Building a List using UBot Studio is an easy task. In essence, you need to provide the right attribute of the data being extracted and then tell it what attribute you want to add to your list.
Now a list can be as simple as grouping of names or even websites. So if it looks like a list to you then it is probably a list.
Even though I can make building a list a simple task there is some analytical thought put into it.
For instance, if you are trying to extract a list and that particular list the items are all hyperlinked then you need to make sure there are distinctions between these links and the other links that may reside on the same page.
If you do not make that distinction then you could end up with more data in your list than you intended.
While it does help to be literate in HTML tags it is really not required. I typically compare those links with each other in notepad or using FireBug or even Inspect Element.
What I am looking for is a common item, attribute or element that relates my data to each other and yet keeps it different from the other objects on the web page.
Most of the time these items are "name=", "id=" or even "class=". I will also use what is to the right of the equal sign.
Once I have identified that attribute then I use the "choose by attribute" node. The next node I will add is the "add to list".
Knowing that I will run this script multiple times I need to add a "clear list" node in the first position. This will always set the list variable null. Not doing this will cause the list to grow and grow.
My fourth step is to add a variable using the "set" node and then I add the function node "$list total". When this is executed it will show the total of items that my list contains.
Finally, I need to know that total so I will add a "ui stat monitor". This will add that total value to my environment so that I can visually see how many items I extracted.
As you can see creating a bot is not all that difficult. There are a few commands which take getting used to but overall this is a very rich application and easy to learn.
Source by Buddy Shearer
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