Example: Scraping product listings from an e-commerce category page:
=importFromWeb("https://reviews.example.com/product", "table", ".review-table", "paginate": ".next-button", "max_pages": 10) Many data sources sit behind login walls. importFromWeb supports passing cookies, API keys, or OAuth tokens either directly or via a credential manager. importfromweb
In the modern data landscape, the web is the largest database ever created. However, extracting that data—whether it's a live stock ticker, a government census table, a product catalog, or a social media feed—has traditionally required complex coding, API wrangling, or fragile web scrapers. Enter importFromWeb : a paradigm-shifting function designed to bring the power of the entire internet directly into your spreadsheet, database, or analytical environment. What is importFromWeb ? At its core, importFromWeb is a declarative function (similar to IMPORTHTML in Google Sheets or Web.Contents in Power Query) that allows a user to fetch structured data from a URL and import it directly into a working environment. Unlike traditional screen scraping, modern importFromWeb implementations leverage a combination of headless browsers, XPath/CSS selectors, and automatic schema detection to convert messy HTML into clean rows and columns. However, extracting that data—whether it's a live stock
=importFromWeb("https://example.com/crypto", "json", "script[type='application/json']") For non-tabular data (e.g., product names, prices, images), you can target repeating HTML elements. The function returns a 2D array where each matched element becomes a row. At its core, importFromWeb is a declarative function
=importFromWeb("https://shop.example.com/phones", "list", ".product-item", "fields": "name": ".title", "price": ".price-amount", "link": "a@href" ) A standout feature. The function can follow "Next" links or automatically scroll to trigger lazy loading, then concatenate results across multiple pages into a single output.