Constitute and manage directories of links or query strings.
Allows you to constitute and manage directories of links, strings and URL generation matrices, in order to perform search and extraction tasks from multiple sources, in a single process.
The query directory manager is located on the left side of the window and the directory content editor on the right.
Send To Queries... In all datasheet panels, the right-click menu allows to send Link(s) or Cell(s) to any existing directory of the queries view or to create a new directory with the selection. Sending a cell or a multiple selection of cells means sending the content of the selected cell(s) in the selected column. Sending a Link or a multiple selection of Links to the queries means that the first URL (ignoring the Source URL) of every selected row will be stored in the Query String column. If no link is found in the row, no Query String will be created for this row.
When you open a text file (File>Open) which only contains well formed URLs, the program will propose to send them directly to the queries view, using the name of the file for the new directory.
You can also populate queries using drag and drop:
- on a directory name in the manager, the content will be added to the directory;
- in the empty part of the manager or on the 'New' button, a new directory will be created with the dropped content;
- in the directory content, the content will be inserted in the directory, at the drop point.
If you want to type or paste the queries manually:
- Create a new directory by clicking on the 'New' button,
- either: right-click on the right part of the screen and select 'Insert Row' to enter one URL, or 'Insert Rows' to generate a series of queries,
- or: right-click on the right part of the screen and select 'Edit>Paste' or use the shortcut (crtl-V for Windows and Linux, cmd-V for Mac) to paste URLs that you have copied from any other application,
- Then, to edit a cell, just double-click on it.
In the Expert & Enterprise editions, you can generate query directories directly from a scraper, using the #sendToQueries# directive.
If you right-click on the name of a query directory in the manager (left side), the contextual menu allows you to:
Double-clicking on the name of a query directory allows you rename it.
To use a directory of URLs, you can either select the URLs you want, right-click on one of them and choose an Auto-Explore function, or refer to it in a macro, using 'queries/YourDirectoryName' in the Start Page field of the macro editor.
Note that, depending on the preference setting, double-clicking on a URL may take you to the Page view and load the URL. If you do not like this behavior, you can change the preference. You can also edit the cell by right-clicking on it and choosing 'Edit Cell'.