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Web Scraper

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Web Scraper

Web Scraper

apify/web-scraper
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Crawls arbitrary websites using the Chrome browser and extracts data from pages using JavaScript code. The Actor supports both recursive crawling and lists of URLs and automatically manages concurrency for maximum performance. This is Apify's basic tool for web crawling and scraping.

Do you want to learn more about this Actor?

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You can access the Web Scraper programmatically from your own JavaScript applications by using the Apify API. You can also choose the language preference from below. To use the Apify API, you’ll need an Apify account and your API token, found in Integrations settings in Apify Console.

1import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
2
3// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
4// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
5const client = new ApifyClient({
6    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
7});
8
9// Prepare Actor input
10const input = {
11    "runMode": "DEVELOPMENT",
12    "startUrls": [
13        {
14            "url": "https://crawlee.dev"
15        }
16    ],
17    "linkSelector": "a[href]",
18    "globs": [
19        {
20            "glob": "https://crawlee.dev/*/*"
21        }
22    ],
23    "pseudoUrls": [],
24    "excludes": [
25        {
26            "glob": "/**/*.{png,jpg,jpeg,pdf}"
27        }
28    ],
29    "pageFunction": `// The function accepts a single argument: the "context" object.
30        // For a complete list of its properties and functions,
31        // see https://apify.com/apify/web-scraper#page-function 
32        async function pageFunction(context) {
33            // This statement works as a breakpoint when you're trying to debug your code. Works only with Run mode: DEVELOPMENT!
34            // debugger; 
35        
36            // jQuery is handy for finding DOM elements and extracting data from them.
37            // To use it, make sure to enable the "Inject jQuery" option.
38            const $ = context.jQuery;
39            const pageTitle = $('title').first().text();
40            const h1 = $('h1').first().text();
41            const first_h2 = $('h2').first().text();
42            const random_text_from_the_page = $('p').first().text();
43        
44        
45            // Print some information to actor log
46            context.log.info(`URL: ${context.request.url}, TITLE: ${pageTitle}`);
47        
48            // Manually add a new page to the queue for scraping.
49           await context.enqueueRequest({ url: 'http://www.example.com' });
50        
51            // Return an object with the data extracted from the page.
52            // It will be stored to the resulting dataset.
53            return {
54                url: context.request.url,
55                pageTitle,
56                h1,
57                first_h2,
58                random_text_from_the_page
59            };
60        }`,
61    "proxyConfiguration": {
62        "useApifyProxy": true
63    },
64    "initialCookies": [],
65    "waitUntil": [
66        "networkidle2"
67    ],
68    "preNavigationHooks": `// We need to return array of (possibly async) functions here.
69        // The functions accept two arguments: the "crawlingContext" object
70        // and "gotoOptions".
71        [
72            async (crawlingContext, gotoOptions) => {
73                // ...
74            },
75        ]`,
76    "postNavigationHooks": `// We need to return array of (possibly async) functions here.
77        // The functions accept a single argument: the "crawlingContext" object.
78        [
79            async (crawlingContext) => {
80                // ...
81            },
82        ]`,
83    "breakpointLocation": "NONE",
84    "customData": {}
85};
86
87// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
88const run = await client.actor("apify/web-scraper").call(input);
89
90// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
91console.log('Results from dataset');
92console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
93const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
94items.forEach((item) => {
95    console.dir(item);
96});
97
98// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

Web Scraper API in JavaScript

The Apify API client for JavaScript is the official library that allows you to use Web Scraper API in JavaScript or TypeScript, providing convenience functions and automatic retries on errors.

Install the apify-client

npm install apify-client

Other API clients include:

Developer
Maintained by Apify

Actor Metrics

  • 2.6k monthly users

  • 233 stars

  • >99% runs succeeded

  • 49 days response time

  • Created in Mar 2019

  • Modified 4 months ago