What is the procedure for importing a package with an excel file as input?

When you export a package, datapages are exported along with the actual package in a .ppk file. However, if the package relies on an excel file for a list of input URLs, this is not exported with the package. Furthermore, the path to the excel file will break if the package if moved from one person’s computer to another’s. This file is meant to explain how to get a package working in this scenario.

  1. Save the package and excel file somewhere on your computer. (This step is assuming you received both files in an e-mail attachment)
  2. Import the package
    • Open Web Scraper Plus+ if it is not already open
    • Select Package > Import from the Console window
    • Browse to where you’ve saved the package and import it
    • If necessary, hit the packages icon on the left of the Console window to refresh the list of packages
    • You should now see the package you imported listed
  3. Make note of whether or not the first row in the excel file is column headers
    • Open the excel file.
    • Look at the first row, of the excel file and see if the first row has header information in it (ie: Col1Name, Col2Name)
  4. Modify the path to the excel file
    • Edit the properties of the package by double clicking it from the Console window
    • Under the “Steps” tab, double click the task that uses the excel file as the input file list
    • Under the “File List” click the “…” at the end of the connection string
    • Click “…” again to browse for the excel file on your computer
    • Click OK
    • If your excel file does not have headers in the first row manually edit the connection string.
    • Change “…Excel 8.0; ";Persist…” to “…Excel 8.0;hdr=no; ";Persist…” by adding the string hdr=no;
    • Make sure in the box under the connection string there is still a string similar to “SELECT [COLNAME] FROM [SHEETNAME$]”. Most likely it is “SELECT [F1] FROM [Sheet1$]”.
  5. Test the path to the excel file.
    • Hit the test button (you should still be under the File List tab)
    • In the Query Editor that opens hit the Play icon
    • Your file list should appear below
    • Click OK repeatedly