Can screen-scraper extract information from non-HTML objects such as Java applets, ActiveX controls or Adobe Flash movies?

The short answer to this one is, "Sometimes." Most all widgets (applets, etc.) that communicate with their server via HTTP can be scraped by screen-scraper. Oftentimes, however, they'll use a proprietary protocol. Most of the time Adobe Flash movies use HTTP when they need to communicate with a server, but Java applets and ActiveX controls don't always. The easiest way to find out is to use screen-scraper's proxy server when interacting with a page containing one of these elements. Take a close look at the HTTP requests and responses passing between the web browser and the server. If you see text in there (often XML or URL-encoded lists of parameters) then the chances are good that screen-scraper can extract the information being passed between the client and server. Note, however, that there may be text that the widget is displaying that doesn't get passed between the client and server. Unfortunately, in such cases, screen-scraper is unable to extract that information. The only utilities we're aware of that may allow for scraping that type of information would be IBM's Rational Robot and OpenSpan.