Special Configurations And Arguments For Visual Web Ripper – Input Parameters

By Author: Tracy Morgan
Total Articles: 20
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Changing default parameters can be a challenge with some data extraction or web scraping programs. That is not the case with Visual Web Ripper. Once parameters are set, the others insist either a new project be made or that all input parameters remain static. In the real world, that is not how it works and there are many reasons a person might want to change certain parameters when a project runs. The simplest example might be the custom script that writes to a shared database.
Let’s say you have set up a shared database. By default, the script opens that database and establishes a connection whenever called to write to a database rather than to a local file. That may work fine for one project writing to a specific database, but not everyone uses the same database for every project.
Input parameters can be used together with a project initialization script to change any parameter that has a default value. That applies not only to a shared database connection but also to any field that has a default value. Currently however, input parameters can’t be set with projects set to run with the scheduler.
You ...
... can change any number of parameters with the script, and if you do not supply a new value for a parameter, the default will be used. Running projects off the command line allows you to set any number of parameters you choose and even add new parameters.
For instance with the database connection, should you want the database server changed but the password and username to remain the same you would only supply a parameter for the desired server. The Visual Web Ripper uses the default values for any other necessary information. Almost any defined element might be changed in a project using an input parameter initialization script.
In some cases, changing the name of a form or an input might be desirable and these too can be set with the input parameter. This allows you to use defaults where necessary or desirable and yet change any element in the project you desire.
Running initialization scripts for a project does require some scripting knowledge however; it transforms an already powerful tool into an incredibly versatile tool that can handle almost any changes necessary with the minimum input. Rather than writing a full extraction program each time you need to run a project, you simply change only what is necessary and leave the rest at default.
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