XML Feed Software.

adamski911

Hi,

I am a bit of a novice when its comes to programming but i wanted to know if there is any software (free or paid) that can generate xml feeds from a website so i can put in a database (such as excel)?

I have tried using web crawler on the mac but i am unable to convert the html files into xml.Again,i dont know if there is a program which can do this?

Thanks

InsideInsurance

Is there a particular XML schema you want it to convert to?

What are you really trying to achieve? Are these your sites or 3rd party ones?

PS, Excel is a spreadsheet not a database

adamski911

I am looking at 3rd party websites to generate info from so i can put in a table.I have used the create a database function in excel in the past using xml feeds but need something quick to pull the info from various sites

InsideInsurance

So you arent looking to capture the complete site just selected info from it - like the old ones that would strip all the business names and telephone numbers from the Yellow Pages website?

Presumably then you have your own schema for the data?

adamski911

This is where my novice ability comes into it.I was hoping there was some form of software out there that can mine for this data and put it into an excel database?

InsideInsurance

There are plenty of tools for harvesting data from websites but they have different capabilities depending on how "advanced" they are and how refined the data extraction is to be.

For example you'll find many fire and forget spiders for harvesting email addresses but if your wanting to harvest the sizes and stock availability of all items sold by M&S online then this isnt going to be a suitable tool and indeed you'd need one of the most advanced tools because of how the site works.