gnucash-user Digest, Vol 135, Issue 17

Maf. King maf at chilwell.net
Wed Jun 18 16:37:16 EDT 2014


On Wed 18 June 14 14:49:59 Glenn Bergmann wrote:
> I am using Windows 7 and gnuCash version 2.4.13.  I use finance.yahoo.com
> very frequently for information.  I don't understand "scraping the screens"
> and the update to "access the new website screens" procedures.  Could you
> send me the link to find them?
> 

Hi Glenn,

"Screen Scraping" is a term which means that the software downloads the 
webpage designed for a human to read (HTML file) and looks for a certain 
pattern to grab the required information from.

If the website layout or wording change, then the "screen scraper" program 
can't find the target information.  Hence the module must be updated to match 
the new HTML layout.  Of course, these changes usually happen to websites 
without any warning, so it is only when a user posts to a list "my quotes 
stopped working" that the changes and update can be published.

HTH,
Maf.



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