How can I paste a string into a search field of an html-site and subsequently activate the "search-button" of the site?

[ulrichmayer]

Hello,

my problem is the following:
I would like labview to paste a string (e.g. 123xyz) into the search field of an internet site. Subsequently labview should activate the search by clicking on the "search-button" or activating the "search-link" of this site.

My question is:
Which elements of labview do I have to use to create such an application? Do I have to use DataSocket-functions? Are there example-vi's existing and if yes, where can I get them from?

I'm working now since a couple of days on this problem but I still have no good results or ideas, perhaps because I'm an novice.

Thanks alot for your help,
um

[DavidJCrawford]

If the search button just updates the url then you can use datasocket like this.

In labview 8.2 you will find the datasocket vi's in Data Communications -> Datasocket palette.

hope this helps

David

Message Edited by David Crawford on 02-01-2007 02:26 PM

[ulrichmayer]

Thanks David! I tried your example and it worked very well. But I think I have to explain my question in a little bit more detail: In context with protein analysis I have to paste aminoacid sequences into a search field. Then I have to activate the search button and get some information about the protein. This information do I have to extract then. Up to now I do this all manually by using my computer mouse. You have to know that I want to analyse more than 500 proteins in the next weeks. I’m sure you can imagine how much copy-and-paste-work this is. So my hope is to create a tool doing all this work automatically for me. The adress of the site is http://www.expasy.org/tools/protparam.html. There you can see a big box where I can paste my aminoacid sequence (e.g. MSQDGKVKTTESTPPAPTKARKWLPVLDPSGDYYYWWLNTMVFPIMYNLIIVVCRACFPDLQHSYLVAWFVLDYTSDLLYLLDIGVRFHTGFLEQGILVVDKGMIASRYVRTWSFLLDLASLVPTDAAYVQLGPHIPTLRLNRFLRVPRLFEAFDRTETRTAYPNAFRIAKLMLYIFVVIHWNSCLYFALSRYLGFGRDAWVYPDPAQPGFERLRRQYLYSFYFSTLILTTVGDTPLPDREEEYLFMVGDFLLAVMGFATIMGSMSSVIYNMNTADAAFYPDHALVKKYMKLQHVNKRLERRVIDWYQHLQINKKMTNEVAILQHLPERLRAEVAVSVHLSTLSRVQIFQNCEASLLEELVLKLQPQTYSPGEYVCRKGDIGREMYIIREGQLAVVADDGVTQYAVLGAGLYFGEISIINIKGNMSGNRRTANIKSLGYSDLFCLSKEDLREVLSEYPQAQAVMEEKGREILLKMNKLDVNAEAAEIALQEATESRLKGLDQQLDDLQTKFARLLAELESSALKIAYRIERLEWQTREWPMPEDMGEADDEAEPGEGTSKDGEGKAGQAGPSGIE) in. Then you have to press the “compute parameter”-button and extract the interesting data from the resulting site.

Is it difficult to realize this? Do I need CGI knowledge or does there exist a special labview-vi? Perhaps you can help me again.

Thanks alot!

Best wishes,

Ulrich

[DavidJCrawford]

Sorry I don't know how to do that.

I tried looking at the html of that webpage to guess what to next but its really not my thing. My example is just something I had seen before and wanted to offer it as a possible solution.

Good luck!

David