Selecting data from a website

In this section we cover how to select data from a website, this is done on the website screen of the editor.

Step 1. Select a new or empty column

To select data on the website screen, let us first select a new column. To learn how to create, delete, and remove columns click here. You can select existing columns by clicking them in the bar at the top of the extractor or by using the right and left arrows at either end of the bar.

Step 2. Selecting the desired data

To select data we use the mouse, if you move around the webpage you will notice that pink boxes appear wherever the mouse hovers. This pink box is what data will be selected if we left click with the mouse.

For example in this BBC news article I have clicked the title and thus it has gone into the new column. You can clear the selected data by clicking the clear button at the bottom of the column.

Step 3. Selecting multiple data points

In list pages you may wish to select multiple items in the same column. You do this simply by clicking additional pieces of information, as shown in this example below where multiple hotels have been selected at the same time.

It is worth noting that Import.io will notice when you are making multiple selections and add on similar items, these are shown by the green boxes. If you don't want the green boxes you have to unselect them.

Step 4. Unselecting data.

To unselect a single piece of data left click the bold pink box and it will unselect that data. Alternatively if you wish to get rid of all the information click the clear data button at the bottom of the column. To show this let us consider a before and after:

before

after

Alternatively if you wish to get rid of all the information, click the clear data button circled at the bottom of the column.

Step 5. Add and repeat

Once you have selected the data you want for this column you can start the process over again with a new column. Continue the process until you have collected all the data you want.

Side note: Selecting links

If you select data, which contains a link, this box will appear:

If you select yes, when you download the data. The URL of the link will also be collected as part of your data set.

You can clear the selected data by clicking the clear button at the bottom of the column or delete that column entirely in the same section.

After selecting the data and saving, you can run your extractor.