How do nested loops work? Can you show me
How do nested loops work? Can you show me
Unveiling the Power of Nested Loops in Automation
Are you ready to elevate your automation game by unraveling the magic of nested loops? In this blog post, we'll delve into the intricacies of using loops in automation, specifically focusing on how to effectively navigate through repetitive tasks with finesse and efficiency.
Understanding the Basics
To kickstart our journey into the realm of nested loops, let's first grasp the fundamental concept of utilizing loops in automation. Imagine a scenario where you need to perform a series of repetitive actions on a webpage. This is where loops come into play, enabling you to automate tasks that involve iterating over elements and executing a set of operations for each element.
Setting the Stage
Our automation adventure begins with the initiation of a new recording, paving the way for seamless execution. As we embark on scraping data from a website, the essence lies in clicking through listings, extracting details, and progressing to the next set of elements.
Unveiling the Technique
The crux of our automation strategy revolves around the strategic use of scrape list steps and loop steps. By identifying elements on the webpage and looping over them systematically, we can ensure comprehensive data extraction and seamless navigation through the automation process.
Crafting the Automation Workflow
As we progress through the automation workflow, each step unfolds with precision and purpose. From selecting scrape list items to executing loop iterations, every action is meticulously designed to optimize efficiency and accuracy in data extraction.
Overcoming Challenges with Precision
While navigating through the intricacies of automation, one must remain vigilant of potential challenges, such as redirections or dynamic page elements. By strategically incorporating back steps and meticulous planning, we can circumvent obstacles and ensure a smooth automation flow.
Embracing the Iterative Process
The beauty of nested loops lies in their ability to iterate through a sequence of actions seamlessly. By automating repetitive tasks and refining the loop logic, we can streamline processes and enhance productivity in automation workflows.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the utilization of nested loops in automation offers a powerful framework for executing repetitive tasks with precision and efficiency. By mastering the art of loop iterations and strategic planning, automation enthusiasts can unlock a realm of possibilities in streamlining workflows and optimizing data extraction processes.
Embark on your automation journey today and harness the transformative power of nested loops to elevate your automation prowess like never before!
Video
Steps
Step 1- Go to Web and click on it
Step 2- Click on URL and go to the web browser page
Step 3-Click on the + Icon
Step 4-Click on Scrape a list
Step 5- Select the specific text to add in Column A
Step 6-Click on Loop Icon for Loop step
Step 7-Click on Green + icon for next loop
Step 8- Click on the Click a pop up option
Step 9- Select the specific text and then confirm
Step 10-Click on green + Icon- Click on Scrape Then we can add all the elements to loop the step
Step 11- Now just click on play button to run the automation
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
So to use loop in an automation, I'm going to start a new recording. And then for this one, I don't need to use cookies or anything, any Chrome profiles, but if you needed to, you could click that yes, I am button and go through the cookie setup. Uh, my automation specifically is not going to need that. So I'm going to go to inquentra24.
com, which is the website that I'm scraping. Oh, that's the loom that I had open. Whoops. Let me edit that. Okay. Now we're at the website. I'm scraping. And what I want to do is I want to click each listing in here, and then I want to scrape some details from it before I go back and move on to the next one.
So to do this, what we first have to start with is a scrape list step, which is going to allow us to find all of the elements on the page we want to loop over. So I'll click the plus icon and then scrape a list. And then I'm going to click the first result. And then the second result, and we'll see that this found 15 items, which is how many are on the page.
Then I'll click confirm. Now, we're going to add a loop step, which is going to allow us to loop over all of the elements we just scraped. So I'll click on loop, and then continue anyways. And then for the loop item, I'm going to select the scrape list step that we have, so that we know which elements to loop over.
I'll close this really quick so we can see everything. Now what we have is a go to page step and maybe some other click steps to get to the page you need to. Then we scrape all of the elements on the page, the title right here. Now we have a loop step, which is going to allow us to run a bunch of steps for each element on this, in this list.
Now what I'm going to do is I'll record a click step inside of my loop by clicking this plus icon. We can see that it's indented just a little bit more since it's part of this loop and not the entire automation itself. Then I'm going to select click and I'll select the first title in this list. Now task magic will figure out that you want to iterate over all of these on the page from the elements that you scraped.
And when we click confirm here, That is all we need to do to tell task magic to loop over every single one on the page. The problem right now is, is because clicking this takes us somewhere else, we need to make sure that we can go back to that original page that we originally, um, that we had with all of the elements in the list.
So to do that, we have those options available after we save our automation. Before doing that, I'm going to add my scrape steps that we have to finish out the, I guess, most of the loop automation here. So I'll click plus, and then I'm going to scroll down to scrape, and then I'll just dismiss this really quick.
Okay. Sorry. That took its time loading that page. But I added that scrape step or sorry, started the recording of the scrape step. And now I'm going to add some things that I want to scrape. So the price, the rooms, bathrooms, parking, and then the size. And then I'll confirm this. And this is going to add all of those scrape steps inside of that loop.
Then I'll click I'm done since that's all for my use case on this automation. If we needed to click and type other things, we can just keep adding those steps. Um, but this is all we have. So we go to a website, we scrape all of the elements on the page that we want to loop over. We add that loop step and we tell it, we want to loop over step two.
Then inside of here, we're going to click on the first result, and then we're going to scrape all of the other details on the page that I wanted to. Task magic. We'll figure out how to handle whether or not, uh, this click is related to what you're scraping over or what you scraped. Um, you do not need to worry about any additional settings in any of these other steps.
So what this will do is it goes to this page, scrapes them all. Then loops over all 15 of them. First one, it's going to click the first result, scrape a bunch of stuff. Then we have that go back step that I talked about. We need to add here. So we'll click plus and then go back. We don't have those options available when we're recording.
So I'm adding that after the fact. So we clicked that thing, scrape a bunch. Then we go back by, which is basically the same as clicking this back button. And then after we do that, the last step in the loop, it's going to restart with the next item in this list. It'll repeat that click, which is clicking that second item in the list that we scraped now, repeating all of these scrape steps before running, go back again.
So that's how you loop over things on the page. If you're having trouble with scraping links or anything like that. This is a really common use case, uh, or a way to get around those types of problems. I'll go ahead and just click play steps here so that we can see what this looks like. And a little bit of how this works when it's in action.
So what we're doing here is again, scraping all of these names on the page. I'm just going to scroll down really quick to show you guys this. We'll see all of these get highlighted all of the names of that, the items in that list.
And then we're going to click on the first one.
After clicking, we will scrape all of those details at the top there.
And then we're going to run that go back step, which might happen a little quick after we do the scrape.
So there's all of our scrape steps. Then we went back and now we are going to click on the second item in the list. You'll see that it's highlighted everything and then clicked on the second result before it moved on to starting its scrape again.