a hard problem for beginner

[jackal]

I am beginner (still a student) to prgramming and need some guidance.
(I am using VB.Net)
Assume therer are two website-->websiteA(my own website) and websiteB(someone
else's website).
I need to extract data fromwebsiteB(data in a table) and display the data
in a chart.

Because the data in websiteB is updated every moment, i might need to store
the old data in a database for me to plot the graph/chart(value against time)
later.
The way I am doing is using Access and Excel manually.
I want to use ecxel to do a web query and extract data from websiteB and
the let excel's webquery refreshes every minute.
I am able to create a macro(using transferspreadsheet method) in access to
append the updated/refreshed data to the previous data from excel but i can't
set the macro run automatically every minute(synchronize with excel). How
do i solve this??
I know that if all this is done entirely by writing code in ASP, it will
be more professional and less problem, but I don't know how should I start
the code because i am not sure the coding to control excel and access in
VB.net(such as data connection etc.).
So, what is the best way to solve this problem??
If it is possible, could anybody show me how to do this by truely coding
in asp??

[Q*bert]

Just my 2 cents....

More Kludge:
Well you could schedule the opening of the database to occur every minute
on a machine using the "AT" command. (Type AT from a command prompt) Then
by creating a macro in Access called Autoexec that calls your routine, you
can have access automatically run the query on open. This seems very messy
and I'm VERY sure theres a simpler method; but it will most likely involve
using XML, DOM Objects and a Timer event.

Concerns:
My question would be where is the data that the site is providing comming
from. Is there a database that contains this data? Does the site offer
a service for data extraction? If you can get access to the data directly
then the solution would be simpler, if there is a service available, then
you could use the Inet Component from within Access to call the site and
then write some code to parse the resulting information from the Inet Object;
thereby eliminating Excel. Within Access you could have a timer event that
calls the code to update every minute. Your limitation would be that you
would have to have a machine always running, always logged in and with the
Access app open all the time.

IMO--Ideal:
In my mind what your tring to write is nothing more than a service that handles
some one-way data exchange. All of this could be writtin in VB setup as
a service to run on a server updating your DB as necessary. In VB you would
be using some of the same controls Inet, Timer, possibly some DOM and db
connection stuff.

Concepts:
Using the Inet control you can bring in the page source of the site your
after.

Using Dom AND/OR some custom code, you can parse the result from the Inet
contorol until you get to the data in the Inet control your after.

Using some DB connection you update your database to the appropriate values
from your read of the Inet control

Using the Timer control you add an event that after every minute, your code
re-executes.

Every minute seems like a very short inverval given 60*24=1440 rows added
to your db every day. 43,200 in 30 days or 525,600 a year. But if this is
the demand, so be it.

Hope this helped...
Q*bert

"jackal" <wancherng@msn.com> wrote:
>
>I am beginner (still a student) to prgramming and need some guidance.
>(I am using VB.Net)
>Assume therer are two website-->websiteA(my own website) and websiteB(someone
>else's website).
>I need to extract data fromwebsiteB(data in a table) and display the data
>in a chart.
>
>Because the data in websiteB is updated every moment, i might need to store
>the old data in a database for me to plot the graph/chart(value against
time)
>later.
>The way I am doing is using Access and Excel manually.
>I want to use ecxel to do a web query and extract data from websiteB and
>the let excel's webquery refreshes every minute.
>I am able to create a macro(using transferspreadsheet method) in access
to
>append the updated/refreshed data to the previous data from excel but i
can't
>set the macro run automatically every minute(synchronize with excel). How
>do i solve this??
>I know that if all this is done entirely by writing code in ASP, it will
>be more professional and less problem, but I don't know how should I start
>the code because i am not sure the coding to control excel and access in
>VB.net(such as data connection etc.).
>So, what is the best way to solve this problem??
>If it is possible, could anybody show me how to do this by truely coding
>in asp??
>