Screen Scraper Freezes During Routine Save of Session
I am having some big trouble with my Screen-Scraper software. I build a package and the scraping runs just fine. However, when i try to save the session SS freezes. I have to actually kill the job (Task Manager won't do it - only KillProcess works).
It always seems to save the stuff, but this is kind of frustrating.
Any ideas?
Saving problem annoyance
I am running as administrator,
I have the server stopped.
windows 2003 server.
Almost EVERY single time I cannot save, I have to kill the process and restart. Frequently this results in corrupting of the database and when the server is restarted it cannot find any scraping sessions. What gives guys? I paid a lot of money for a product that seems very buggy and doesnt work properly. I am getting properly fed up with this behaviour. I am seriously thinking about writing something for myself because this jsut seems to have too many problems in design
Must be magic
Hey I thought an update would be good.
It appears that simply posting a problem on this forum fizxes stuff.
Magically this save issue just stopped happening.
Go figure.
did you happen to be running
did you happen to be running the server daemon at the same time? I've noticed this issue. If it happens again try stopping the server, when I do this the workbench magically comes back to life.
I've also noticed another oddity the other way around. If I start the workbench then start and stop the server a couple of times, the workbench loses it's connection to the database so I have to restart it. If I reboot the PC it won't happen for a while but once it's happened once the behaviour is consistent until I reboot the pc again. Even I kill all the java processes. So it's a good habit to get into to save all your work in the workbench if you're going to restart the server because it's a pain having to export everything and reimport.
didn't cut and paste very well lets try this
~@hoteladdress@~
~@hotelcitystate@~~@IGNORE@~
• ~@hotelstar@~
or this (new browser as SS is not IE friendly)
~@hoteladdress@~
~@hotelcitystate@~~@IGNORE@~
• ~@hotelstar@~
Pertitent info
I am running professional verison 4.5
The session doe sin fact write csv files and that is working just fine. Honestly the saving thing is only one of the problems. I tried exporting and it works no problem. I am on vista and am running with admin privileges. It is vista for business versino if that helps.
on a side note (probably a different forum topic), but I have a script that literally needas to be re-written every time I open it. If I make even a time change, the entire thing stops working.
For example:
I use this extratcor pattern (generated from the last repsonse) and get results.
~@IGNORE@~
~@hotelname@~~@hoteladdress@~
~@hotelcitystate@~~@IGNORE@~
• ~@hotelstar@~
Rooms From: ~@hotelraterange@~~@IGNORE@~
However, this one (the old version before i changed the name of to hotelname) does not work
~@IGNORE@~
~@hname@~~@hoteladdress@~
~@hotelcitystate@~~@IGNORE@~
• ~@hotelstar@~
Rooms From: ~@hotelraterange@~~@IGNORE@~
I did a character match and other than hotlename vs hname they are identical. If I chage the first one again I have to literally rebuild it to change anything.
What gives? I love this tool, but an find more and more than it is a "single" use extract tool. Anything I want to do recurring more often results in me starting from scratch.
-jim
jmrozell2, What version &
jmrozell2,
What version & edition of screen-scraper are you running (i.e. basic 3.0, professional 4.0, enterprise 4.5.12)? Also, what operating system are you running? If you're running Vista, did you by chance need to right-click and choose "Run as Administrator..." either when you installed screen-scraper the first time and/or when you open the workbench? If not, try doing so when you open the workbench and see if the problem persists.
Are you able to export your scraping session prior to attempting to save? File > Export.
Does your scraping session involve either reading from or writing to a file on your system (eg. a CSV file)? If not, create a test scraping session and a small test script. Run your script "Before scraping session begins". Have your script use Interpretive Java and contain the following code.
File file = new File( outputFile );
out = new FileWriter( outputFile, true );
out.write("testing, testing");
out.close();
Now, check your screen-scraper installation directory (for example c:\Program Files\screen-scraper enterprise edition\) for the test.txt file. Open that file to see if the words "testing, testing" are there.
-Scott