Extracting Semistructured Information from the Web.
J. Hammer, Héctor García-Molina, J. Cho, R. F. M. Aranha, Ángel García-Crespo · 1997
We describe a configurable tool for extracting semistructured data from a set of HTML pages and for converting the extracted information into database objects. The input to the extractor is a declarative specification that states where the data of interest is located on the HTML pages, and how the data should be "packaged" into objects. We have implemented the Web extractor using the Python programming language stressing efficiency and ease-of-use. We also describe various ways of improving the functionality of our current prototype. The prototype is installed and running in the TSIMMIS testbed as part of a DARPA I 3 (Intelligent Integration of Information) technology demonstration where it is used for extracting weather data form various WWW sites. 1. Introduction The World Wide Web (WWW) has become a vast information store that is growing at a rapid rate, both in number of sites and in volume of useful information. However, the contents of the WWW cannot be queried and manipulate...