screen scraper - technical definition

(1) Also called "frontware," it is software that adds a graphical user interface (GUI) to character-based mainframe and earlier minicomputer applications. The screen scraper runs in the user's computer and connects to the mainframe or mini via the network or terminal emulation. See terminal emulation.

(2) Software that automatically extracts data from interactive screens without user intervention. This usage of the term was primarily in the days of character-based terminals.

(3) Software that automatically extracts data from HTML pages or other documents that are normally viewed interactively by the user (see screen scraping).