Newbie Questions. Please help!

Discussions and Tech Support specific to the iMacros Firefox add-on.
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greatdeals_007
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:11 pm

Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by greatdeals_007 » Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:47 pm

I have a couple of questions and was hoping you could help.

1. is it possible to assign a HOTKEY to an iMacro I created?

2. is it possible to have the iMacro insert the current date? currently I have to edit the iMacro each day and change the date manually

3. on one particular iMacro I noticed it will work like once or twice then not work. can't figure out where it is getting stumped. I created a macro to click on a webpage click the drop downs and select the appropriate values then click the send function. sometimes this works sometimes it does not. some of the values like the name field changes from one page to another so I wonder if that is causing problems? so for example page #1 will have john smith and page#2 will jane smith everything else the same.

4. is it possible to create a macro that would take a value from let's say a spreadsheet cell and the copy n paste into a web field on a form?

any help would be appreciated.
Tom, Tech Support
Posts: 3834
Joined: Mon May 31, 2010 4:59 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by Tom, Tech Support » Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:53 am

Hello,
1. is it possible to assign a HOTKEY to an iMacro I created?
This is currently not supported, but you can create bookmarks for your macros and add them to the bookmark toolbar:
http://wiki.imacros.net/iMacros_for_Firefox#Bookmarking
2. is it possible to have the iMacro insert the current date? currently I have to edit the iMacro each day and change the date manually
Yes, you can use the !NOW variable.
3. on one particular iMacro I noticed it will work like once or twice then not work. can't figure out where it is getting stumped. I created a macro to click on a webpage click the drop downs and select the appropriate values then click the send function. sometimes this works sometimes it does not. some of the values like the name field changes from one page to another so I wonder if that is causing problems? so for example page #1 will have john smith and page#2 will jane smith everything else the same.
If you are attempting to TAG an element using text that can change, then yes this could be why it fails. You need to either specify an attribute for ATTR that doesn't change, or otherwise look into using a wildcard for this element:
http://wiki.imacros.net/Form_Filling#Wildcards
4. is it possible to create a macro that would take a value from let's say a spreadsheet cell and the copy n paste into a web field on a form?
Absolutely, that's a big part of what iMacros was designed to do!
http://wiki.imacros.net/Web_Scripting#C ... to_the_Web
Regards,

Tom, iMacros Support
greatdeals_007
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:11 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by greatdeals_007 » Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:06 pm

Thank You for your response. I wanted to clarify a couple of my questions:

s it possible to have the iMacro insert the current date? currently I have to edit the iMacro each day and change the date manually.

1.) I am currently using the INOW variable but can't seem to get the AM/PM to work. I can get the time to insert but when I put in the AM/PM portion of the code it doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference.

question: is there a way to specify which timezone to insert i.e. PST, MST, EST?

3.) on one particular iMacro I noticed it will work like once or twice then not work. can't figure out where it is getting stumped. I created a macro to click on a webpage click the drop downs and select the appropriate values then click the send function. sometimes this works sometimes it does not. some of the values like the name field changes from one page to another so I wonder if that is causing problems? so for example page #1 will have john smith and page#2 will jane smith everything else the same.

I have a web based app that I login each day. I have been playing around with the wildcards to wipe out any unique session id's, etc. This is hit or miss. on some pages it works but on others it runs through but does not make any changes.

question: is there a way to trouble shoot where the macro is getting stumped? Sometimes I will see red highlight on the left frame where the imacros appear but I don't see any particular error messages. currently I am using multiple wild cards on a single line. could that be the problem?

4.) is it possible to create a macro that would take a value from let's say a spreadsheet cell and then copy n paste that value into a web field on a form?

question: I want to be able to copy the value in a cell (the location is fixed) over to my web based application form. the field where I want this data is not fixed. it's part of a sale quote that could have 2 lines, 4 lines, 6 lines, etc. I want to be able to place that value from my spreadsheet cell into a particular field on my form.

question: is there a way to specify the new location perhaps by a keyword i.e. like a model name, description, etc? my problem is the new location will not be constant depending on how many lines are on that form. how do I get around this?

Thank You!
Tom, Tech Support
Posts: 3834
Joined: Mon May 31, 2010 4:59 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by Tom, Tech Support » Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:13 pm

1.) I am currently using the INOW variable but can't seem to get the AM/PM to work. I can get the time to insert but when I put in the AM/PM portion of the code it doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference.
The iMacros for Firefox extension supports only the most common formatting options (marked in bold on the !NOW Wiki page: yyyy, yy, mm, dd, hh, nn, ss), so AM/PM is not supported.
question: is there a way to specify which timezone to insert i.e. PST, MST, EST?
This is currently not supported.
question: is there a way to trouble shoot where the macro is getting stumped? Sometimes I will see red highlight on the left frame where the imacros appear but I don't see any particular error messages. currently I am using multiple wild cards on a single line. could that be the problem?
As long as you aren't using SET !ERRORIGNORE YES then iMacros should stop macro execution when it encounters an error and display an error message in the sidebar. You can also try using !SINGLESTEP to have iMacros pause after executing each line. You might get yourself into trouble using multiple wildcards on a single line for different attribute values (although using something like *text* is quite legitimate for finding the word 'text' within other text, for example). Typically you would specify the dynamic attribute using a wildcard, and then combine this with other non-dynamic attribute values if necessary. And yes, it can entail a process of trial and error sometimes.
question: is there a way to specify the new location perhaps by a keyword i.e. like a model name, description, etc? my problem is the new location will not be constant depending on how many lines are on that form. how do I get around this?
I would need to see the web page in question (either via a URL or a screenshot) to have a better idea.
Regards,

Tom, iMacros Support
sure
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:00 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by sure » Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:07 pm

Is it possible to record a hotkey until I record a macro? I want to record a CTRL+A CTRL+C on a specified website to designate the whole website and copy it's content.
siniy
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 7:44 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by siniy » Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:40 pm

Not possible in firefox. However, you can use SAVEAS command, or learn EXTRACT command
sure
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:00 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by sure » Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:05 pm

Thanks!
Is it possible to my macro waits for the webpage fully loaded and only then performs the following commands?
siniy
Posts: 118
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 7:44 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by siniy » Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:09 pm

Imacros usually does a good work to check if page is fully loaded. Also you can use WAIT SECONDS=10 on problematic pages.
sure
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:00 pm

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by sure » Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:29 pm

Can I give time to my macro (e.g. at 7:10 PM) to go to an URL or I have to use the WAIT SECONDS command?
MattBell7
Posts: 627
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:07 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Newbie Questions. Please help!

Post by MattBell7 » Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:42 pm

you can use the windows scheduler to kick a macro off at a certain time.

http://wiki.imacros.net/Sample_Code#Task_Scheduler
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