Download an excel from a website

Help
1

Hi,

Does anyone have a sample for downloading of excel from a website? thx.

2

Hello,

This will differ site-to-site, but not sure whats scenario you are trying, can you share more info like which website you are trying to? what all the steps you tried till now?

Thanks,
Meg

4

Hi @megharajky,

It’s on a compay website. Say, suppose I have a link that when clicked will open an excel. How could I download this report instead of manually open and download. Thanks!

5

@Kindergarden,

if you have export to excel button then automate that else if it has only the link then you can automate the clicking on the link and then save as to the respective directory

6

Thanks @srishsai. Do you have a sample for me to study ? I have attached the picture of the link when it is clicked so that you could know what I am looking for. I am not sure if this is simple or complex but I find it challenging.

Captur1e
Captur1e1401×274 32.1 KB

7

can you share the link for the url from where you are trying to download?

8

Thanks @VirajN. The link is from the company website. So it will not be accessible until i login in. I am assuming i login which we have to anyway everyday. Then run the project which will download the excel file. Iam not sure if this is easy. Otherwise, I am ok to have other considerations.

I know we could scrap data from website and download to excel. I have tried that. But have not tried scraping data from excel though.

Any alternatives will be most welcome. Basically, I want to have the excel output instead of user doing it manually. Thanks!

9

Would it be safe to assume that you perform the below mentioned steps to download the file manually?

  1. Open the website.
  2. Click the link which will open the excel.
  3. Click on save file locally.
10

Yes @VirajN. If the link could be input into the activity then I suppose I do not need to open the website when I run. Becis when we login to our account the rights would enable us to launch any of the web apps. Thanks !

1 Like
11

@Kindergarden,

you can try using open browser and provide the link into that as input
then you can click on open in an excel using click activity
if you are new to uipath then you can also use recording which is there in uipath
Web recording

12

Thanks @srishsai.

To summarise for me to explore, there are 2 methods right ?

method 1

  • open browser and provide the link into that as input
  • clck activity and choose 'Open in an excel"

method 2

  • recording
1 Like
13

Hi @srishsai,

I am not able to find ‘click on open in an excel using click activity’.

Instead, I tried the following but downloaded excel doesn’t have any rows.

  • Open Browser
  • Excel Application Scope
  • Save Workbook

ANy advice? Is it because the excel is displayed on a webpage and not a true excel ?

Thanks!

14

@Kindergarden ,

you can use either data scraping for the data you want it into excel or you also can use click activity on the open in an excel

15

Hi @srishsai,

I actually considered data scraping before.

As the excel is displayed on website when the url is launched, there is no arrow button to indicate next page. As such, the rows saved as output is only limited to first page. Because on the website, the excel needs scrolling down to see more rows, and not like typical data where one would click next for page2, page3 etc.

Any other advice as I wonder why downloading file is not made easy in UIPath? Thanks!

16

Where you able to resolve this issue? If yes, do you might sharing how you did it?

17

Hi @VirajN,

I used web recording to click on the website, then simulate open excel and download into specified directory.

3 Likes
18

oh thats cool, i am glad that your issue was resolved :slight_smile: