If the data is updated very frequently (sometimes several times a second), such as the foreign exchange rate between the £/$ then the answer is clear, you should scrape the data when it is needed so it is bang up to date This decision depends on a couple of factors. The next question is should you scrape the data immediately when its required, or pre-scrape so the data is already available when needed. Now let’s work through the up-front decisions to decide on the best approach to make your data scraping easierBuilding a Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to start. If you haven’t yet used it, the first thing you’ll need to do is download and install, noting that you’ll need Windows 10 Pro. Power Automate Desktop has been around now for several months. Which option do you choose? That’s what I’ll take you through The second option is to use Power Automate Desktop. Again, that sounds like it could be difficult, but it doesn’t have to beĭesktop Flows (previously called UI Flows) can be used in Power Automate Cloud to scrape data from web pages. With data presented on the Web, the only option is to scrape the data yourself. However, there is a mass of data out there on plain old web pages where connectors cannot be used. Hiredgun.tech: Custom Connectors Requiring an API key.Hiredgun.tech: Building a Basic Custom Connector.Hiredgun.tech: Custom Connectors – Some General Info.Checkout my earlier posts for details on how to do this They are generally easy to use and serve up the data very quicklyĮven if ready-made Connectors aren’t available, building a custom Connector to a freely available web service is a fall-back option and isn’t as complex as it sounds. Connectors are the ‘official’ APIs between the Power Platform and other systems. Connectors are the best way to get your hands on the data you need.

Web scraping with power automate