ActionScript

What is Action Script?

Action Script is an advanced feature that goes beyond just extracting what's visible on screen—it lets you write JavaScript code directly to control the extraction process.

Examples:

• Extract data from sections that appear after clicking specific buttons

• Extract data from areas that appear on mouseover

• Control other dynamically changing elements within sites before collecting data

You can customize data extraction for special situations that are difficult to solve with regular Listly automation settings.

Action Script creation service is an Enterprise plan exclusive option. If you're on a lower-tier plan, you can write scripts yourself to use this feature.

1

Whole Extract then open Browser Setting

Perform a Whole Extract of the web page, then click the [Browser Setting] section on the result page to go to that task's settings screen.

2

Paste your JS into Action Script and Save

Paste your written JS code into the Action Script field on the settings screen and click [Save]

TIP These days you can even use AI services like Chat GPT to write simple scripts. The Listly team shared their experience using ChatGPT to generate Action Scripts in a newsletter—check it out: 👉 Asked ChatGPT to write Action Script for me and "This actually works?"

3

Re-extract using Action Script

Click the [Re-extract] button in the result window or Databoard to re-extract the data area using Action Script.

4

Verify results

Check the results after re-extraction completes. Make sure to verify that your configured Action Script worked as intended.

Important Notes

Important notes when applying Action Script to Group Extraction tasks

Action Script must be applied to the source page before group extraction. Group extraction assumes other URLs have the same structure as the representative page (source page) and collects data accordingly. If you don't apply Action Script to the source page, there's no reference for performing the same action on subsequently added URLs, which can cause tab matching errors or data loss.

• Always write and apply Action Script with the representative page open.

• After applying Action Script, you must first re-extract to verify the settings work properly.

• Then use the [+Group] button to add URLs, and the same Action Script behavior will be reflected across all group pages.

• If there are significant structural differences between the source page and other pages, the script may not work properly, so it's important to only include pages with the same structure in group extraction.