Well, I can think of quite a few questions that would need to be answered before you can definitively say yes or no. And I wouldn't be surprised if developers could think of a few more. So just as a starting point:
* Is each screen or page of the web site a simple HTML form? and it is doing a GET or more likely a POST to some URL? If so, each page or POST from a page could be considered a REST web service that uses form-url-encoding.
* Each of those URLs could be seen as one mashable that simply has to be invoked. Is there a required order to how this has to happen? Conditions in how the POST occur based on the data or choices users make?
* Does the web site require authentication to access? If so, each mashable may also require that authentication. How is the authentication provided? Basic HTTP? NTLM? SSO? OAuth? something else? How do you get that into your mashup and added to the invocations of each of the those URLs?
* How do you handle error responses for each of those URLs? These are typically error messages to users where they have to correct data or correct their actions. How do you deal with this in the mashup?
* On the input side, how do you get to the spreadsheet data? Is the spreadsheet available via HTTP, so that it can be invoked dynamically with up-to-date data? If not, someone is going to have to update the spreadsheet mashable in Presto each time it changes so that Presto has the right information. So there is still some manual part to the process. Or perhaps this can be automated? Where is the data in the spreadsheet actually coming from?
* How complicated is the logic to get portions of the data out of the spreadsheet and into those POSTs? This is basically what the staff is currently doing now.
Sara, technical writer/jackbe
I was asked if there's a way to drive (automate) a web site by populating fields and clicking buttons driving through all the screens until the input is finished. Currently the user has to manually enter data from a spreadsheets onto an external website which consists of several screens and data entries for hundreds of records each month. They are asking me if there is a way to automate this process and I immediately thought about a mashup. So, can it be done?
Thanks, Todd