Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
Downloading HTML files
#338781 02/17/11 12:58 AM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
devotee
OP Offline
devotee
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
OK, MS operating system gurus, I've got an odd one for you.

I've Google'd until I'm blue in the face, and have read all manner of seemingly related stuff that naturally turned out to be unrelated.

Here's the deal. I'm trying to do some number Krunchin' by scraping data from web sites. I was supplied two with html files which were downloaded from the same web page: one using IE8 on Win7, the other using IE8 on XP.

The XP derived file is about 30k. The Win7 file is about 50k, and is full of stuff that makes it practically impossible to get the data out for mere mortals.

Does anyone have any idea why they're different, and more importantly, how to get the usable XP format out of a Win 7 box, as that's key to keeping this analysis system running in the future.

I've spent hours on this over the last few days, and would really appreciate any pointers to concrete answers, or of course, answers themselves.

Switch browsers doesn't seem to help, BTW. Tried that. Several times.

Re: Downloading HTML files
Kruncher #338784 02/17/11 01:04 AM
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,466
connoisseur
Offline
connoisseur
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,466
When you're in the Save As... dialog box, change the Save as type to: Webpage, HTML only.


Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris
Re: Downloading HTML files
Kruncher #338785 02/17/11 01:04 AM
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 18,044
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 18,044
What command was used to get the file out of the browser? Edit->View Source or File->Save? If Save, which of the two html options?


I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
Re: Downloading HTML files
Ken.C #338787 02/17/11 01:10 AM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
devotee
OP Offline
devotee
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
File, Save as, Webpage HTML only. I believe.

I got two HTM files, no other folders.

Re: Downloading HTML files
Kruncher #338796 02/17/11 01:22 AM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840
Likes: 13
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840
Likes: 13
Often for file type you will have an option for HTML Webpage Complete, or just HTML Only. The complete one will have more content. You should have a drop down when you do a save-as to select various options like mht, html, etc.


M80s VP180 4xM22ow 4xM3ic EP600 2xEP350
AnthemAVM60 Outlaw7700 EmoA500 Epson5040UB FluanceRT85


Re: Downloading HTML files
SirQuack #338832 02/17/11 03:38 AM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
devotee
OP Offline
devotee
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
I've confirmed the save process with the sender:
File, Save as, Webpage HTML only.

Further, my own testing on a Win 7 system generated a Webpage Complete file of 59,033 bytes while the "HTML only" save version was 59,258 bytes for the same page. No, that's not a typo or reversed values.

This is the strangest thing...

Re: Downloading HTML files
Kruncher #338838 02/17/11 04:02 AM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840
Likes: 13
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840
Likes: 13
Not sure this would help, but have you tried the MHT option?

"Saving in this format allows users to save a web page and its resources as a single MHTML file called a "Web Archive", where all images and linked files will be saved as a single entity."


M80s VP180 4xM22ow 4xM3ic EP600 2xEP350
AnthemAVM60 Outlaw7700 EmoA500 Epson5040UB FluanceRT85


Re: Downloading HTML files
SirQuack #338839 02/17/11 04:16 AM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
devotee
OP Offline
devotee
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
Unfortunately that format is not really an option Randy.

The end goal is to use software either from Iopus or similar in function to it, to scrape data from literally hundreds of web pages to create a mini data mart. Other software will be used to capture the specific data values from the individual downloaded pages, and mht doesn't play nicely with that. For example, there will be a title of "2008-09" that appears in the browser, but the string "2008-09" can't be found in the mht file.

Re: Downloading HTML files
SirQuack #338842 02/17/11 04:24 AM
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 16,441
shareholder in the making
Offline
shareholder in the making
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 16,441
MHT would be more or less useless for scraping data. What you want is a simple file readable by any text editor.

Have you tried using Firefox? It has a very convenient option in the Save As box that allows you to save the web page as a text file. This will strip out all the scripts and non-visible portions of the web page and give you only what's actually displayed on the screen. For an example page I just visited, the file sizes for raw html (full page source code) and the text file version were 229K and 82K, respectively.

May I ask what you want to use to scrape these files?

Re: Downloading HTML files
pmbuko #338847 02/17/11 04:34 AM
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
devotee
OP Offline
devotee
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 484
I tried FF with the same poor result a few days ago Peter. I know that the browswer must play a role, after all it's the software that's being used to create the file.

But when I used FF 3.6 to download from http://some-arbitrary-site.com, I got a larger .htm file using a Win 7 system than I did when I used FF 3.6 **for the exact same page** on my Vista box. WTF? Seriously! I know... I didn't buy it either when it was presented to me as the challenge in the first place.

As to the data scraper to be used on the downloaded files, Monarch is the tool of choice.

EDIT: Hold that thought. I didn't realize that I'd been using IE7 on my Vista box. Still, why would downloading the HTML file with one version of a browser, any browser (but in this case say IE), be different? Shouldn't the HTML be dictacted purely by the source - the site in question? Or are content management systems sending out entirely different HTML based on the browser in use at the client side? I think I'm getting warm now...

Last edited by Kruncher; 02/17/11 04:49 AM. Reason: As noted
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  alan, Amie, Andrew, axiomadmin, Brent, Debbie, Ian, Jc 

Link Copied to Clipboard

Need Help Graphic

Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics24,940
Posts442,457
Members15,616
Most Online2,082
Jan 22nd, 2020
Top Posters
Ken.C 18,044
pmbuko 16,441
SirQuack 13,840
CV 12,077
MarkSJohnson 11,458
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 145 guests, and 4 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newsletter Signup
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.4