More xpathonurl blank-cell woes - Racing Post

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#1

I'm trying to scrape greyhound form from the Racing post but just get a blank cell. Here's the URL in cell A1,
http://greyhoundbet.racingpost.com/#card/race_id=1484685&r_date=2016-10-15&tab=form
Here's the xpathonurl function in cell b1:
=XPathOnUrl(A1,"/html/body/div[3]/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/div[1]/div[4]/div/div[1]/div[2]/table[2]/tbody/tr[2]/td[2]")

When I put the xpath string into the data-miner app, it returns the correct value (Harlow) but in Excel it returns a blank.
I reckon it's something in Excel that I'm doing wrong.

Any pointers gratefully received.

#2

The reason your Xpath requests returns blank responses is because the site uses Javascript. You can use the PhantomJs Cloud Connector to solve this challenge and get Xpath working.

Pasted image1205×356 12.8 KB

You need to register for an account to get an API-key. Here is the documentation page:
https://seotoolsforexcel.com/phantomjs-cloud/

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#3

Many thanks for your speedy reply. I'll have a play later on.
It sure was a noodle-scratcher.

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