AutomationDirect US Product & Document Scraper

Extract AutomationDirect US products, exact item details, prices, availability, technical attributes, and official PDF, manual, drawing, CAD, and download links. Use the data for industrial sourcing, catalog enrichment, engineering research, procurement workflows, and price or lifecycle monitoring.

This is an unofficial Actor and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by AutomationDirect.

What you can do

• Search by part number, product family, or component type.
• Look up one exact AutomationDirect item ID.
• Look up as many as 50 item IDs in one bounded batch.
• Collect official specification, manual, drawing, CAD, and download links.
• Optionally enrich search results with availability, shipping, weight, lifecycle, and official item data.

The Actor is browser-free. Its verified default uses a direct connection, keeping runs fast and inexpensive.

Quick start

Search for products:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "power supply",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Look up an exact item:

{
  "mode": "item",
  "itemId": "C2-03CPU"
}

Look up a batch:

{
  "mode": "batch_items",
  "itemIds": ["C2-03CPU", "D2-16ND3-2", "P1-01DC"]
}

Get document links:

{
  "mode": "document_links",
  "itemId": "C2-03CPU",
  "includeTypes": ["spec", "manual", "cad", "drawing"]
}

Input modes

search

Requires query. It returns ranked product records and places an exact part-number match first.

Useful options:

• maxItems: 1–200 results.
• includeDocumentLinks: include or suppress official links.
• includeTypes: filter links to spec, manual, cad, drawing, or download.
• enrichItems: request official item enrichment.
• enrichLimit: enrich at most 20 final search records.

Enrichment is bounded and runs only after ranking and result limiting.

item

Requires itemId. Returns one normalized item or one structured error record when the item does not exist or the upstream endpoint fails.

batch_items

Requires itemIds. Accepts at most 50 raw IDs, removes duplicates, and continues after individual item errors.

document_links

Requires itemId. Uses an exact product search and returns link metadata. It does not download or parse linked files.

Output

Dataset records have recordType equal to product or error. Product fields can include:

• itemId, name, brand, and description
• price, currency, availability, orderability, and lifecycle status
• category, product URL, and image URL
• shipping, lead time, and weight
• technical attributes
• official document links
• exact-match and source provenance

Unavailable values remain null; the Actor does not invent currency, inventory, or technical data.

The OUTPUT key-value-store record contains the run status, product and error counts, request count, errors, and the effective proxy layer.

Saved-task use cases

The release includes examples suitable for recurring tasks:

• PLC and controller product lookup
• Industrial power-supply search
• Exact item specification and availability lookup
• Official manuals and specification links

Export Dataset rows to JSON, CSV, Excel, Google Sheets, or your own procurement system.

Use with n8n / Make

A practical automation is:

1. Start this Actor with an exact item ID or bounded item batch.
2. Wait for the run to finish.
3. Check OUTPUT.success and OUTPUT.errors.
4. Read the run's default Dataset.
5. Write new prices, availability, lifecycle status, and document URLs to Google Sheets, Airtable, a CRM, ERP, or Telegram alert.

Start a run through the Apify API:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/dromb~automationdirect-us-product-search-documents/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"item","itemId":"C2-03CPU"}'

After the run succeeds:

$curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?clean=true&format=json"

For n8n or Make, map itemId as the stable product key and compare price, availability, orderable, or lifecycleStatus with the previous stored row.

Proxy strategy

Direct access is the cheapest verified default. Optional layers are available for network-specific failures:

• NONE: direct
• DATACENTER: Apify datacenter
• RESIDENTIAL: an enabled residential group
• SPECIAL: an account-enabled special group
• CUSTOM: user-supplied proxy URLs

The order in proxyStrategy.layers defines priority. Include NONE explicitly if direct fallback is desired. Proxy credentials are never written to Dataset or OUTPUT.

proxyConfiguration remains available for legacy inputs. Enabling both proxyStrategy and a non-empty proxyConfiguration is a configuration conflict. NONE means direct connection. Direct NONE fallback must be explicitly included, and the NONE layer must be explicitly present in the ordered layer list.

Proxy default NONE uses direct NONE transport. This is not a guarantee that every network, geography, or target condition will work without a proxy.

The global request budget has priority over proxy fallback.

Legacy example:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "C2-03CPU",
  "maxItems": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Ordered fallback example:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "power supply",
  "maxItems": 5,
  "proxyStrategy": {
    "enabled": true,
    "layers": ["DATACENTER", "NONE"],
    "countryCode": "US",
    "datacenterGroups": [],
    "fallbackOn": ["PROXY_PROVIDER_ERROR", "TRANSPORT_ERROR"]
  }
}

Detailed data contract

item mode does not perform search and makes one official item lookup. batch_items continues after a per-item error. The Dataset contains only recordType = product and recordType = error; it does not contain metadata rows, proxy rows, summaries, or debug rows.

Example product record:

{
  "recordType": "product",
  "mode": "item",
  "itemId": "C2-03CPU",
  "name": "CLICK PLUS PLC",
  "price": 223,
  "currency": "USD",
  "availability": "in_stock",
  "productUrl": "https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/shopping/catalog/example",
  "documents": [],
  "errors": []
}

Example error record:

{
  "recordType": "error",
  "mode": "item",
  "requestedItemId": "INVALID-ID",
  "itemId": null,
  "errors": [
    {
      "code": "NOT_FOUND",
      "message": "Item not found"
    }
  ]
}

Dataset views are available as overview, products, errors, and documents.

Confirmed structured error codes include NOT_FOUND, UPSTREAM_CLIENT_ERROR, UPSTREAM_RETRY_EXHAUSTED, UPSTREAM_SERVER_ERROR, INVALID_UPSTREAM_PAYLOAD, UPSTREAM_TRANSPORT_ERROR, REQUEST_BUDGET_EXHAUSTED, IDENTITY_CONFLICT, and PROXY_CONFIGURATION_CONFLICT.

Defaults and safety limits

• query: power supply
• maxItems: 10, maximum 200
• enrichItems: false
• enrichLimit: 10, maximum 20
• includeDocumentLinks: true
• requestDelayMs: 1000, maximum 60000
• maxRetries: 2
• itemIds: maximum 50
• proxyConfiguration: direct by default
• proxyStrategy: disabled by default

The runtime is browser-free and does not use, launch, or depend on a browser, browser automation, or stealth layer. There is no browser fallback.

Currency is not inferred when the upstream source does not provide it.

Responsible use

Use moderate request volumes and bounded inputs. The Actor does not promise a full catalog crawl. It also does not promise continuous monitoring, document downloads, PDF/CAD/manual parsing, guaranteed pricing, guaranteed availability, or complete inventory. It links document files but does not download them.

Limits

• Public AutomationDirect surfaces only.
• No login, cart, checkout, or account data.
• No full catalog or category crawl.
• Document files are linked, not downloaded or parsed.
• Website/API changes can temporarily affect fields or availability.