Version 2.7.2.20a of screen-scraper available

Well, so we found a few annoyances/bugs that we decided to slip into a new build. There will likely be at least one more before we do a public release. In addition to a few bug fixes, this version contains two slick new methods: session.saveVariables and session.loadVariables, which will respectively save session variables to a file and load them from a file. Can be very handy if you need to save the state of things so that you can pick up where you left off when you restart a scrape.

The usual caveats apply–this is alpha software, so use it at your own risk. Thanks, though, to anyone willing to help us test.

If you’re currently running version 2.7.2.9a or higher you can upgrade via Options -> Check for updates. If you’re using anything else, follow these instructions (see this page for details on why you need to follow these steps):

  1. Back up your scraping sessions (check here for help on that).
  2. Ensure screen-scraper isn’t currently running (close the workbench and server, if running).
  3. Download this file, and unzip it.
  4. Copy the contents of the zip file on top of your existing files in the screen-scraper install folder. For example, the zip file contains a “screen-scraper.jar” file which should be copied on top of your existing “screen-scraper.jar” file.
  5. Edit your “resource\conf\screen-scraper.properties” file in a text editor. Change the “Version” property to “2.7.2.20a”.
  6. Launch the screen-scraper workbench.
  7. If all of your scraping sessions have disappeared, don’t panic!
  8. Close the screen-scraper workbench.
  9. Re-open the screen-scraper workbench.

You’re done!

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