
Want to scrape bulk data without getting blocked?
Want to scrape bulk data without getting blocked?
Since technology continues to evolve at a lightening pace, it also quickly becomes obsolete!
This is precisely why a lot of software and applications can be difficult to maintain after a period of time.
It may seem like a minor issue but guess what, it is a costly affair!
Businesses world over spend billions or even trillions of dollars on IT. Take the case of 2017, businesses spent $ 3.5 trillion on IT. Out of this, $1.3 trillion would be on enterprise software and IT services. You can rest assured that the figures of 2018 would surely be higher than this!
However, a lot of these resources are used in simply keeping things functional. In other words, large sums are spent on maintaining the existing enterprise applications critical for the businesses. A big price to be paid!
As an alternative, there are businesses migrate their legacy applications to cloud and containers. This could give them an edge in making things cost-effective.
In any case, legacy systems can become a cause of concern for a variety of reasons. To maintain, to support or to integrate them with the new applications can be a tough task. Since the legacy systems belong to the old architecture, it may even become impossible to do so.
Fortunately, there is screen scraping that can allow new applications to interact with the legacy applications. This can enable you to make sure your legacy applications and data are accessible to new applications!
You might wonder what is screen scraping, so we will explore it a bit before we discuss its application.
Screen scraping, in its original sense, meant the exercise of reading text data from a computer terminal screen.
In its current form, screen scraping is a piece of programming that mediates between legacy application programs and the modern user interfaces. It is designed to interact with the outdated devices and interfaces so that legacy programs can still be functional and what they contain in the form of logic and data can still be utilized.
Instead of extracting/crawling data from where it is stored on the database or data files, why screen scraping is important is because it gets the data from where it is displayed – the screen. It scrapes the data that was meant for the user compared to the data that is intended for another application or database.
Consider for a moment the case of Banking Sector to arrive at greater clarity regarding screen scraping. In this context, it is required to transfer the data from the legacy desktop CRM to the web-based CRM solution.
You have to bear in mind that this is hugely sensitive data and hence complete accuracy is mandated in this exercise.
Since legacy CRM does not offer any API for transfer or migration of data, it is not possible to use API integration method.
This is where screen scraping can be a great help!
Why screen scraping technology is extremely useful is because it can pull the data from the CRM through OCR engine and store into the database with commendable accuracy.
Moreover, this is done without any need to modify the application, without accessing their source code or without an API!
At times, some people might wonder if screen scraping is the same as web scraping. Some people don’t wonder but use the terms interchangeably!
They don’t stand for the same thing but due to this widespread misconception, it
may be quite confusing for some to distinguish the two.
Therefore, it would be great to set it right, wouldn’t it?
Here’s the way you can understand the difference between the two:
Screen scraping | Web Scraping |
---|---|
Screen Scraping is basically a process of using a program to pull the data from the screen of an application | Web scraping, on the other hand, is about different techniques, largely automated, to extract data from the web. |
Screen scraping is useful in scraping the data from SAP, MS office etc. applications used in desktop. | Web scraping is useful in scraping data from websites like Amazon, ebay, airbnb etc. |
Screen scraping has its application in various functions such as enterprise application integration, content migration, desktop analytics, business process automation, legacy modernization solutions and mobile enablement of desktop apps. | Web scraping is applied in price intelligence, market research, sentiment analysis, brand monitoring, data journalism etc. |
Screen scraping techniques allow you to pull data from the display output of an application.
There are four techniques that you can use for screen scrapping:
Wherever you cannot directly access application interfaces through UI frameworks or code, screen scraping comes to your rescue!
To list the possible uses may be difficult, but here are a few areas in which there is significant application of screen scraping:
1. Enterprise application integration
2. Desktop analytics
3. Legacy modernization solutions
Now we come down to the tools that you can use for screen scraping. Listed below are some of the major screen scraping tools or services which can make screen scraping easier and hassle-free.
UiPath Studio offers a comprehensive screen scraper solution that enables you to pull the data you need from any application in a matter of minutes.
Features:
Jacada Integration and Automation (JIA) is a reliable option for effective data integration, desktop automation and screen scraping for your Windows and Web applications.
Existek is unique for the way it can develop custom screen scraping software to take care of your respective, unique business challenges.
Feature: Provides custom solution
Why Macro Schedule is popular is because it offers a lot of tools like Macro Recorder, Macro Editor, Code Wizards, Screen Object Recognition etc. which can automate things that get displayed on the screen.
Features:
ScreenScraper is a preferred tool for the reason that it is used to develop apps or scripts which can scrape text from displayed on the screen. It also serves to automate the UI of other apps.
Features
Sobolsoft is unique as it provides a solution to users who have the need to extract data from textboxes and buttons within Windows programs running on the computer.
Features:
To sum it up, screen scraping is essential for legacy applications to extend their operations. Screen scraping allows legacy applications to continue to function and remain operational. Businesses need screen scraping for a variety of reasons discussed in this blog.
In case, you need to go for screen scraping, you can explore the tools and services mentioned in this blog.
In case you have already used screen scraping, it would be great to learn about your experience of using different screen scraping techniques and tools.
We would be happy to know more about the challenges you faced and how you overcame the same. All you need to do is to share your thoughts in the comments section.
Do let us know what you think about screen scraping as well as this blog!