Data acquisition tool and system and method for data acquisition

A computer-implemented method for acquiring structured data hosted on a server, the method comprising:

• receiving a first link to a main page, the main page comprising one or more page links;
• for each page link, following the page link to a linked page;
• for each linked page, selecting one or more of the structured data hosted on the linked page by selecting an element on the linked page;
• for each selected structured datum, storing corresponding path data;
• classifying a type for each structured datum;
• indicating that the element has been correctly selected;
• and
• storing the structured data.

A computer-implemented method for updating previously acquired structured data hosted on a server, the method comprising:

• determining to update one or more of the previously acquired structured data, each previously acquired structured data having been acquired via following a corresponding page link on a main page to a linked page;
• following each corresponding page link;
• reacquiring each previously acquired structured datum according to path data previously associated with an element on the linked page, the element having been previously selected as the structured datum;
• automatically deleting each previously acquired structured datum for which there is no element on the linked page corresponding to the element previously selected as the structured datum;
• and
• indicating which data were updated.