Extracting data from an excel sheet, entering and collecting info from 3rd party sites:
While all data sources differ, the technical considerations don’t vary as much. In writing scripts like these I use Python with the Selenium and Scrapy modules.
Technical considerations:
Since web developers augment their sites constantly, using ‘XPath’ and ‘Id’ for the elements are a bit more robust than the alternatives. But as always, a significant change to these sources can break code. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often and when it does, only a small change to the script can get the script up and running again.
Also, how you run the program and use it will determine a lot of the architecture. Some of the details your developer would need is how you plan on deploying the program as well as how familiar the users will be with the Command Line Interface.
Additionally, automating the process is relatively easy using Python as well.
I hope to continue the dialogue with you and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out via the platform or my email listed at the top.
Thank you,
Jameson Welch