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Unable to extract data from newly opened tab

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Posted on by ketchy311

After extracting several items of data in my workflow, I have a link to Google Maps that I need to click to then be able to extract the GPS coordinates for a property location.

The link forces itself to be opened in a new tab, and the address of the link dynamically changes, so I am clicking it by moving the mouse to the proper coordinates and sending a mouse click command. This works at least, and a new tab then opens such as: "38°11'36.7"N 84°52'14.0"W - Google Maps"

All that I then need to do is extract the GPS coordinates from this page, available in a couple locations. However, I then get a failed to extract data error - assuming this is because this opens automatically in a new tab so PAD doesn't see this as the current browser instance.

I've looked at adding a new "Launch new Microsoft Edge" command here to try to get this tab to "attach to running instance", but as the Title and URL of this Google Maps page changes for every property, I am not sure how to do so. Wish there was a way to change the tab focus to make the open one the current browser instance temporarily.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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If you only need the coordinates, you can parse them from the URL itself without even clicking on it to open the page. It is there in the URL anyway.

If you can capture the element itself with the URL, use Get details of element in web page to get it's Href parameter, and use that in Parse text. Otherwise, if you cannot capture the specific element, use Get details of web page and get the entire page source. Then use Parse text to retrieve the URL from the page source, and then parse it. Or simply use that URL in Go to web page to navigate without opening a new tab.

Note that when I suggest using Parse text, I mean using it with regular expressions to retrieve the data. If you're not familiar with regex, you might want to watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=5cPMEBH5tj8&ab_channel=Thomas%22Shaky%22Petersen

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ketchy311 10 on at

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I am having trouble grabbing the actual Google Maps link itself. On the linked page, there is a "Google Maps" link, but the hyperlink itself isn't to Google Maps so I can't grab any useful information from it. I initially set up a click with the mouse at specific coordinates, but have since found that the "Google Maps" text can move around depending on the length of the information above it. I also have not been able to get OCR to find that text to click on, so I am stumped.

https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=1025&LayerID=21571&PageTypeID=1&PageID=9203&Q=1504897064&KeyValue=074-21-05-014.00#

ends up directing to

https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&zoom=21&query=38.206563788473325,-84.85874922834361

which becomes

38°12'23.6"N 84°51'31.5"W - Google Maps

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Again, try to use Get details of web page to get the entire page source. The use Parse text with regular expressions to get the URL behind the text you're trying to click on. If you're not too great with regular expressions, please share what the page source looks like (at least the part around the URL) and we can help you write a proper regex pattern to extract the URL.

Then use Go to web page or Create new tab to navigate to the URL instead of clicking the element. This way you will do it in the same browser instance (if you use Go to web page) or you'll get the new browser instance without the need to attach to the new tab (if you use Create new tab).

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ketchy311 10 on at

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I am unable to get Parse text to work on this - probably just my inexperience with it though. Source for the Google Maps link is below. The "074-21-05-014.00" (the parcel ID) is the only portion of this that changes every time. I just can't seem to figure out how to convert this to the Google Maps link myself - or get PAD to click on the link.

<a href="#" title="" target="_blank" onclick="Beacon.Control.GoogleMaps.showFeature('074-21-05-014.00'); return false;">Google Maps <span class="sr-only">opens in a new tab</span></a>

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ketchy311 10 on at

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I am unable to get Parse text to work on this - probably just my inexperience with it though. Source for the Google Maps link is below. The "074-21-05-014.00" (the parcel ID) is the only portion of this that changes every time. I just can't seem to figure out how to convert this to the Google Maps link myself - or get PAD to click on the link.

<a href="#" title="" target="_blank" onclick="Beacon.Control.GoogleMaps.showFeature('074-21-05-014.00'); return false;">Google Maps <span class="sr-only">opens in a new tab</span></a>

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Okay, so this is slightly trickier, as it doesn't actually have a URL there, but has an onclick() event that triggers a script that takes you to the URL (probably generates the URL first).

You would need a JavaScript function to reproduce this.

However, what I've just verified is that you don't need a full name of the new tab to be able to attach to it. A part of it is enough. So, if you just type in "Google Maps" into the tab title field, it will successfully attach to it (assuming you only have one tab open with that text in its title). So, do something like this (this is for Chrome, but will work in other browsers, too):

You might want to name the Browser Instance variable something else, so that you don't overwrite the original browser instance of the origin page. And when you're done with extracting the co-ordinates, you can use Close browser to just close this one tab, while keeping the original tab open.

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ketchy311 10 on at

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I have now successfully been able to attach the browser instance / extract coordinates data from Google Maps, close the browser and move on to the next loop. However, I still am unable to find a way to automate sending a click to the "Google Maps" link in the first place that then opens that new tab. The only solution I have come up with for now is to have the automation pause at that point in the process and wait for a manual click before continuing the loop.

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