- Python Web Scraping Tutorial
Open Web Scraper. Web Scraper is integrated into browser Developer tools. Figure 1 shows how you can open it on Chrome. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to open Developer tools. After opening Developer tools open Web Scraper tab. Shortcuts: Windows, Linux: Ctrl+Shift+I, F12; Mac Cmd+Opt+I; Related videos. How to open Web Scraper extension.
- Python Web Scraping Resources
About the Web Scraper Chrome Extension. Web Scraper is a web data extractor extension for chrome browsers made exclusively fo r web data scraping. You can set up a plan (sitemap) on how to navigate a website and specify the data to be extracted. The scraper will traverse the website according to the setup and extract the relevant data. Instant Data Scraper extracts data from web pages and exports it as Excel or CSV files Instant Data Scraper is an automated data extraction tool for any website. It uses AI to predict which data is most relevant on a HTML page and allows saving it to Excel or CSV file (XLS, XLSX, CSV). DataMiner Scraper is a data extraction tool that lets you scrape any HTML web page. You can extract tables and lists from any page and upload them to Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. In this chapter, let us learn how to perform web scraping on dynamic websites and the concepts involved in detail. Web scraping is a complex task and the complexity multiplies if the website is dynamic. According to United Nations Global Audit of Web Accessibility more than 70% of the websites are.
- Selected Reading
In this chapter, let us learn how to perform web scraping on dynamic websites and the concepts involved in detail.
Introduction
Web scraping is a complex task and the complexity multiplies if the website is dynamic. According to United Nations Global Audit of Web Accessibility more than 70% of the websites are dynamic in nature and they rely on JavaScript for their functionalities.
Dynamic Website Example
Let us look at an example of a dynamic website and know about why it is difficult to scrape. Here we are going to take example of searching from a website named http://example.webscraping.com/places/default/search. But how can we say that this website is of dynamic nature? It can be judged from the output of following Python script which will try to scrape data from above mentioned webpage −
Output
The above output shows that the example scraper failed to extract information because the
Approaches for Scraping data from Dynamic Websites
We have seen that the scraper cannot scrape the information from a dynamic website because the data is loaded dynamically with JavaScript. In such cases, we can use the following two techniques for scraping data from dynamic JavaScript dependent websites −
- Reverse Engineering JavaScript
- Rendering JavaScript
Reverse Engineering JavaScript
The process called reverse engineering would be useful and lets us understand how data is loaded dynamically by web pages.
For doing this, we need to click the inspect element tab for a specified URL. Next, we will click NETWORK tab to find all the requests made for that web page including search.json with a path of /ajax. Instead of accessing AJAX data from browser or via NETWORK tab, we can do it with the help of following Python script too −
Example
The above script allows us to access JSON response by using Python json method. Similarly we can download the raw string response and by using python's json.loads method, we can load it too. We are doing this with the help of following Python script. It will basically scrape all of the countries by searching the letter of the alphabet ‘a' and then iterating the resulting pages of the JSON responses.
After running the above script, we will get the following output and the records would be saved in the file named countries.txt.
Output
Rendering JavaScript
In the previous section, we did reverse engineering on web page that how API worked and how we can use it to retrieve the results in single request. However, we can face following difficulties while doing reverse engineering −
Sometimes websites can be very difficult. For example, if the website is made with advanced browser tool such as Google Web Toolkit (GWT), then the resulting JS code would be machine-generated and difficult to understand and reverse engineer.
Some higher level frameworks like React.js can make reverse engineering difficult by abstracting already complex JavaScript logic.
The solution to the above difficulties is to use a browser rendering engine that parses HTML, applies the CSS formatting and executes JavaScript to display a web page. Allmymusic 3 0 1 54.
Example
In this example, for rendering Java Script we are going to use a familiar Python module Selenium. The following Python code will render a web page with the help of Selenium −
First, we need to import webdriver from selenium as follows −
Now, provide the path of web driver which we have downloaded as per our requirement −
Now, provide the url which we want to open in that web browser now controlled by our Python script.
Now, we can use ID of the search toolbox for setting the element to select.
Folx go 5 7 – manage and organize downloads download. Next, we can use java script to set the select box content as follows −
The following line of code shows that search is ready to be clicked on the web page −
Next line of code shows that it will wait for 45 seconds for completing the AJAX request.
Now, for selecting country links, we can use the CSS selector as follows −
Now the text of each link can be extracted for creating the list of countries −
Are you looking for the best web scrapers available as Chrome extensions? Then come in now and check out our list tested and trusted Chrome-based web scrapers – the list contains both paid and free extensions.
The importance of web scraping cannot be overemphasized – within a few hours; you can convert a whole website with hundreds of thousands of pages into structured data that you need for your businesses or research thorough automated means.
Web scrapers as the tool that makes web scraping possible, and there are many web scrapers you can get in the market. Some are paid while others are free. In terms of platform support, we can say that Chrome is one of the most popular platforms that get the attention of developers of web scrapers, and a good number of web scrapers have been developed for the Chrome platform as extensions.
Chrome is the most popular web browser in the market right now, and the Chrome Web Store is host to over 180,000 extensions with web scrapers being part of them. While a good number of them in the Chrome Web Store are free, it does not mean all of them are worthy of being used for any serious web scraping problem. It is because of this that this article has been written – to provide you recommendations on the best web scrapers available in the Chrome Web Store.
Why Use Web Scrapers Available as Chrome Extensions?
There was a time that developers do not see Chrome extensions as software to be taken seriously. That time is long gone as more and more users of Chrome find extension helpful. Now, full-blown softwares are available as Chrome extensions and web scrapers are some of them. But why should you use them? They are lightweight, easy to develop, and as such, they are usually cheap, while some are even free. This then means that they are cost-effective compared to others developed as cloud-based platforms and installable apps on PCs. They are also cross-platform.
Top 5 Web Scraper Chrome Extensions
Approaches for Scraping data from Dynamic Websites
We have seen that the scraper cannot scrape the information from a dynamic website because the data is loaded dynamically with JavaScript. In such cases, we can use the following two techniques for scraping data from dynamic JavaScript dependent websites −
- Reverse Engineering JavaScript
- Rendering JavaScript
Reverse Engineering JavaScript
The process called reverse engineering would be useful and lets us understand how data is loaded dynamically by web pages.
For doing this, we need to click the inspect element tab for a specified URL. Next, we will click NETWORK tab to find all the requests made for that web page including search.json with a path of /ajax. Instead of accessing AJAX data from browser or via NETWORK tab, we can do it with the help of following Python script too −
Example
The above script allows us to access JSON response by using Python json method. Similarly we can download the raw string response and by using python's json.loads method, we can load it too. We are doing this with the help of following Python script. It will basically scrape all of the countries by searching the letter of the alphabet ‘a' and then iterating the resulting pages of the JSON responses.
After running the above script, we will get the following output and the records would be saved in the file named countries.txt.
Output
Rendering JavaScript
In the previous section, we did reverse engineering on web page that how API worked and how we can use it to retrieve the results in single request. However, we can face following difficulties while doing reverse engineering −
Sometimes websites can be very difficult. For example, if the website is made with advanced browser tool such as Google Web Toolkit (GWT), then the resulting JS code would be machine-generated and difficult to understand and reverse engineer.
Some higher level frameworks like React.js can make reverse engineering difficult by abstracting already complex JavaScript logic.
The solution to the above difficulties is to use a browser rendering engine that parses HTML, applies the CSS formatting and executes JavaScript to display a web page. Allmymusic 3 0 1 54.
Example
In this example, for rendering Java Script we are going to use a familiar Python module Selenium. The following Python code will render a web page with the help of Selenium −
First, we need to import webdriver from selenium as follows −
Now, provide the path of web driver which we have downloaded as per our requirement −
Now, provide the url which we want to open in that web browser now controlled by our Python script.
Now, we can use ID of the search toolbox for setting the element to select.
Folx go 5 7 – manage and organize downloads download. Next, we can use java script to set the select box content as follows −
The following line of code shows that search is ready to be clicked on the web page −
Next line of code shows that it will wait for 45 seconds for completing the AJAX request.
Now, for selecting country links, we can use the CSS selector as follows −
Now the text of each link can be extracted for creating the list of countries −
Are you looking for the best web scrapers available as Chrome extensions? Then come in now and check out our list tested and trusted Chrome-based web scrapers – the list contains both paid and free extensions.
The importance of web scraping cannot be overemphasized – within a few hours; you can convert a whole website with hundreds of thousands of pages into structured data that you need for your businesses or research thorough automated means.
Web scrapers as the tool that makes web scraping possible, and there are many web scrapers you can get in the market. Some are paid while others are free. In terms of platform support, we can say that Chrome is one of the most popular platforms that get the attention of developers of web scrapers, and a good number of web scrapers have been developed for the Chrome platform as extensions.
Chrome is the most popular web browser in the market right now, and the Chrome Web Store is host to over 180,000 extensions with web scrapers being part of them. While a good number of them in the Chrome Web Store are free, it does not mean all of them are worthy of being used for any serious web scraping problem. It is because of this that this article has been written – to provide you recommendations on the best web scrapers available in the Chrome Web Store.
Why Use Web Scrapers Available as Chrome Extensions?
There was a time that developers do not see Chrome extensions as software to be taken seriously. That time is long gone as more and more users of Chrome find extension helpful. Now, full-blown softwares are available as Chrome extensions and web scrapers are some of them. But why should you use them? They are lightweight, easy to develop, and as such, they are usually cheap, while some are even free. This then means that they are cost-effective compared to others developed as cloud-based platforms and installable apps on PCs. They are also cross-platform.
Top 5 Web Scraper Chrome Extensions
Make no mistake about it; web scraping can only be easy, fast, and stress-free only if you use the best web scrapers for your web scraping projects. Unfortunately, we have come to realize that a good number of web scrapers in the market are living on hypes, and as such, it is important we clear the air to prevent you from making the mistake of choosing the wrong tool for the job. Below are the 5 best web scrapers available as Chrome extensions that we have tried, and they prove to work quite well.
WebScraper.io Extension
- Pricing: Free
- Free Trials: Chrome version is completely free
- Data Output Format: CSV
Webscraper.io is a web scraping tool provider with a Chrome browser extension and a Firefox add-on. The webScraper.io Chrome extension is one of the best web scrapers you can install as a Chrome extension. With over 300,000 downloads – and impressive customer reviews in the store, this extension is a must-have for web scrapers. With this tool, you can extract data from any website of your choice in an easy and swift manner. It requests no coding skills but presents a point and click interface for training the tool on the data to be extracted. Its only dependency is having a Chrome browser installed on your computer.
Data Miner.io Data Scraper
- Pricing: Starts at $19.99 per month
- Free Trials: 500 pages per month
- Data Output Format: CSV, Excel
Data Miner Chrome extension remains free for you provided you wouldn't be scraping more than 500 pages in a month -anything more than that, and you will have to opt-inn for their paid plans. Data Miner extension requires no coding to use, and it is perfectly made for absolute beginners as it requires just clicks to scrape. Currently, this extension is available for 15,000+ website. It is important you know that Data Miner does not behave like a bot as a regular user, and as such, you do not have to worry about blocks. Data Miner automates form filling, scrapes tables with just a click, and automatically go from page to page when pagination is detected.
Scraper
- Pricing: Completely free
- Free Trials: Free
- Data Output Format: CSV, Excel TXT
Scraper is fairly unpopular when compared with the two web scrapers discussed above – it does not even have a website of its own. However, it works quite great and can extract data out of web pages and convert them into spreadsheets. This web scraper is quite simple but comes with some limitations and is free to use. The major problem associated with Scraper is that it is not beginner-friendly. The usage of Scraper requires someone to be comfortable working with XPath, and as such, it is wise to say it is for intermediate and advanced users.
Hunter.io
- Pricing: Starts at $49 per month
- Free Trials: 50 requests monthly
- Data Output Format: TXT, CSV, Excel
Hunter.io is a web scraping tool available as a Chrome extension. Unlike the others described above, Hunter.io web scraping tools are very much specialized and tailored towards crawling web pages in search of email addresses. With Hunter.io, you can find the email address of any professional or even scrape all the email addresses associated with a specific domain name. It also has an email verifier that you can use to verify the deliverability of any email address. Interestingly, over 2 million professionals are making use of this tool.
Read more: Email Scraping Tools: Web email scraping services and Software (Email Extractor)
Web Scraper Chrome Extension Github
Agenty Scraping Agent
- Pricing: Free
- Free Trials: 14 days free trial – 100 pages credit
- Data Output Format: Google spreadsheet, CSV, Excel
The Agenty Scraping Agent is not a free tool and requires you to make a monetary commitment – but has a free trial option for a test. The Agenty Scraping Agent can be installed as a Chrome extension. It presents a point and click interface for training the agent on the data required. It facilitates anonymous web scraping through the use of highly anonymous proxies and automatic IP rotation. It supports batch URL crawling and even crawls websites that require a login and JavaScript-heavy websites. It keeps a history of your crawling activities and can be integrated with a good number of tools, including Google Spreadsheet, Amazon S3, and Webhook.
Read more,
Scraper Extension
Looking at the list above, you can see that developers are already taking Chrome as a serious platform, and we expect more web scrapers to join this list. Web scrapers available as Chrome extensions are light, easy to use, and comes with free plans perfect for small web scraping projects. They are also cross-platform and works in a browser environment, which makes them perfect for web scraping.
