# ABOUT YOU Product Scraper (`truenorth/about-you-product-scraper`) Actor

Extract ABOUT YOU Germany listing products, prices, discounts, brands, images, availability, and URLs into structured datasets.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/truenorth/about-you-product-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [TrueNorth](https://apify.com/truenorth) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 60.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$4.00 / 1,000 product extracteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## ABOUT YOU Product Scraper

Extract structured product and price snapshots from ABOUT YOU Germany search and category listings. This ABOUT YOU scraper supports catalog research, assortment analysis, discount discovery, and scheduled snapshot comparisons without manually browsing listing pages.

This Actor uses a low-concurrency Playwright browser, German residential proxy settings on Apify Cloud, rendered listing-card extraction, product deduplication, and an exact global result cap.

### Key features

- Process ABOUT YOU Germany search terms with `searchQueries`.
- Process supported ABOUT YOU Germany search and category URLs with `startUrls`.
- Resolve every search source through the visible ABOUT YOU search UI from a stable category seed page before extraction.
- Control the exact global product cap with `maxItems`.
- Bound each source with `maxPagesPerSource`.
- Configure Apify or custom HTTP(S) proxies with `proxyConfiguration`.
- Extract listing-card identity, price, discount reference price, brand, image, availability status, source position, and timestamps.
- Deduplicate products by `productId` across all requested sources.
- Follow rendered next-page anchors only; when none exists, use bounded scrolling.
- Export the default Dataset in formats supported by Apify, including JSON, CSV, and Excel.
- Fail explicitly on detected Cloudflare challenges, unsupported empty pages, or layout drift instead of returning misleading success.

### Input

```json
{
  "searchQueries": ["nike", "adidas sneaker"],
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.aboutyou.de/c/frauen/bekleidung-20204" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "maxPagesPerSource": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}
```

At least one `searchQueries` entry or `startUrls` entry is required. Search terms are trimmed and deduplicated case-insensitively. URLs must use HTTPS, exact host `www.aboutyou.de`, and either `/search?term=...` or an ABOUT YOU `/c/...-ID` category path. Product-detail and arbitrary URLs are rejected.

Search sources, including `/search?term=...` entries from `startUrls`, keep their canonical query URL as `sourceUrl` provenance but do not navigate directly to it. The browser opens a stable category seed, fills the visible ABOUT YOU search input, submits with Enter, and extracts only after the same page and session resolve to an allowlisted brand, category, or generic search listing. Category sources continue to navigate directly.

`maxItems` defaults to 100 and accepts 1–10,000. `maxPagesPerSource` defaults to 20 and accepts 1–200. On Apify Cloud, Apify Proxy configuration is normalized to Residential group and country `DE`; explicit custom HTTP(S) proxy URLs remain supported. Direct cloud crawling without a suitable proxy is rejected.

### Output

Each default Dataset row contains:

- Source context: `sourceType`, `searchQuery`, `sourceUrl`, `page`, `pagePosition`, `position`
- Identity: `productId`, `productUrl`
- Product fields: `name`, `brand`, `imageUrl`, `availability`
- Snapshot fields: `price`, `originalPrice`, `currency`, `scrapedAt`

Example from the verified local fixture run:

```json
{
  "sourceType": "CATEGORY",
  "searchQuery": null,
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.aboutyou.de/c/frauen/bekleidung-20204",
  "page": 1,
  "pagePosition": 1,
  "position": 1,
  "productId": "9961424",
  "name": "Bluse 'Neele' -",
  "brand": "EDITED",
  "price": 19.96,
  "originalPrice": 49.9,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "availability": "UNKNOWN",
  "productUrl": "https://www.aboutyou.de/p/edited/bluse-neele-9961424",
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn.aboutstatic.com/file/images/a8d255436f1bc1e4950b14c5d73668c5.png?bg=F4F4F5&quality=75&trim=1&height=480&width=360",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-24T12:00:33.006Z"
}
```

`OUTPUT` in the default key-value store contains run status, counts, stop reason, and timestamps. `STATE` stores versioned deduplication and cap state without cookies, proxy credentials, or page content.

### Pricing

Pay-Per-Event charging uses event `product-extracted` at USD 0.004 for each newly persisted unique product. Duplicate and rejected records are not charged. Buyer-facing equivalent: USD 4.00 per 1,000 extracted products; platform usage is not added as a separate pass-through charge.

### How it works

1. Add search terms, supported listing URLs, or both.
2. Set product and page limits; keep German Residential Proxy enabled for cloud runs.
3. Run the Actor. Search sources resolve through visible browser interaction; category sources open directly.
4. Download or integrate the structured default Dataset.

### Use cases

- Capture current ABOUT YOU Germany listing prices and discounted reference prices.
- Compare independently scheduled Dataset snapshots in an external workflow.
- Research fashion assortment, brands, listing positions, and visible discount patterns.
- Feed normalized listing records into business intelligence, enrichment, or AI analysis pipelines.
- Export selected category or search results for spreadsheet analysis.

### Search and localization

English buyer terms for this Actor include ABOUT YOU product scraper, ABOUT YOU price scraper, ABOUT YOU product data extractor, ABOUT YOU category scraper, and German fashion product scraper. Typical workflows: extract ABOUT YOU product prices to CSV, export ABOUT YOU category products, scrape ABOUT YOU search results, compare ABOUT YOU listing price snapshots, and analyze ABOUT YOU fashion assortment data.

German title: ABOUT YOU Produkt- und Preis-Scraper. German buyer terms include ABOUT YOU Produkt Scraper, ABOUT YOU Preis Scraper, ABOUT YOU Preise extrahieren, ABOUT YOU Produktdaten exportieren, ABOUT YOU Kategorie Scraper, and ABOUT YOU Sortiment analysieren. Relevante Suchbegriffe: Produktdaten, Preise, Rabatte, Kategorien, Sortiment und Datenexport.

### Reliability and limitations

ABOUT YOU uses dynamic rendering and anti-bot controls. Browser execution plus German residential proxy traffic improves access but does not guarantee bypass of anti-bot challenges. Detected challenge pages fail with `CLOUDFLARE_CHALLENGE`.

This Actor emits independent listing-page snapshots. It does not maintain historical prices or calculate price changes, and it does not send alerts. It does not visit product-detail pages or extract size-level inventory. It does not use a direct ABOUT YOU API. It does not guarantee bypass of anti-bot challenges, solve CAPTCHAs, or promise uninterrupted access.

`availability` reflects evidence available on supported listing cards and can be `UNKNOWN`. Selectors and access behavior can change when ABOUT YOU updates its site. Already-written partial Dataset rows remain inspectable if a later source fails.

Residential browser traffic creates proxy and compute cost. Start with small `maxItems` and `maxPagesPerSource`, then measure cloud usage before scheduling larger runs.

### Local development

```bash
pnpm install
pnpm test
pnpm run test:coverage
pnpm run lint
pnpm run typecheck
pnpm run build
```

Default tests are fixture-only and do not contact ABOUT YOU or Apify Cloud. Private local Actor verification uses one allowlisted environment variable:

```bash
ABOUT_YOU_INTERNAL_FIXTURE_PATH=tests/fixtures/category-page-1.html apify run
```

This variable is absent from `INPUT_SCHEMA.json`, accepts no arbitrary path, and is ignored when `APIFY_IS_AT_HOME=1`. Fixture mode is neither a Store input nor a cloud fallback.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Search terms processed in order. Terms are trimmed and deduplicated case-insensitively.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

HTTPS www.aboutyou.de search or /c/ category listing URLs only.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Exact global cap after product-level deduplication across every source.

## `maxPagesPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap including first listing page and successful scroll batches.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

German Residential Proxy is normalized and required on Apify Cloud. Explicit custom proxy URLs are also accepted.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "nike"
  ],
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.aboutyou.de/c/frauen/bekleidung-20204"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "maxPagesPerSource": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `products` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "nike"
    ],
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.aboutyou.de/c/frauen/bekleidung-20204"
        }
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("truenorth/about-you-product-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQueries": ["nike"],
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.aboutyou.de/c/frauen/bekleidung-20204" }],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("truenorth/about-you-product-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "nike"
  ],
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.aboutyou.de/c/frauen/bekleidung-20204"
    }
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call truenorth/about-you-product-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=truenorth/about-you-product-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/UN86mUUWPYc3lvLSj/builds/SyQfGfzmmv44WWw7h/openapi.json