UseScraper is a web scraping and crawling tool that allows you to scrape any URL or website quickly. It outputs data in plain text, HTML, or markdown format and supports JavaScript rendering. The platform features automatic proxies to prevent rate limiting, webhook updates, and a data store for output. You can scrape multiple websites concurrently and exclude specific page elements. Pricing is flexible, offering a pay-as-you-go model and a pro plan for larger needs.
Features
Scrape Any URL Instantly
Enter any website URL and get the page content in seconds. Crawl the entire website quickly and easily, utilizing a robust scraping engine.
Render JavaScript
Use a real Chrome browser with JavaScript rendering to scrape every page. This ensures even complex webpages can be processed correctly.
Output Formats
Extract content in several formats including markdown, plain text, or HTML. Supports conversion to these formats for easy export.
Automatic Proxies
Automatic use of proxies to rotate requests, preventing rate limiting and blocks. Ensures successful scraping of any site.
Multi-Site Crawling
Include multiple websites in one crawl job request for efficiency.
Exclude Page Content
Exclude specific URLs from a crawl or specific CSS elements to avoid scraping unwanted page parts.
Webhook Updates
Get notified when crawl jobs are finished or updated, enhancing process tracking.
Output Data Store
Store crawled data securely in a data store, accessible via API for integration with other systems.
Auto Rotate Data
Set rules for rotating data so previous results can be reused for distribution or further analysis.
Website Crawling
UseScraper allows you to crawl web pages to gather content. You can specify a single page or multiple pages via a URL or a sitemap.
Markdown Export
After crawling, you can download the website's content in markdown format, which can then be used for various purposes like uploading to OpenAI's GPT.
OpenAI GPT Integration
The markdown file downloaded from UseScraper can be uploaded to OpenAI GPT's knowledge. This allows custom GPT instances to utilize website content for providing answers based on the uploaded data.
Progress Tracking
You can monitor the progress of the website crawling job in real-time and view the results upon completion.
Scraping Static Pages
This feature involves using C# to retrieve and parse HTML content from static web pages. The process includes loading an HTML document and extracting elements using C# libraries.
Handling Dynamic Pages with Puppeteer Sharp
A feature that employs Puppeteer Sharp to scrape dynamic content by simulating a real browser environment. It involves launching a browser instance, navigating pages, and extracting content.
Best Practices and Tools
Provides guidelines and recommendations for effective and ethical web scraping. Includes respecting robots.txt, rotating IP addresses, and implementing delay mechanisms to avoid bans.
Making a GET Request
Use the axios.get() method and provide the URL to make a GET request.
Making a POST Request
Use axios.post() with the URL and the data object to send data to the server.
Intercepting Requests
Customize or modify requests by creating an interceptor with axios.interceptors.request.
Intercepting Responses
Handle responses before they reach the then() handler by using axios.interceptors.response.
Crawling a Sitemap
Explains how to use Scrapy, a Python framework, to crawl a website sitemap. Includes code snippets to create and execute a Scrapy spider for sitemap crawling.
Filtering Sitemap URLs
Demonstrates how to filter URLs from a sitemap to target specific pages. Provides examples of modifying the Scrapy spider to include custom filtration logic.
Extracting Data
Guides on extracting data from pages with Scrapy using Python and CSS or XPath selectors. Offers techniques to parse and pull data from web pages efficiently.
Saving Data
Shows how to export scraped data in various formats like JSON and CSV. Details the use of Scrapy exporters to structure and save data.
HTTP Clients for API Requests
The page explains how to use popular HTTP clients like Axios and Fetch in JavaScript and Node.js to make API requests for web scraping.
Parsing and Extracting Data
Describes methods for parsing JSON responses from APIs to extract useful data during web scraping.
Handling Authentication and API Keys
Guides on how to manage authentication by using API keys, tokens, and other authentication methods.
Handling Pagination and Rate Limiting
Explains strategies to manage pagination and deal with API rate limits to efficiently collect data.
IP Blocking Solutions
Rotate IP addresses, introduce delays, and use high-quality proxies to avoid detection and blocking by web servers.
Handling CAPTCHAs
Use CAPTCHA-solving services, implement OCR techniques, and avoid triggering CAPTCHA mechanisms.
Scraping Dynamic Websites
Utilize headless browsers and inspect network requests to interact with and scrape data from dynamic content.
Website Layout Change Adaptation
Employ robust selectors, error-handling mechanisms, and monitor scrapers to handle changes in website structures.
Data Cleaning and Structuring
Use parsing libraries, handle inconsistencies, and store data in structured formats for effective analysis and integration.
HTTP Clients for Fetching Web Pages
Tools like Axios or node-fetch can be used to make HTTP requests to web servers to fetch page data.
Parsing HTML and Extracting Data
Using libraries like Cheerio to parse fetched HTML and extract specific data points with CSS selectors.
Handling Dynamic Websites with Headless Browsers
Employing tools like Puppeteer for interacting with and extracting information from dynamic websites that use JavaScript extensively.
Parsing Extracted Data
Techniques to further manipulate and extract data after initial parsing, such as using JavaScript string methods or other libraries for data transformation.
Scalability
Cloud storage can easily scale to accommodate growing data volumes without the need for additional hardware.
Accessibility
Scraped data stored in the cloud can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making it easy to collaborate and share data.
Reliability
Cloud storage providers typically offer robust data backup and redundancy measures to protect against data loss.
Cost-effectiveness
With cloud storage, you only pay for the storage you use, eliminating the need for upfront hardware investments.
Types of Data
Types of data suitable for cloud storage include images, videos, project documents, emails, blog posts, webpage content, and business documents.
Direct Cloud Storage
Using the Crawlbase Cloud Storage API, you can send scraped data directly to cloud storage.
Organization
Develop a clear and consistent naming convention for your stored data to make it easy to find and retrieve later.
Access Control
Implement appropriate access controls to ensure that only authorized users can access and modify the stored data.
Backup and Retention
Regularly backup your cloud-stored data and define retention policies to determine how long data should be kept.
Monitoring
Monitor your cloud storage usage and costs to avoid unexpected expenses and ensure sufficient storage capacity.
Go HTTP package
The Go HTTP package is used to send HTTP requests. It's essential for retrieving HTML from web pages.
Goquery library
A popular HTML parsing library in Go that lets you use jQuery-like syntax to search and manipulate the web document.
Colly framework
A powerful web scraping framework in Go that's easy to use and has many built-in features for scraping websites efficiently.
Pagination handling
The ability to navigate through pages and aggregate data from multiple pages using techniques like identifying 'next' page links.
JavaScript-rendered content
Handling pages where content is dynamically loaded using JavaScript, often requiring techniques like headless browsing.
Setting Up Selenium
Guides you on installing Selenium using pip and choosing web drivers for different browsers to initiate web scraping.
Navigating and Waiting for Elements
Explains how to locate and wait for elements on dynamic websites using Selenium's WebDriverWait and expected conditions.
Interacting with Elements
Demonstrates how to simulate user actions like clicking buttons or filling out forms using Selenium.
Scrolling and Infinite Scrolling
Shows how to perform scrolling actions to load content dynamically, crucial for pages that load data as you scroll.
Parsing the Page Content
Describes methods for extracting data from a webpage using Selenium's ability to fetch and parse HTML content.
Proxy Setup in Python
Provides code examples and explanations to set up proxies in Python using the requests module. Demonstrates how to send requests through proxies to enhance privacy and bypass restrictions.
Rotating IPs Implementation
Explains how to use rotating IP addresses to avoid detection during web scraping. Provides code examples to cycle through a list of proxies using Python, reducing the chance of being blocked.
Finding Proxy Providers
Lists important factors to consider when choosing reliable proxy providers, such as proxy types, reliability, data privacy, and cost. Discusses some recommended providers.
Requests
Allows you to easily make HTTP requests to fetch web pages. This is essential for interacting with web resources.
BeautifulSoup
Provides an intuitive way to parse and extract data from HTML and XML documents. This helps in processing and understanding the structure of web data.
lxml
A fast HTML and XML parser that BeautifulSoup can use as a backend. It enhances the speed and efficiency of parsing operations.
Selenium
Allows you to automate interactions with websites in a real browser. It's useful for handling JavaScript-driven websites or websites requiring human-like interactions.
Nokogiri
Nokogiri is a powerful library for parsing HTML and XML, which allows you to extract data from web pages using CSS selectors and XPath expressions. It's intuitive and fast, making it ideal for transforming document objects and accessing specific elements.
HTTParty
HTTParty is used for making HTTP requests, allowing you to connect to web servers and retrieve data by sending GET, POST, and other HTTP requests. It's simple to use with just a few lines of code.
Mechanize
Mechanize helps in navigating through pages by simulating a browser. It can automatically handle forms, page navigation, and cookies, making it very useful for web scraping projects that require movement across sites.
Kimurai
Kimurai is a modern web scraping framework that combines the capabilities of Nokogiri and Capybara. It provides a range of tools for scraping data efficiently from modern web applications. Kimurai supports modern browsers and is easy-to-use, making it scalable for complex tasks.
Establishing HTTP Connections
The guide explains how to establish HTTP connections in Python using the http.client module with HTTPConnection or HTTPSConnection classes. It provides code examples for initiating a connection, sending a request, and handling simple responses.
Sending HTTP GET Requests
Instructions for sending HTTP GET requests using Python. Examples include creating a connection and obtaining a response, with methods like request() and getresponse(). Also includes setting up the host and handling the response code and headers.
Handling Response Headers
Explains how to handle and print HTTP response headers in Python. Demonstrates using the getheaders() method from the response object to fetch headers and various ways to access specific headers.
Sending HTTP POST Requests
Covers sending HTTP POST requests with the http.client module. Provides examples demonstrating setting headers and sending JSON data or string data using the request() method.
Sending HTTP PUT Requests
Describes how to send HTTP PUT requests using the http.client module in Python, setting appropriate headers and JSON data. Includes handling responses from PUT requests.
Web Crawling with Python
Learn how to build a web crawler using the Scrapy framework in Python, manage crawling logic, and handle server responses.
Scrapy Framework Setup
Guides on setting up Scrapy in Python, defining Scrapy spiders, and configuring project settings.
Oxylabs
Offers over 102 million IPs with residential, datacenter, ISP, mobile, and SOCKS5 proxies in 195 countries. Known for reliable performance and advanced features like built-in web crawler.
Bright Data
Provides a network of over 72 million residential IPs and various types of proxies. They offer tools like a Proxy API with examples in various programming languages.
Apify
Offers both datacenter and residential proxies with a smaller pool compared to other providers. They provide a web scraping API, data storage solutions, and Proxy Manager.
Rayobyte
Offers residential and mobile proxies with competitive pricing. Their network covers over 100 countries with a user-friendly dashboard for management.
ScrapFly
Includes smart proxy rotation, browser rendering, and an anti-bot bypass system. Provides cloud-based datacenter and residential IPs with credit-based pricing model.
Delay Between Requests
Add delays between requests using Python's time.sleep() function to avoid rate limiting by not overwhelming the server with requests.
Use Proxies for IP Rotation
Utilize proxies to distribute requests across multiple IP addresses to prevent hitting rate limits from a single IP.
User Agent and Cookie Management
Rotate user agent strings and clear cookies to avoid tracking and fingerprinting by websites.
Concurrency Management with Celery
Use a task queue system like Celery to manage multiple requests by queuing them, respecting rate limits, and preventing server overload.