screen scraping solutions the developer had to identify and react to the live screens for development and host application changes. Today, the modern application screens and corresponding GUIs are synchronised in such a way that regular and at-the-moment maintenance becomes a highly organised and automated process. Now, developers can efficiently gain screen maps, host field information and obtain subsequent updates to screen identifications.

An effective modernization solution gives you visibility into your project.

Myth #3: Screen scraping is a scalable tool.

One has to understand that the most difficult challenge in screen scraping is the quick dismissal of web data. Manual or homegrown approached generally view webpages’ source code in complete isolation, hence it automatically becomes the duty of the programmer to align navigation across a different variety of pages with a target website. It is only when you make use of automated data extraction and monitoring solutions that you can be well equipped with the ability to scale more quickly and efficaciously.

LOGINWORKS SOFTWARES, for example, has mastered the art of navigating a website and interpreting and extracting data from that website. They can promptly bypass unwanted links to create a lighter load footprint on targeted websites. Equipped with the ability to monitor millions of well-defined data points, our current modernisation solution prosperously implements the client’s GUI interface.

Customized interfaces give the statistician the same insight and host information with a far more improved functionality.

Myth #4: Web scrapers produce usable data every single time. It is a fool-proof process.

Sadly, no! This is because, with sea-full of websites present, screen scraping extracts data in a variety of from that doesn’t mix too well. One needs to understand that automated web data extraction goes beyond web scraping. It involves a host of myriad variety of back-end processes to ensure that the resulting data can be insightfully used. This data can be further used by accessing formats, such as XML, .csv files, JSON and other formats depending upon the requirements.

Get Acquainted With our Web Data Extraction Services and Opt For Our Seamless Screen-Based Modernization and Integration.
Still weary of the developmental hurdles and quality of the result while using screen scraping? We are certain that LOGINWORKS SOFTWARES will change your perception. Whatever your host-based application might be – OpenVM, mainframe, System i, UNIX-VT platform or OpenVMS – be rest assured to give your business a leading edge with our Screen Scraping Services.

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