[dannyspencer]

Please help it would make my life so much easier!

There is a website which uses an asp database to store all the information (mini parts and pricing) i want to grab this database and make it viewable in access or excel so that i dont have to manually use the search function each time and imput data into my spreadsheet manually.

Is there anyway of possibly doing this anyone???!

Please tell me if my request is a stupid one

Dan

[drdrew1469]

first, welcome to the forum, second, not a stupid request.

now, asp is the webpage and _____ is the database, either access, sql, csv, etc.

what kind of db is it? then it will be easier to guide you through this.

drew

[drdrew1469]

also, i'm assuming you have access permissions to the directory in which the db is stored? if so, good, if not then this may be more of a 'Business Applications' question for querying online db's into access/excel.

hth,

drew

[dannyspencer]

look at this webpage.
http://www.minispares.com/

Do a search... this is the database i want to access.. (product.asp or something)

basically i want to download it to save writing down all the part numbers.

I might be way out here...

[dannyspencer]

no i dont have any kind of speacial permissions.. im just being cheeky

[dannyspencer]

or pull the part numbers from this table (and others)

https://www.minispares.com/Auth/Down...Chapter2/3.htm

[drdrew1469]

well...you might be...this isn't your site is it? lol it looks as though this site does not want you to do that, they are already trying to 'hide' code and Search runs another file that queries the db, so even if you knew the db name and type, i'm willing to bet they are checking which page the request came from so you trying to d/l it, chances are the server would just turn you away anyhow...

drew

[drdrew1469]

sorry, can't get to that page, it wants me to login, you're most likely s.o.l. on this

drew

[dannyspencer]

is there anyway i can "import" the data from tables like this: https://www.minispares.com/Auth/Down...Chapter2/3.htm

... into an excel sheet without having to copy and paste a million times? i think i have seen it done somehow before??

[drdrew1469]

Originally Posted by drdrew1469

sorry, can't get to that page, it wants me to login, you're most likely s.o.l. on this

drew

still can't get to it, lol.

drew

[Rockn]

You can create a query in ASP and output the results to an Excel spreadsheed directly from a web page. It is actually a CSV file named with an .xls extension but it works.

[drdrew1469]

hey, Rockn, you sparked my interests here, so explain this to me too. How can this be done if the query is checking for a referring page (most likely a form post), as well as wanting a customer login to view the tables? I imagine there is security setup on this site that doesn't allow this, and with it not being his website, how does he "get around this"...asp or not it just doesn't seem very accessible? one of my sites has a search/filter feature like this and without knowing the db name/type and having security to access it directly, how could I do this because it display no data unless the referring page requests it. I guess you could trick the request into thinking that it was a valid request, but you'd still have to know the db field names and proper values, ie an asp post where the results are based on user criteria.

thanks,

drew

[Rockn]

Yea, I was under the impression this was his site and he would be able to add a script on the server to process a query on it and make the Excel file. There is also the option to do web queries in Excel that will process tables on a given web page and you can manipulte the data that way.

[GCDude]

as its not your site, the only option to automate this is probably to write yourself a crawler, however you have the problem of trying to work out which pages you need to crawl, the format would be something like: - http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?pid=37760, however u dont know all the product ids to visit. I guess you could crawl the categories (http://www.minispares.com/Shop.aspx?ccid=5) and then build up a list of pids, but not all pids are listed under each category (multiple pages).

How many products do they have? You might be better cutting and pasting, lol.