5 Most Common API Questions in Octoparse

Question:  I get an invalid_grant when trying to get a token.

{"error":"invalid_grant","error_description":"This feature is unavailable. You don't have the required account privileges."}

Answer: if you saw an error reported as: “This feature is unavailable. You don’t have the required account privileges.”

It is because the Advanced API is only available for Professional Plan users.

You can use Data API for Standard Plan: http://dataapi.octoparse.com

Question: When getting OAuth Token, whatever I try to post to the API it returns {"error":"unsupported_grant_type"}

Answer: please make sure you add this parameter(username={userName}&password={password}&grant_type=password) into the request body not the request URL.

Question: How can I get the next 1000 rows using non-exported data endpoint using API? 

Answer: if you have exported the first batch of non-exported data, please change the status of the exported data first:

http://advancedapi.octoparse.com/help#_actions_NotExportDataSetExportingDataAsExported  

Then you can get the next 1000 rows by using http://advancedapi.octoparse.com/help#_actions_NotExportDataSelectTop

Question: What do the error responses mean？

Answer: whenever an error code appears, please refer to the following status code to solve the problem.

Question: How to write a task parameter name?

Answer:

You can modify the task parameter setting with the API. Each step in the workflow has a unique name. The task parameter name is the combination of a unique name and a default suffix.

There are four kinds of default suffixes in Octoparse.

To write a task parameter name, you need to get the unique name from the Octoparse software first and then combine the unique name with the corresponding default suffix.

How to get a unique name?

For Octoparse version 8

Step 1: Click the settings button of the target step in the workflow.

Step 2: Click the button to copy the unique name.

For Octoparse version 7

Step 1: Open the target task

Step 2: Hover your mouse on one step in the workflow.

There is a note popping up. that’s where the unique name is.

For example: 

The unique name for "Go To Web Page" is "navigateAction1". So the task parameter name is "navigateAction1.Url"

The unique name for "Enter Text" is "enterTextAction1". So the task parameter name is "enterTextAction1.Text"

The unique name for "Loop" is "loopAction4". So the task parameter name is "loopAction1.TextList" or "loopAction1.UrlList", depending on the loop contents.

Artículo en español:  5 solicitudes comunes de API 

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Writer: Yanni

Editor: Yina