New Training: Working with Web Content in PowerShell

In this 7-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Knox Hutchinson discusses how to master working with web content and tasks using PowerShell 7. Topics include web scraping, FTP, and API operations to lead learners towards becoming a web automation master! Watch this new Microsoft Windows Server training.

Watch the full course: Programming Foundations with PowerShell 7

This training includes:

• 7 videos

• 39 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Web Operations – A Big Win

• Perform Web Scraping

• Download a File From the Internet

• Working with FTP Operations

• Making REST API GET Requests

• Making REST API POST Requests

• Summarizing Web Automation

What is Web Scraping?

Web Scraping is a technique for extracting and exporting data from a website. While you could do this manually, most do it through automated tools. This makes the process not only faster but less costly as well.

As not all websites are structured the same way, not all web scrapers are the same. Often, you will develop a web scraper for one particular site or for a well-defined set of websites. Also, there are many different purposes for web scraping, so web scrapers can have very different functionality.

Web scrapers start by loading the website data of a specified URL. This can include HTML, CSS and JavaScript. After loading the data, the web scraper then parses it and finds the set of data requested. Finally, it will export this data in a format that the person doing the web scraping can use, such as CSV or JSON. The latter format is useful within the context of APIs.