iMacros is a browser based application for macro recording, editing and playback for web automation and testing. It is provided as a standalone application and

extensions Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

for the

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and a ...

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...

, and

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

s. Developed by iOpus/Ipswitch, It adds record and replay functionality similar to that found in web testing and form filler software. The macros can be combined and controlled via

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

. Demo macros and JavaScript code examples are included with the software. Running strictly JavaScript based macros were removed in later versions of iMacros browser extensions. However, users can use alternative browser like

Pale Moon Pale Moon is an open-source web browser with an emphasis on customization; its motto is "Your browser, Your way". There are official releases for Microsoft Windows and Linux, as well as contributed builds for various platforms. Pale Moon origi ...

, based on older version of

to use JavaScript files for web based automated testing with Moon Tester Tool.

History

First created in 2001 by Mathias Roth, iMacros was the first

macro recorder A macro recorder is software that records macros for playback at a later time. The main advantage of using a macro recorder is that it allows a user to easily perform complex operations much faster and with less effort without requiring custom co ...

tool specifically designed and optimized for web browsers and form filling. In April 2012 iMacros was acquired by Ipswitch. In 2019 Ipswitch itself (and thus iMacros along with it) was acquired by Progress. In November 2022 Progress discontinued iMacros.

Features

iMacros for Firefox and Chrome offers a feature known as social scripting, which allows users to share macros and scripts in a manner similar to

social bookmarking Social bookmarking is an online service which allows users to add, annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents. Many online bookmark management services have launched since 1996; Delicious, founded in 2003, popularized the terms "social ...

. Technically, these functions are distributed on web sites by embedding the imacro and the controlling JavaScript inside a plain text link. Along with the

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...

version, iMacros is available as a proprietary commercial application, with additional features and support for web scripting,

web scraping Web scraping, web harvesting, or web data extraction is data scraping used for extracting data from websites. Web scraping software may directly access the World Wide Web using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol or a web browser. While web scrapin ...

internet server monitoring Network monitoring is the use of a system that constantly monitors a computer network for slow or failing components and that notifies the network administrator (via email, SMS or other alarms) in case of outages or other trouble. Network monitorin ...

, and

web testing Web testing is software testing that focuses on web applications. Complete testing of a web-based system before going live can help address issues before the system is revealed to the public. Issues may include the security of the web application ...

. In addition to working with

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

pages, the commercial editions can automate

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...

Adobe Flex Apache Flex, formerly Adobe Flex, is a software development kit (SDK) for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich web applications based on the Adobe Flash platform. Initially developed by Macromedia and then acquired by Adobe System ...

Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe Inc., Adobe's Run time environment, runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a v ...

, and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

applets by using Directscreen and

image recognition Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the human ...

technology. The

version of iMacros contains no control flow statements and, with a few minor exceptions, complex or conditional code requires scripting available only in the commercial version. Advanced versions also contain a

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

and an

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...

(API) to automate more complicated tasks and integrate with other programs or scripts. The iMacros API is called the Scripting Interface. The Scripting Interface of the iMacros Scripting Edition is designed as a Component Object Model (COM) object and allows the user to remotely control (script) the iMacros Browser, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome from any Windows programming or

scripting language A scripting language or script language is a programming language that is used to manipulate, customize, and automate the facilities of an existing system. Scripting languages are usually interpreted at runtime rather than compiled. A scripting ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Imacros Automation software Internet Explorer add-ons Nonfree Firefox WebExtensions Scripting languages Google Chrome extensions Web scraping

History

Features

See also

References

External links