Web Browsing Automation¶

Once the input parameters have been defined, the next step in our example is to configure the process so that the wrapper knows how to browse to the list of the user e-mails. To do so, the system must know how to access the main page of the e-mail application, enter the user login and password values and any other type of additional browsing until the first page of results is accessed.

In ITPilot, the browsing tasks are primarily carried out by the Sequence component. This component is intrinsically related to the Navigation Sequence Generation Tool, which will be described in depth in section Generating Navigation Sequences. This tool enables users to generate the sequence graphically, without having to know the specific details about how to use the internal language NSEQL (described on the ITPilot NSEQL Guide).

To add the Sequence component to the workspace you can drag the Sequence component, , from the “Components” tab in the browsing area or use the “New component” option from the work area contextual menu. The Sequence component is displayed in the workspace. The default name and the component output variable can be modified in the component’s contextual menu. The output of a Sequence component is a page. In our example, we choose the name InitialSeq for the component name and INITSEQOUTPUT for the output variable.

Now link the initial component to the sequence component to start creating the process flow. To do so, as indicated in Connecting components, click with the left-hand button of the mouse on the initialization component square connector and, without releasing the mouse button, drag it to the sequence component input port (round in shape). Release the mouse to see the connection between both components.

A faster way to insert and connect components in the workspace is available by using component contextual menus. For instance, you can also create and connect the new Sequence component by using the ‘Insert After’ option in the contextual menu of the Initialization component.

Connecting components¶