scrape-it

A Node.js scraper for humans.

Want to save time or not using Node.js? Try our hosted API.

:cloud: Installation

# Using npm
npm install --save scrape-it

Using yarn
yarn add scrape-it

:bulb: ProTip: You can install the cli version of this module by running

npm install --global scrape-it-cli

yarn global add scrape-it-cli

FAQ

Here are some frequent questions and their answers.

1. How to parse scrape pages?

scrape-it

1. The ajax response is in JSON format. In this case, you can make the request directly, without needing a scraping library.
2. The ajax response gives you HTML back. Instead of calling the main website (e.g. example.com), pass to

   scrape-it

   the ajax url (e.g.

   example.com/api/that-endpoint

   ) and you will you will be able to parse the response
3. The ajax request is so complicated that you don't want to reverse-engineer it. In this case, use a headless browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Electron, PhantomJS) to load the content and then use the

   .scrapeHTML

   method from scrape it once you get the HTML loaded on the page.

2. Crawling

There is no fancy way to crawl pages with

scrape-it

.scrapeHTML

3. Local files

Use the

.scrapeHTML

fs.readFile

:clipboard: Example

const scrapeIt = require("scrape-it")

// Promise interface
scrapeIt("https://ionicabizau.net", {
    title: ".header h1"
  , desc: ".header h2"
  , avatar: {
        selector: ".header img"
      , attr: "src"
    }
}).then(({ data, response }) => {
    console.log(Status Code: ${response.statusCode})
    console.log(data)
})
// Callback interface
scrapeIt("https://ionicabizau.net", {
    // Fetch the articles
    articles: {
        listItem: ".article"
      , data: {
        // Get the article date and convert it into a Date object
        createdAt: {
            selector: ".date"
          , convert: x => new Date(x)
        }

        // Get the title
      , title: "a.article-title"

        // Nested list
      , tags: {
            listItem: ".tags > span"
        }

        // Get the content
      , content: {
            selector: ".article-content"
          , how: "html"
        }

        // Get attribute value of root listItem by omitting the selector
      , classes: {
            attr: "class"
        }
    }
}

// Fetch the blog pages
  , pages: {
        listItem: "li.page"
      , name: "pages"
      , data: {
            title: "a"
          , url: {
                selector: "a"
              , attr: "href"
            }
        }
    }
// Fetch some other data from the page
  , title: ".header h1"
  , desc: ".header h2"
  , avatar: {
        selector: ".header img"
      , attr: "src"
    }
}, (err, { data }) => {
    console.log(err || data)
})
// { articles:
//    [ { createdAt: Mon Mar 14 2016 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (EET),
//        title: 'Pi Day, Raspberry Pi and Command Line',
//        tags: [Object],
//        content: '
Everyone knows (or should know)...a" alt="">
\n',
//        classes: [Object] },
//      { createdAt: Thu Feb 18 2016 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (EET),
//        title: 'How I ported Memory Blocks to modern web',
//        tags: [Object],
//        content: '
Playing computer games is a lot of fun. ...',
//        classes: [Object] },
//      { createdAt: Mon Nov 02 2015 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (EET),
//        title: 'How to convert JSON to Markdown using json2md',
//        tags: [Object],
//        content: '
I love and ...',
//        classes: [Object] } ],
//   pages:
//    [ { title: 'Blog', url: '/' },
//      { title: 'About', url: '/about' },
//      { title: 'FAQ', url: '/faq' },
//      { title: 'Training', url: '/training' },
//      { title: 'Contact', url: '/contact' } ],
//   title: 'Ionică Bizău',
//   desc: 'Web Developer,  Linux geek and  Musician',
//   avatar: '/images/logo.png' }

:question: Get Help

There are few ways to get help:

1. Please post questions on Stack Overflow. You can open issues with questions, as long you add a link to your Stack Overflow question.
2. For bug reports and feature requests, open issues. :bug:
3. For direct and quick help, you can use Codementor. :rocket:

:memo: Documentation

scrapeIt(url, opts, cb)

A scraping module for humans.

Params

• String|Object

  url

  : The page url or request options.
• Object

  opts

  : The options passed to

  scrapeHTML

  method.
• Function

  cb

  : The callback function.

Return

• Promise A promise object resolving with:

  • data

    (Object): The scraped data.

  • $

    (Function): The Cheeerio function. This may be handy to do some other manipulation on the DOM, if needed.

  • response

    (Object): The response object.

  • body

    (String): The raw body as a string.

scrapeIt.scrapeHTML($, opts)

Scrapes the data in the provided element.

For the format of the selector, please refer to the Selectors section of the Cheerio library

Params

• Cheerio

  $

  : The input element.

• Object

  opts

  : An object containing the scraping information. If you want to scrape a list, you have to use the

  listItem

  selector:

  • listItem

    (String): The list item selector.

  • data

    (Object): The fields to include in the list objects:

    • (Object|String): The selector or an object containing:

      • selector

        (String): The selector.

      • convert

        (Function): An optional function to change the value.

      • how

        (Function|String): A function or function name to access the value.

      • attr

        (String): If provided, the value will be taken based on the attribute name.

      • trim

        (Boolean): If

        false

        , the value will not be trimmed (default:

        true

        ).

      • closest

        (String): If provided, returns the first ancestor of the given element.

      • eq

        (Number): If provided, it will select the nth element.

      • texteq

        (Number): If provided, it will select the nth direct text child. Deep text child selection is not possible yet. Overwrites the

        how

        key.

      • listItem

        (Object): An object, keeping the recursive schema of the

        listItem

        object. This can be used to create nested lists.

Example:

js
  {
     articles: {
         listItem: ".article"
       , data: {
             createdAt: {
                 selector: ".date"
               , convert: x => new Date(x)
             }
           , title: "a.article-title"
           , tags: {
                 listItem: ".tags > span"
             }
           , content: {
                 selector: ".article-content"
               , how: "html"
             }
           , traverseOtherNode: {
                 selector: ".upperNode"
               , closest: "div"
               , convert: x => x.length
             }
         }
     }
  }

If you want to collect specific data from the page, just use the same schema used for the

data

Example:

js
  {
       title: ".header h1"
     , desc: ".header h2"
     , avatar: {
           selector: ".header img"
         , attr: "src"
       }
  }

Return

• Object The scraped data.

:yum: How to contribute

Have an idea? Found a bug? See how to contribute.

:sparkling_heart: Support my projects

I open-source almost everything I can, and I try to reply to everyone needing help using these projects. Obviously, this takes time. You can integrate and use these projects in your applications for free! You can even change the source code and redistribute (even resell it).

However, if you get some profit from this or just want to encourage me to continue creating stuff, there are few ways you can do it:

• Starring and sharing the projects you like :rocket:
• —I love books! I will remember you after years if you buy me one. :grin: :book:
• —You can make one-time donations via PayPal. I'll probably buy a ~~coffee~~ tea. :tea:
• —Set up a recurring monthly donation and you will get interesting news about what I'm doing (things that I don't share with everyone).

• Bitcoin—You can send me bitcoins at this address (or scanning the code below):

  1P9BRsmazNQcuyTxEqveUsnf5CERdq35V6

  

Thanks! :heart:

:dizzy: Where is this library used?

If you are using this library in one of your projects, add it in this list. :sparkles:

• @web-master/node-web-scraper

• proxylist

• mit-ocw-scraper

• beervana-scraper

• cnn-market

• bandcamp-scraper

• @tryghost/mg-webscraper

• blockchain-notifier

• dncli

• degusta-scrapper

• trump-cabinet-picks

• cevo-lookup

• camaleon

• scrape-vinmonopolet

• do-fn

• university-news-notifier

• selfrefactor

• parn

• picarto-lib

• mix-dl

• jishon

• sahibinden

• sahibindenServer

• sgdq-collector

• ubersetzung

• ui-studentsearch

• paklek-cli

• egg-crawler

• @thetrg/gibson

• jobs-fetcher

• fmgo-marketdata

• rayko-tools

• leximaven

• codinglove-scraper

• vandalen.rhyme.js

• uniwue-lernplaetze-scraper

• spon-market

• macoolka-net-scrape

• gatsby-source-bandcamp

• salesforcerelease-parser

• yu-ncov-scrape-dxy

• rs-api

• startpage-quick-search

• helyesiras

• covidau

• 3abn

• scrape-it-cli

• codementor

• u-pull-it-ne-parts-finder

• blankningsregistret

• scrapos-worker

• @ben-wormald/bandcamp-scraper

• bible-scraper

• flamescraper

• fa.js

• growapi

• node-red-contrib-scrape-it

• carirs

• steam-workshop-scraper

• macoolka-network

• apixpress

:scroll: License

MIT © Ionică Bizău