Bioconductor Package Metadata Scraper — Extract R Package Details at Scale

The Bioconductor Package Metadata Scraper turns Bioconductor package detail pages into structured, machine-readable datasets. Point it at one or more package URLs and it returns clean metadata including version, license, dependencies, biocViews classification, and source repository links. Built for bioinformatics teams, R developers, and data vendors who need to track the Bioconductor ecosystem without manual copy-paste.

Use Cases

• Portfolio auditing — Generate a complete inventory of packages, versions, and licenses across a Bioconductor installation or workflow.
• Competitive research — Compare dependency graphs, biocViews tags, and maintainer patterns across popular packages.
• Data enrichment — Add Bioconductor metadata to internal knowledge bases, catalogs, or recommendation engines.
• Compliance & security — Extract license and dependency information for open-source compliance reviews.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
startUrls	array	Yes	Bioconductor package detail page URLs, e.g. https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/limma.html.
maxItems	integer	No	Maximum packages to extract (default: 100).
includeReverseDependencies	boolean	No	Include packages that depend on, import, suggest, or link to the scraped package (default: false).
proxyConfiguration	object	No	Proxy configuration. The built-in Apify proxy is used by default.

Output

The Actor outputs one dataset row per package with the following fields:

{
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/limma.html",
  "packageName": "limma",
  "title": "Linear Models for Microarray Data",
  "description": "Data analysis, linear models and differential expression for microarray data.",
  "version": "3.68.4",
  "inBioconductorSince": "BioC 1.6 (R-2.1) or earlier (> 21 years)",
  "license": "GPL (>=2)",
  "depends": "R (>= 3.6.0)",
  "imports": "grDevices, graphics, stats, utils, methods,statmod",
  "suggests": "BiasedUrn,ellipse,gplots,knitr,locfit,MASS, splines,affy,AnnotationDbi,Biobase",
  "systemRequirements": "",
  "homeUrl": "https://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/limma/",
  "biocViews": ["AlternativeSplicing", "BatchEffect", "Bayesian"],
  "sourcePackage": "limma_3.68.4.tar.gz",
  "sourceRepository": "git clone https://git.bioconductor.org/packages/limma",
  "packageShortUrl": "https://bioconductor.org/packages/limma/",
  "downloadsReportUrl": "Download Stats",
  "dependsOnMe": "",
  "importsMe": "",
  "suggestsMe": "",
  "linksToMe": ""
}

Note: reverse dependency fields are only populated when includeReverseDependencies is set to true.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.001 per package extracted. No monthly fees, no minimums. You are charged only for successful extractions.

Limitations

• The Actor scrapes public Bioconductor package detail pages. It does not access private repositories or authenticated data.
• Page structure is tied to the current Bioconductor layout. Major site redesigns may require an update.
• Bioconductor pages are static HTML; no JavaScript rendering is required.

FAQ

Q: Can I scrape the entire Bioconductor repository?
A: Yes. Provide the package detail URLs you want to scrape and adjust maxItems accordingly. Be mindful of the target website's rate limits and your own usage budget.

Q: Do I need a proxy?
A: The built-in Apify proxy is enabled by default. It can be disabled for small local tests, but we recommend keeping it enabled for production runs.

Q: How do I report issues or request features?
A: Open an issue on this Actor's Apify page. Public support keeps response times visible and helps other users.

Changelog

• v1.0.0 — Initial release. Extracts package metadata, dependencies, and biocViews from Bioconductor package detail pages.