Progress iMacros
The world's most popular web automation, data extraction, and web testing solution.

Overview:

iMacros makes it easy for you to record and replay repetitious work and it’s the only web automation software that works with every website.

Automate Tasks Across All Major Browsers Including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome

iMacros web automation software works with every website to make it easy for you to record and replay repetitious work.

A Complete Web Automation Toolset

• Record and Replay Repetitious Work
  Including sites use dialog boxes, Javascript, Flash, Flex, Java and AJAX.
• Functional, Performance and Regression
  Perform in-browser testing across Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
• Extract Any Kind of Data from the Web
  Write to standard file formats or use the API to save directly to a database.

What can you do with iMacros?

Update Internal Systems
Update internal systems with the latest exchange rates and stock-market quotations.

Interface with Online Databases
Interface your software with online databases and websites sites like Amazon, Ebay or salesforce.com.

Automate Ajax Testing
Automate many AJAX based websites using standard HTML based TAG commands.

Automate Form Data Entry
Automatically enter data in online forms – on a regular basis or only when triggered by another program or script.

Automate Web Upload/Download
Control the browser (via an API) and automate upload/download of data via a local, Intranet or Internet web interface.

Integrate Business Data
Gather and integrate price, quantity, item name, description, etc., from a supplier’s website.

Integrate with Excel
Upload data from a spreadsheet to a website, or populate an Excel sheet with data from a website.

Extract Pricing Data
Extract online pricing data from a competitor’s website, subtract one cent and add it to your online store.

Browser Automation:

The World’s Most Popular Web Automation Solution

iMacros web automation software works with every website to make it easy for you to record and replay repetitious work, including sites use dialog boxes, frames, Javascript, Flash, Flex, Java and AJAX.

Support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome

With iMacros you can create and automate tasks across all major browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. There is no new scripting language to learn, you have full programmatic control over the web browser, so even the most complex tasks can be scripted.

Automate and Work More Efficiently

iMacros can run multiple instances simultaneously (“multi-threading”) and it can be scheduled to run in the background while you work in other programs, or during non-work hours. iMacros provides visual recording and playback of all web activity and the macros you create in one browser can be played back or edited in another, as needed.

Form Filling

iMacros eliminates the tedious repetition of checking the same sites every day, remembering passwords, and filling out web forms. iMacros is the only form filler that can autofill web forms that stretch over several pages. All information is stored in human-readable, plain text files that can be edited easily. Passwords are stored securely with secure 256-Bit AES encryption.

Web Automation with Image Recognition

iMacros’ image recognition support lets you automate and test websites using images instead of cumbersome X/Y coordinates. You tell iMacros how a button looks like and iMacros finds it on the page. Even when the button has moved or if it has changed color or screen resolution. Since iMacros relies only on the images that are rendered in the browser, it works independently of the underlying technology.

Excel Web Queries

iMacros integrates directly with Excel and other MS Office applications, and comes with a complete Excel VBA project that includes sample macros, scripts and the VBA program with source code. You can easily customize the project to meet your needs.

Where Other Software Fails…

iMacros can interface your software with online databases and websites sites like Amazon, Ebay or salesforce.com, use a programming interface (API) to control (script) Internet Explorer or Firefox, and automate upload/download of data via a local, Intranet or Internet web interface.

iMacros can upload data from a spreadsheet to a website, or populate an Excel sheet with data from a website.

iMacros can login to websites and navigate to a page, delete forum posting (which includes several clicks like: “Are you sure?”, “Return to forum”, …). You can check for available jobs or items, entering data to online search forms, and you can run these manually or have the action performed regularly on an hourly basis or triggered by another program or script.

With iMacros you can automate almost anything.

Web Testing:

Functional, Performance, and Regression Testing

With iMacros you can quickly and easily automate functional, performance, and regression testing across any website technology including Java, Flash, Flex or Silverlight applets and all AJAX elements. And with iMacro built-in STOPWATCH command you can capture exact web page response times for every step of a process.

Test with IE, Chrome and Firefox

With iMacros you can perform in-browser testing across all major browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. Test cases created in Internet Explorer work in Firefox and Chrome – and vice versa. And with iMacros you have “multi-threading” – meaning you can run up to 50 separate instances of iMacros at the same time.

Regression Testing

Regression testing with iMacros is easy and very flexible. When parsing a web site you want to find out if a certain word exists on a web page to trigger further action (like saving the web page, printing the page or running the next macro). This is also called keyword assertion or regression testing. If the keyword does not exist, iMacros retries the keyword search automatically every second until a timeout value is reached. If the keyword is still not found, iMacros reports an error. The automatic retry makes web testing websites with AJAX easy. For standard websites, you can also combine a keyword search to wait until a page changes.

Testing AJAX Websites

Ajax-driven or JavaScript-heavy sites often require different strategies than when testing a regular site: elements appear, disappear and change at any time. Because of its built-in “intelligence” iMacros can automate many AJAX based websites using standard HTML based TAG commands. And it can automate absolutely all AJAX elements with DirectScreen Technology. This allows in-browser testing of even the most complicated AJAX elements, including sliders and drag & drop activity.

Table-Driven Testing

iMacros has built-in support for table-driven testing with its ability to read all csv formatted files (tables). No additional coding or scripting is required. You can use any numbers of columns, and all kinds of column content is supported (including full Unicode support). The number of table columns is automatically detected.

Export Macro to Selenium WebDriver Java Code

You can profit from the iMacros powerful recorder and convert your macro code to Selenium WebDriver Java code (QA automation) directly from the iMacros Editor. Use any flavor of iMacros (for Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer) to record elements on a webpage and then easily export the commands to Java Selenium code using this feature of the iMacros Editor.

Data Extraction:

Web Scraping, Data Extraction and Web Mining

Do you need to screen-scrape web data into your database, spreadsheet or any other application? In just minutes, you can use iMacros to do all the web-harvesting you need – automatically.

Extract Anything

Whether it’s price lists, stock information, financial data or any other type of data, iMacros can extract it. Once you have your data, iMacros can write it to standard text files, including .csv or you can use iMacros powerful scripting interface to save data directly to databases.

Multi-Thread Support

iMacros can multi-thread up to 50 instances at once with complete web crawling support. And iMacros has full unicode support, it can extract text in all languages, including Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Real-World Use Cases

Some real-word examples of how our customers have used iMacros to extract data:

• Extract online pricing data, subtract one cent and add it to your online store.
• Update internal systems with the latest exchange rates and stock-market quotations.
• Gather leads from online business directories.
• Gather search engine rankings.
• Gather company information from many different directory websites.
• Monitor order status from ecommerce portals. See what orders you still need to fulfill, when they were ordered, and all applicable details.
• Gather bookings for any type of resort, or area.
• Gather price, quantity, item name, description, etc., from a supplier’s website.
• Check competitor’s shipping rates on major shopping sites.
• Monitor web-server availability and status.
• Perform keyword and PPC research.
• Extract product images and specification documents.
• Extract useful information from encyclopedia and journal websites.
• Check the meta information on pages of a website (description, keywords, page title).

Why Choose iMacros for Web Scraping/Data Extraction?

Works with every website
Even websites that use dialog boxes, frames, Javascript, Flash, Flex, Java and even AJAX can be automated with iMacros.

Zero learning curve
iMacros integrates with every Windows scripting or programming language, so there's no need to learn a new language to work with iMacros.

You're in full control
iMacros is an application that you can run on your own machine(s), not a hosted service. You have full control over it and it never expires.

Built-in toolset
iMacros comes with sample macros, scripts and programs (with complete source code) that you can easily customize for your own needs.

Web Browser API:

A Full-Featured Web Browser API

Complete Web Browser Control from any Windows Programming or Scripting Language.

The iMacros Enterprise Edition automatically installs the Web Browser API. With these powerful commands you can control iMacros with any Windows programming language that supports the use of COM objects. Almost all Windows programming languages support this technology, including the free Windows Scripting Host, Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic .NET, C#, Java, Perl, Python, C++, ASP, PHP, and ASP.NET.

Create Conditional Scripts That Can Do Anything

With the iMacros API, it’s easy to write scripts (in a scripting language of your choice) that allow you to:

Perform Internal Actions

• Incorporate if/else statements in your scripts to make decisions
• Perform multi-loop actions
• Parse data in your scripts to perform string manipulation
• Write scripts that incorporate many variables
• Make complex calculations in your scripts
• Display GUI elements other than a simple prompt dialog
• Handle error conditions, enabling you to write complex scripts

Perform External Actions

• Communicate with other applications (e.g. Excel)
• Integrate with other tools/programs (e.g. web testing suites, web server scripts, email servers, custom applications)
• Call another macro to perform an action
• Easily integrate data from external sources like databases
• Write scripts that can save data to a database

iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET:

Web Automation inside your .NET Software

If your .NET application needs to connect to websites, fill out online forms or scrape data from websites, use the iMacros WebBrowser Component to do the job.

With the embeddable iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET (available for purchase as a separate product), you can build your own .NET application with the same playback power of the iMacros Browser in just a few hours. Simply use the iMacros WebBrowser Component instead of the Microsoft WebBrowser control inside your software. iMacros takes care of all the low level web automation work (DOM handling, events, Windows hooks, etc.), so you can concentrate on what really counts: Your business case.

What’s in the iMacros WebBrowser Component?

All of the playback functionality of iMacros organized in a tabbed web browser control (100% Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser control compatible), a dialog manager, image recognition, plus Direct Screen technology for automating Flash, Java, and Silverlight. In essence, you’re getting the core engine used in the iMacros Browser for rendering and automating web pages. And just like iMacros Browser, the component is 100% Internet Explorer compatible.

Automate Your Applications in Minutes

Quickly and easily integrate iMacros into your application. No separate installer required.

Seamless Integration
iMacros seamlessly integrates with your.NET applications, acting as a drop-in replacement for the Microsoft WebBrowser control. It can even be used as component inside every .NET application just like a browser control.

White Label Branding
iMacros is hosted inside your application. You have complete control over the look and feel. Your license includes a royalty-free distribution of all programs that you create with the component.

Get Started Fast
With complete C# and -VB.NET sample projects, the iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET makes it easy for get your new your new project started fast, reducing the time it takes for you to get your software product to market. To get started with the iMacros WebBrowser Component, please download the free trial version from our iMacros download page (second download from the top).

FAQ:

General Questions

Which version is best for me, Standard or Enterprise?

The Standard version is a great fit for an individual, who need to do automation, data extraction, or web testing but doesn't need to integrate with other applications. They just need to do straightforward tasks like login to a website, navigate to a page, delete forum posting (which includes several clicks like: "Are you sure?", "Return to forum", ...)

By comparison, the Enterprise Edition includes the iMacros API and is designed to manage complex automation, extraction, and web testing tasks such as interfacing with online databases and websites sites like Amazon, Ebay or salesforce.com; downloading prices, images, product descriptions, or exchange rates; updating a database with the latest pricing information; regression testing, performance testing, or simulating complex visitor activities (e.g. check hotel room availability or test a complete purchase process); or testing AJAX, Flash or Java applets to name a few uses of the Enterprise Edition.

The Enterprise edition also includes the use of the iMacros player, which you can use to run macros from different locations across a single organization. For example, let's say you write a macro to assist your order entry team. You could use the player to load and run the macro on every order entry workstation.

What is the new Personal edition?

The Personal edition provides an upgrade path for iMacros freeware users who are looking for an unfettered web automation experience but don't need the advanced features of Professional or Enterprise. Just like the other editions, the Personal edition delivers data input and extraction, automation and testing, and the recording and playback functionality required for individual users to perform a limitless number of tasks. The Personal edition license is applicable to iMacros for Chrome, Firefox, and IE and includes forum support only. If you need the iMacros Browser or technical support, please consider either the Professional or Enterprise edition.

What is the iMacros Player?

iMacros Players enable distribution of macros across an enterprise environment. They are offered as an add-on to an Enterprise edition license which includes five Players out of the box.

Does iMacros work with every web site?

The macros recorded with iMacros work on almost all sites. Even if the standard click methods fail (for example on Flash of Java applets) the DirectScreen command can be used in almost all cases.

If you think you have found a web site where iMacros does not work please let us know. We are very interested to hear of such cases and will assist you in finding a solution.

How do the paid versions differ from the free browser plugins?

The free browser plug-in version provides the same functionality as the Personal edition but is limited to 100 rows, 3 columns and 50 actions/commands/lines.

The Enterprise and Professional editions include much more feature rich including the iMacros API (ideal for integration), playback of encrypted macros, support for Flash, Silverlight, Java, and much more. Visit our product comparison page for full details.

Will the macros I create with the browser plugin work on the paid versions of iMacros?

Yes, all the macros you create with the free browser plugin can be used with both the Professional and Enterprise editions.

Purchasing iMacros

How do I upgrade from Professional to Enterprise?

If you originally ordered the Professional edition and want to upgrade to the Enterprise edition, you can order the upgrade using your Customer Portal.

Do I have to pay for software updates or new releases?

With your initial purchase of Professional Edition, Enterprise Edition, or the Component for .NET, you receive one year of technical support and one year of access to new product releases and updates. After your first year, you can purchase an annual service agreement, which gives you access to the same level of tech support, new releases and updates.

What support is included in the purchase price of the Professional and Enterprise editions?

Each edition includes a license for a single user plus one year of tech support and access to new product releases and updates.

Is the iMacros license key tied to one physical machine?

Prior to iMacros 10.1, the iMacros license is NOT hardware locked. You can un-install the software on one machine and move it to another machine without problems as often as you need.

iMacros 10.1 and later utilize online activation. In order to transfer your license to another machine, you must first deactivate the license (Help > Activate iMacros > Remove License) and then reactivate iMacros on the new machine.

Integrating and Distributing iMacros

Can we use the macros we create across our company?

Yes, to do so you will need iMacros Players. The Enterprise edition is the only edition that support players and it includes five player licenses. This allows you to distribute the macros you create to other users with a player license within the same company or subsidiary.

I'd like to create macros for my clients. Is there a way to do that with iMacros?

Yes. For distributing macros to your clients, you can purchase the iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET separately. The iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET allows unlimited, royalty free distribution to anyone (outside your company, web downloads, etc.). For more information and pricing for the iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET, contact our sales team.

What's the iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET and do I need it to distribute iMacros?

If you want to embed iMacros inside your .NET program and have full control over the user interface (no iMacros GUI or branding), you'd need to purchase the iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET. You also need the iMacros WebBrowser Component for .NET if you intend to distribute your iMacros Enterprise solutions to user external to your company or organization (see the previous FAQ).