Data Scraping

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Data Scraping

• www.xskrape.com/home/article/data-scraping-screen-
  scraping-with-sql-server

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xSkrape for SQL Server is not a new product
weve had it available since version 2.0 of
SQL-Hero.
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This would require you to install SQL-Hero,
including a fairly involved server components
installation.
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With the advent of xkrape.com and a layer that
supports the new xSkrape for Excel add-in
available in the Microsoft Office Store, weve
greatly reduced the friction to get
up-and-running with xSkrape for SQL Server.
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You can now download and install the client-side
SQL CLR assemblies that are used to enable
xSkrape functions in your SQL databases for free.
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You can do this directly from the web no need to
download and install components that can get
outdated, since our installer will offer the
latest code, all of the time.
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• Its not just about data scraping (aka screen
  scraping or web scraping) too you can consume
  data thats published using web APIs in near
  real-time, sometimes with zero effort beyond
  providing the web address we illustrate this in
  our examples below.

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Taking a step back, why might you even want to
use xSkrape for SQL Server?

• Currently if theres some data that you find
  useful from the Internet and youd like to
  combine it with data in your SQL Server database,
  you might be using ETL from a tool such as SQL
  Server Integration Services (SSIS) to make HTTP
  requests against these sources, parse the
  returned data, and load it into tables in your
  database.

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With that in place, youd write queries against
data stored in tables. This works, but you have
some distinct disadvantages

• Latency. Your loaded data will only be as current
  as allowed by the frequency that you run your
  data scraping ETL processes. If you decide the
  run them frequently to compensate, you might be
  imposing unneeded load if your queries are not
  run as frequently. Hosted xSkrape offers the
  benefit of just in time data.

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• Complexity. You inevitably have to write code
  potentially a lot of it. This in turn burdens
  your maintenance and support effort. If you find
  a great tool that does web scraping ETL for you,
  youve still likely got to do mapping and
  configuration. Does your tool support the
  features of the XS.QL language? If not, you might
  be writing more code to deal with scenarios weve
  already thought of and solved and more will
  follow.
• Cost. Closely related to complexity, if we can
  reduce your development and maintenance time,
  were inevitably cutting your development costs
  as well. You can tailor your use of xSkrape
  services to maximize data delivery for the lowest
  possible cost, especially considering that we
  offer 250 usage credits for free, every 30 days.
  Some of you will be using it for free, leaving
  the big players to cover our costs.

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For additional information please visit our
website

• www.xskrape.com/home/article/data-scraping-screen-
  scraping-with-sql-server