Although it won't capture the HTML tags, you can dump the contents of a table like this:
table_contents = browser.table(:id, 'foo').to_a For writing to .txt file, check out the ruby File class: http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/File.html This is an example for writing the HTML for a page to a file: browser.goto(test_site) html = browser.html f = File.new("txt.txt", "w+") f.write(html) f.close Hope it helps. orde On Dec 2, 1:42 am, Mark Ballinger <mark.j.ballin...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thank you for your reply. > After re-reading what I have written and thinking about what I what to > achieve... I don't believe I want to extract the table data into > excel. I would like to extract it to a .txt (notepad document). > The purpose of extracting the data is to check it against it against > what I have in my database :-). If I can get it into .txt file > (notepad document) I have the know-how to clean it and import it into > sql for validation. > FYI the data in the table looks like this... > <table border="1" cellpadding="2"><tr><th> Address </th><th> Council > tax band </th><th> Annual council tax </th></tr> > <tr><td> 2, STONELEIGH AVENUE, COVENTRY, CV5 6BZ </td><td > align="center"> F </td><td align="center"> £2125 </td></tr> > ....... The above row is repeated many time ...... > </table> > Then the table is closed. > So to re-cap my situation. I can use Watir to navigate the browser to > the page containing the html table but my problem is that I am unsure > of how to extract the results (everything within the <table> tag - > including the html) to a .txt file and then save that .txt file onto > my computer. > I would prefer to take smaller steps with using Watir. I am knew to it > therefore I would just like to learn how to extract the table and save > everything that I have extracted into a .txt file. I have seen a > couple of examples online using hpricot. However most of the examples > seem to miss off code detailing how the array (if that is the correct > approach) is outputted into a .txt file. > Could you help by demonstrating how to write a simple piece of code > which will extract the html table ( and everything, including the > <tr>, <td> and everything in between) to a .txt notepad file? > Many thanks for your time. > On Dec 2, 2:36 am, bis <bis...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > > To me that sounds like a lot of extra work what happens once it is in an > > excel? Why would putting it in an excel be better than asserting it all > > within the test itself > > > So I'll go ahead and ask some questions first. > > Will it happen more than once validating the excel? > > What sort of data is in the table? > > Would you be comparing the data in the excel vs data in a data base? If > > yes, why not let the test do it? > > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Dec 1, 2011, at 4:43 PM, Mark Ballinger <mark.j.ballin...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > Hi I am a newbie to groups and to ruby, watir, watir-webdriver etc... > > > > Basically all I would like to do is export a table from a web page > > > which I have instructed the browser to find using Watir-webdriver. I > > > just want to take the whole contents of the html table and place it > > > into Excel for further analysis. > > > > I have the got the following code to work: > > > > require 'rubygems' > > > require 'hpricot' > > > require "watir-webdriver" > > > url = "http://www.mycounciltax.org.uk/results? > > > postcode=cv35+8au&search=Search" > > > browser = Watir::Browser.new > > > browser.goto url > > > > All i would like to do now is save the table. How do save the html to > > > a csv or .txt file into my C;\Temp folder? > > > > Best Regards, > > > > Mark > > > > -- > > > Before posting, please readhttp://watir.com/support. In short: search > > > before you ask, be nice. > > > > watir-general@googlegroups.com > > >http://groups.google.com/group/watir-general > > > watir-general+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -- Before posting, please read http://watir.com/support. In short: search before you ask, be nice. watir-general@googlegroups.com http://groups.google.com/group/watir-general watir-general+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
