Creating a list using UBot Studio is an easy task. In essence, you need to supply the correct attribute of the data being extracted, and then tell it which attribute you want to add to your list.

Now a list can be as simple as grouping names or even websites. So if it looks like a list to you, it probably is a list.

Even though I can make creating a list a simple task, there is some analytical thinking put into it.

For example, if you are trying to extract a list and that particular list all items have hyperlinks, then you need to ensure that there are distinctions between these links and the other links that may reside on the same page.

If you don’t make that distinction, you could end up with more data in your list than you intended.

While it’s helpful to know how to read and write HTML tags, it’s not really necessary. I usually compare those links to each other in notepad or using FireBug or even Inspect Element.

What I’m looking for is a common element, attribute, or element that relates my data to each other, and yet keeps it different from the other objects on the web page.

Most of the time these elements are “name=”, “id=” or even “class=”. I’ll also use what’s to the right of the equals sign.

Once I have identified that attribute, I use the “choose by attribute” node. The next node I’ll add is “add to list”.

Knowing that I will be running this script multiple times, I need to add a “clear list” node in the first position. This will always set the list variable to null. Failing to do this will make the list grow and grow.

My fourth step is to add a variable using the “set” node and then add the “$list total” function node. When this runs it will display the total number of items my list contains.

Finally, I need to know that total, so I’ll add a “UI stats monitor”. This will add that total value to my environment so you can see how many items I’ve mined.

As you can see, creating a bot is not that difficult. There are some commands that take some getting used to, but overall it’s a very rich app and easy to learn.