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Run task locally with Octoparse 8.5
Run task locally with Octoparse 8.5
Updated over a week ago

You are browsing a tutorial guide for the latest Octoparse version. If you are running an older version of Octoparse, we strongly recommend you upgrade because it is faster, easier and more robust! Download and upgrade here if you haven't already done so!

As the highlight of this 8.5 update, we redesigned almost everything around local runs and included many innovative features. This was accompanied by a more effective user interface, with a more purposeful layout. We will guide you through the interface in this article to get you familiar with it.

When you finish building a task, you can click the run button on the top right like you normally do to run your task.

If the task includes a splittable loop, a pop-up screen will appear with the option to choose between Boost Mode and Standard Mode. If your local device is powerful enough, it is recommended that you enable Boost Mode by default for local runs in dashboard settings.

run_your_task.jpg

If your task is not splittable, the Boost Mode button will be disabled.


Specifically, there are three types of splittable loop modes in Octoparse. Check your task and see if it contains the three types of loops below:

  1. List of URLs

  2. Text list

  3. Fixed list

If so, you can run it in Boost Mode, where Octoparse splits the whole task into multiple subtasks (100 maximum) depending on the actual task. Unlike task split in the cloud, Octoparse will only run three concurrent subtasks locally. So Boost Mode will be approximately 3 times faster than Standard Mode for local data runs. We set the value to 3 and limit the number of concurrent local runs in case Octoparse pushes your local device past its limit.

TIP: Read this article for more tips and tricks on how to make your task splittable.


Local data run window

1. Standard Mode

Start any existing task in Standard Mode and a new local data run window will pop up.

standard_mode.jpg
  • Task running info: The upper gray area will now display task status, the number of data extracted, duplicate count, run time, average speed, etc.

  • Pause/Resume: Looking further to the right, in addition to the option to stop the task completely, there is a button to pause/resume a local run task. When your target website requires you to solve an occasional CAPTCHA or fill in some information, you can pause the task, open the browser window for the local run and manually deal with it. Kindly note that Octoparse CANNOT resume a task if you close the software.

  • Show Browser: If you click on the Show Browser icon window, the upper gray area will switch to the web view, where you can see how the web pages are loaded and monitor the running process of your task.

  • Task Edit: Clicking the task edit icon will take you back to the task edit interface.

The lower white area displays the task details in four switchable tabs, including Overview, Data Extracted, Log, and History.

  • Overview: This tab is an overview of a particular data run. It shows start time, end time, data count with duplicates excluded, as well as the CAPTCHAs solved (coming soon) and proxies (coming soon) used local during the data run.

overview.jpg
  • Data Extracted: This tab lists all the data extracted from this particular data run.

  • Log: This tab lists all the log events from a specific data run. You can either list all of the log events or filter the error logs only. The error logs will be extremely helpful for troubleshooting tasks. You can export the logs as a text file.

log_tab.jpg
  • History: This tab shows the history for each local data run. You can find an option to auto-backup your local run data to the cloud after a task has been stopped or completed (available to Pro & Above plans) on the bottom right. You can also choose to backup/export data for a particular data run manually in the Options column, or backup/export all data at the same time.

history.jpg

TIP: Octoparse now supports cloud data backup for local runs. If you're subscribed to pro or above plans, you can now set Octoparse to auto backup your local run data to the cloud after a task is stopped or completed. This is extremely helpful if you want to use API to connect your local data to a database.


2. Boost Mode

If we start a task in Boost Mode, the default view for the new local data run window will be a little different than that of Standard Mode.

There will be a boosting icon, a speedup percentage indicator, and a Disable Boost Mode button to the right of the task status. If we click Disable Boost Mode, Octoparse will finish the three concurrent subtasks and then execute the remaining subtasks one by one. Note that once disabled, the Boost Mode cannot be resumed for the current run.

boosting.jpg

The lower white area still displays the task details in four switchable tabs, including Overview, Data Extracted, Subtask Status, and History. The Overview, Data Extracted and History tabs remain the same as in the Standard Mode, so we will jump those and focus on introducing the Subtask Status tab.

  • Subtask Status

    • This tab is shown for tasks that are run in Boost Mode. You can check the create time, start time, finish time, run time, data count, and status of all the subtasks in a table format.

    • When a subtask is marked as completed, you can hover over that row of data and click logs to show its event logs.

subtask_log.jpg
  • If a subtask is marked as paused/running, you can pause/resume it or click details to go to the detail page. You will then be taken to a new window with the Data Extracted and Log tabs.

details.jpg

TIP: You can quickly access the details of a subtask in Boost Mode by clicking the Show Browser icon. A drop-down menu will appear upon clicking to let you choose from the concurrent subtasks.

show_browser.jpg
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