Python Web Scraping in SAP Business Objects CMC: Getting the List of Schedules

Recently, I faced a mission: organizing all SAP Business Objects schedules into an Excel file. The manual process was tedious—copying each schedule name and details and pasting them into Excel. With hundreds of schedules, it meant endless copy-pasting. I scoured the internet for solutions and found that the primary solution is Query Builder. However, exporting the Power Builder results from the web into an Excel file is still challenging. I also tried the SAP Business Objects API, it could fetch all schedules, but the number of recurring schedules is not the same as what we saw in SAP BO CMC. So, I turned to Python, and it works! If you're grappling with the same challenge, my code might be the solution you're seeking. I mporting Libraries import pandas as pd from selenium import webdriver from bs4 import BeautifulSoup from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By import time Here, it’s importing necessary libraries. for data manipulation, for web scraping, for HTML parsing, and for adding pauses between operations. pandas selenium BeautifulSoup time Setting up SAP BO Connection Details bo_cmc = 'http://localhost:port/BOE/CMC' bo_user_name = 'username' bo_password = 'password' It defines the SAP BusinessObjects Central Management Console (CMC) URL and login credentials. Function to Get Soup (HTML Content) def get_soup(driver, xpath): element = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, xpath) soup = BeautifulSoup(element.get_attribute("innerHTML"), 'lxml') soup.prettify() return soup This function uses Selenium to locate an HTML element using XPath, extracts its inner HTML, and then creates a BeautifulSoup object for parsing. Functions to Convert HTML to List and DataFrame def bo_instances_html_to_list(soup): n = int(len(soup.select('tr td div')) / 16) values = [[] * n for _ in range(n)] for i in range(n): for j in range(16): values[i].append(soup.select('tr td div')[i * 16 + j].text) return values def bo_values_to_df(values): df = pd.DataFrame(values) df.columns = ['', 'title', 'type', 'status', 'location', 'owner', 'completion_time', 'next_run_time', 'submission_time', 'start_time', 'duration', 'recurrence', 'expiry', 'server', 'error', 'title2'] return df def bo_instance_to_df(soup): values = bo_instances_html_to_list(soup) df = bo_values_to_df(values) return df These functions convert HTML content of SAP BO instances into a list and then into a Pandas DataFrame. Selenium Automation Function def bo_selenium_to_df(): options = webdriver.ChromeOptions() prefs = {'profile.default_content_settings.popups': 0} options.add_experimental_option('prefs', prefs) options.add_experimental_option("detach", True) driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options) driver.get(bo_cmc) driver.switch_to.frame("servletBridgeIframe") time.sleep(3) username_input = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="_id2:logon:USERNAME"]') password_input = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="_id2:logon:PASSWORD"]') time.sleep(1) username_input.send_keys(bo_user_name) time.sleep(1) password_input.send_keys(bo_password) time.sleep(1) login_button = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="_id2:logon:logonButton"]') time.sleep(1) login_button.click() time.sleep(5) html_text = driver.execute_script("return document.documentElement.outerHTML") contentFrame = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="contentFrame"]') driver.switch_to.frame(contentFrame) time.sleep(2) innerContent = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="innerContent"]') driver.switch_to.frame(innerContent) time.sleep(2) instance_manager_href = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="manageList"]/li[1]/a[2]') instance_manager_href.click() time.sleep(1) # instancemanager ## switch to innerContent iframe html_page = driver.execute_script("return document.documentElement.outerHTML") contentFrame = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="contentFrame"]') driver.switch_to.frame(contentFrame) time.sleep(1) innerContent = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="innerContent"]') driver.switch_to.frame(innerContent) time.sleep(1) frames = [] soup = get_soup(driver, xpath='//*[@id="UniversalRepositoryExplorer_detailView_mainTableBody"]') n = int(len(soup.select('tr td div')) / 16) df_start = bo_instance_to_df(soup=soup) frames.append(df_start) # In SAP BusinessObjects (SAP BO), schedules default to displaying 50 schedules per page. while n == 50: next_page_button = driver.find_element(By.XPATH, '//*[@id="UniversalRepositoryExplorer_goForwardButton"]') next_page_button.click() time.sleep(2) soup = get_soup(driver, xpath='//*[@id="UniversalRepositoryExplorer_detailView_mainTableBody"]') df = bo_instance_to_df(soup=soup) frames.append(df) n = int(len(soup.select('tr td div')) / 16) df = pd.concat(frames, axis=0) driver.close() drop_column = ['', 'completion_time', 'start_time', 'duration', 'server', 'error', 'title2'] for column in drop_column: df = df.drop(column, axis=1) df['index'] = range(1, len(df) + 1) df = df[['index', 'title', 'type', 'status', 'location', 'owner', 'next_run_time', 'submission_time', 'recurrence', 'expiry']] return df This function uses Selenium to automate the process of logging into SAP BO, navigating to the schedule manager, extracting schedule details, and finally converting them into a Pandas DataFrame. Executing the Selenium Function df = bo_selenium_to_df() This line calls the Selenium function and stores the resulting DataFrame in the variable . df Thank you for taking the time to explore data-related insights with me. I appreciate your engagement. If you find this information helpful, I invite you to follow me or connect with me on . Happy exploring!👋 LinkedIn Also appears . here