Crawls websites using raw HTTP requests, parses the HTML with the Cheerio library, and extracts data from the pages using a Node.js code. Supports both recursive crawling and lists of URLs. This actor is a high-performance alternative to apify/web-scraper for websites that do not require JavaScript.

Cheerio Scraper loads Start URLs using raw HTTP requests, parses the HTML using the <a href='https://cheerio.js.org' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>Cheerio</a> library and then executes Page function for each page to extract data from it. To follow links and scrape additional pages, set Link selector with Pseudo-URLs and/or Glob patterns to specify which links to follow. Alternatively, you can manually enqueue new links in the Page function. For details, see the actor's <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>README</a> or the <a href='https://apify.com/docs/scraping/tutorial/introduction' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Web scraping tutorial</a> in the Apify documentation.

A JSON array specifying additional MIME content types of web pages to support. By default, Cheerio Scraper supports the <code>text/html</code> and <code>application/xhtml+xml</code> content types, and skips all other resources. For details, see <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper#content-types' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Content types</a> in README.

Additional MIME types

A custom JSON object that is passed to the Page function as <code>context.customData</code>. This setting is useful when invoking the scraper via API, in order to pass some arbitrary parameters to your code.

Custom data

Name or ID of the dataset that will be used for storing results. If left empty, the default dataset of the run will be used.

Dataset name

If enabled, the actor log will include debug messages. Beware that this can be quite verbose. Use <code>context.log.debug('message')</code> to log your own debug messages from the Page function.

Enable debug log

If enabled, the suggested response encoding will be used even if a valid response encoding is provided by the target website. Use this only when you've inspected the responses thoroughly and are sure that they are the ones doing it wrong.

Force response encoding

Glob patterns to match links in the page that you want to enqueue. Combine with Link selector to tell the scraper where to find links. Omitting the Glob patterns will cause the scraper to enqueue all links matched by the Link selector.

Glob Patterns

If enabled, the scraper will ignore SSL/TLS certificate errors. Use at your own risk.

Ignore SSL errors

A JSON array with cookies that will be send with every HTTP request made by the Cheerio Scraper, in the format accepted by the <a href='https://www.npmjs.com/package/tough-cookie' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>tough-cookie</a> NPM package. This option is useful for transferring a logged-in session from an external web browser. For details how to do this, read this <a href='https://help.apify.com/en/articles/1444249-log-in-to-website-by-transferring-cookies-from-web-browser-legacy' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>help article</a>.

Initial cookies

Indicates that URL fragments (e.g. <code>http://example.com#fragment</code>) should be included when checking whether a URL has already been visited or not. Typically, URL fragments are used for page navigation only and therefore they should be ignored, as they don't identify separate pages. However, some single-page websites use URL fragments to display different pages; in such cases, this option should be enabled.

URL #fragments identify unique pages

Name or ID of the key-value store that will be used for storing records. If left empty, the default key-value store of the run will be used.

Key-value store name

A CSS selector stating which links on the page (<code>&lt;a&gt;</code> elements with <code>href</code> attribute) shall be followed and added to the request queue. To filter the links added to the queue, use the Pseudo-URLs and/or Glob patterns field. If the Link selector is empty, the page links are ignored. For details, see the <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper#link-selector' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Link selector</a> in README.

Link selector

Specifies the maximum number of pages that can be processed by the scraper in parallel. The scraper automatically increases and decreases concurrency based on available system resources. This option enables you to set an upper limit, for example to reduce the load on a target web server.

Max concurrency

Specifies how many links away from the Start URLs the scraper will descend. This value is a safeguard against infinite crawling depths for misconfigured scrapers. Note that pages added using <code>context.enqueuePage()</code> in Page function are not subject to the maximum depth constraint. If set to <code>0</code>, there is no limit.

Max crawling depth

The maximum number of pages that the scraper will load. The scraper will stop when this limit is reached. It is always a good idea to set this limit in order to prevent excess platform usage for misconfigured scrapers. Note that the actual number of pages loaded might be slightly higher than this value. If set to <code>0</code>, there is no limit.

Max pages per run

The maximum number of times the scraper will retry to load each web page on error, in case of a page load error or an exception thrown by the Page function. If set to <code>0</code>, the page will be considered failed right after the first error.

Max request retries

The maximum number of records that will be saved to the resulting dataset. The scraper will stop when this limit is reached. If set to <code>0</code>, there is no limit.

Max result records

A JavaScript function that is executed for every page loaded server-side in Node.js 12. Use it to scrape data from the page, perform actions or add new URLs to the request queue. For details, see <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper#page-function' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Page function</a> in README.

Page function

The maximum amount of time the scraper will wait for the Page function to execute, in seconds. It is always a good idea to set this limit, to ensure that unexpected behavior in page function will not get the scraper stuck.

Page function timeout

The maximum amount of time the scraper will wait for a web page to load, in seconds. If the web page does not load in this timeframe, it is considered to have failed and will be retried (subject to Max page retries), similarly as with other page load errors.

Page load timeout

Async functions that are sequentially evaluated after the navigation. Good for checking if the navigation was successful. The function accepts `crawlingContext` as the only parameter.

Post-navigation hooks

Async functions that are sequentially evaluated before the navigation. Good for setting additional cookies or browser properties before navigation. The function accepts two parameters, `crawlingContext` and `requestAsBrowserOptions`, which are passed to the `requestAsBrowser()` function the crawler calls to navigate.

Pre-navigation hooks

Specifies proxy servers that will be used by the scraper in order to hide its origin. For details, see <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper#proxy-configuration' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Proxy configuration</a> in README.

Proxy configuration

This property indicates the strategy of proxy rotation and can only be used in conjunction with Apify Proxy. The recommended setting automatically picks the best proxies from your available pool and rotates them evenly, discarding proxies that become blocked or unresponsive. If this strategy does not work for you for any reason, you may configure the scraper to either use a new proxy for each request, or to use one proxy as long as possible, until the proxy fails. IMPORTANT: This setting will only use your available Apify Proxy pool, so if you don't have enough proxies for a given task, no rotation setting will produce satisfactory results.

Proxy rotation

Specifies what kind of URLs found by the Link selector should be added to the request queue. A pseudo-URL is a URL with regular expressions enclosed in <code>[]</code> brackets, e.g. <code>http://www.example.com/[.*]</code>. If Pseudo-URLs are omitted, the actor enqueues all links matched by the Link selector. For details, see <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper#pseudo-urls' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Pseudo-URLs</a> in README.

Pseudo-URLs

Name of the request queue that will be used for storing requests. If left empty, the default request queue of the run will be used.

Request queue name

Use only english alphanumeric characters dashes and underscores. A session is a representation of a user. It has it's own IP and cookies which are then used together to emulate a real user. Usage of the sessions is controlled by the Proxy rotation option. By providing a session pool name, you enable sharing of those sessions across multiple actor runs. This is very useful when you need specific cookies for accessing the websites or when a lot of your proxies are already blocked. Instead of trying randomly, a list of working sessions will be saved and a new actor run can reuse those sessions. Note that the IP lock on sessions expires after 24 hours, unless the session is used again in that window.

Session pool name

A static list of URLs to scrape. For details, see the <a href='https://apify.com/apify/cheerio-scraper#start-urls' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Start URLs</a> section in the README.

Start URLs

The scraper automatically determines response encoding from the response headers. If the headers are invalid or information is missing, malformed responses may be produced. Use the Suggest response encoding option to provide a fall-back encoding to the Scraper for cases where it could not be determined.

Suggest response encoding

Cheerio Scraper Input

cheerio-scraper

Crawls websites using raw HTTP requests, parses HTML with Cheerio library, and extracts data using Node.js code. Supports both recursive crawling and URL lists.

Cheerio Scraper - HTML scraping tool

Cheerio Scraper

Cheerio Scraper - HTML scraping tool · Apify

API · Cheerio Scraper - HTML scraping tool · Apify

Input · Cheerio Scraper - HTML scraping tool · Apify

Source code · Cheerio Scraper - HTML scraping tool · Apify

Related actors · Cheerio Scraper - HTML scraping tool · Apify

Crawls websites using raw HTTP requests, parses the HTML with the Cheerio library, and extracts data from the pages using a Node.js code. Supports both recursive crawling and lists of URLs. This ac...

Where next?