scrapr
v0.0.15
Published
A tool for getting public website content using a browser engine or http get.
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Scrapr
"Why should I use this"?
There are websites that rely on javascript frameworks (like jQuery or AngularJS) and process dynamic data after the page load. For these type of websites, you should use a browser to interpert the javascript code and then get the data. Which is what this tool does: provides methods for this task using SlimerJS (Firefox's Gecko engine) in the background.
Installation
$ npm install scrapr --save
Methods
getHtmlViaBrowser(url, loadImages)
- url: string (required)
- loadImages: bool (optional)
Opens a browser under the hood, waits for the page load and then gets the data. Returns a promise with a jQuery object ($). This is useful if the page relies on javascript and updates the html content after the page load.
var scrapr = require('scrapr');
// Opens a browser (loading images), goes to google, gets html tag, finds "feeling lucky button" and prints it
scrapr.getHtmlViaBrowser('http://www.google.com', true).then(function($){
$('html').filter(function(){
var htmlTag = $(this);
var luckyButton = htmlTag.find('input.lsb')[0];
console.log($(luckyButton).attr('value'));
});
}, function(err){
console.log('Could not request page. Error: ' + err.message);
});
getHtmlViaRequest(url)
- url: string (required)
Makes a direct GET request to the url and returns a promise with a jQuery object ($). This is useful if the page does not rely on javascript and updates the html content after the page load.
var scrapr = require('scrapr');
// Gets google's html tag, finds "feeling lucky button" and prints it
scrapr.getHtmlViaRequest('http://www.google.com').then(function($){
$('html').filter(function(){
var htmlTag = $(this);
var luckyButton = htmlTag.find('input.lsb')[0];
console.log($(luckyButton).attr('value'));
});
}, function(err){
console.log('Could not request page. Error: ' + err.message);
});
parseListIntoSlices(arrayToParse, length)
- arrayToParse: string (required)
- length: number (required)
A helper function that splits a large array into slices with the specified length. Useful for throttling large amount of requests while doing parallel requests. For example: scraping 50 pages into slices of 5 with a minute interval for each slice.
var scrapr = require('scrapr');
// Creates an array of 50 elements and then split it into slices of 6
var largeArray = new Array();
for(var i = 0; i < 50; i++) {
largeArray.push(i);
}
var slices = scrapr.parseListIntoSlices(largeArray, 6);
console.log(slices);
Author
Renan Caldas de Oliveira
- Web: http://www.renancaldas.com
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/renanzeirah
- Github: https://github.com/renancaldas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renan.caldas.oliveira