SCRAPER API | WEB SCRAPING API ABOUT USES AND TOOLS
WEB SCRAPING
Mostly we come across a problem to extract data from a website. Our intention could be to find data for communication, budget comparison etc. This sort of extraction of data from a website is termed as data parsing. Data parsing has numerous methods and techniques but we must follow the one which is time and quality efficient. For that we are available with the only option of WEB SCRAPING API. This technique is not only quality assured but also saves much time. It is done by Scraper API. It has another advantage that data extracted or data parsed through this process is quite accurate and just.
DATA SCRAPING API
To understand all about data extraction we must take it as a technique or method of efficient data parsing from a website. It is time efficient and usage of its tools is quite easy as well. Scraping tools provide us with ease to parse data and all the required information from a website. Websites not available with API’s require some different methods for data extraction. We can also access data through this method if API is not there for us as well, but as compared to that data scraping API is something more worthy to deal with.
WHAT IS API
Application programming Interface commonly referred as API is actually a software available in websites to enable communication of two applications. It makes the extraction of data (commonly referred to as data parsing) easy. Data parsing from some websites which are not installed with API’s is too much difficult. Most of the times while scraping we do not scrap the HTML markup. It means that we do not use XPath or CSS selectors. So ultimately we can conclude that presence or usage of API for Web Scraping is way more efficient for data parsing from a website.
API scraping or method of scraper API can be done by using many ways. The major one are Python and JAVA.
API SCRAPING PYTHON
Any issue we come across in coding or web development surely require some tools for its solution. More the power of tools, it will be easy for us to sort out the problem effectively. Python is here for us to sort out the issue of scraping data API from a website using API with most powerful tools which make API scraping of data really easy and time saving for moderators and developers. For this particular reason API scraping using python is preferred as it has numerous advantages upon other techniques. Most important and considerable from them is that this technique is fast, reliable and time efficient.
API SCRAPING JAVA
External API Scraping can be done for any website using JAVA. First of all we must have Java installed and then we have to use a few tools like JSoup, HTML unit and Jaunt along with some libraries to implement data parsing through JAVA. Like python this technique is also very much reliable and efficient for web scraping.
USES
Web scraping is used by various organizations to do extraction of data for their ease. A few examples are discussed here.
- If an organization is having a search engine on web, they must scrap data to check the availability of content in search results.
- World Wide Web has such an algorithm which do ranks the trending topics in search results, so it helps here too.
- To check competitor’s work to compete the company associated with him in marketplace, it is necessary to scrap their data to observe their aims and goals.
SCRAPER API TOOLS
There are many tools available for web this web scraping. Here we are going to mention five of them which are here for us with free credit plans. Other paid tools are also present to be used.
Scrapingbee scraper API
It is a tool with free plan of one thousand credit and also with a paid plan
Scrapestack scraper API
It is a tool with a free trial available for users and also a paid plan
Scraper API
It is a tool with free plan of one thousand credit and also with a paid plan
Scraping-Bot
It is a tool with free plan of one thousand credit and also with a paid plan
Web scraping API with Octoparse
It is a tool with a free trial available for users and also a paid plan
Another side of Scraper API
Internet is available with a number of websites. These websites contain numerous amount of data in them. Sometimes we need to extract that data for various purposes. This process is done by Scraper API technique. Some of the important reasons for extraction of data include
- Competitor’s work study
- Market trends
- General analysis
- Rank methodology.
This technique of data extraction from website is known as web scraping. There are many ways to implement this technique. Most common one is Scraper API.
To understand this technique first of all we have to learn what API is?
API or Application programing interface. It is actually a simple software available on websites. API makes data parsing possible in an easy way. It allows two applications to communicate to each other. We can say that it allows the interaction of two or more applications. API is surely a gate way for web scraping. We do require some tricky and complex method for data parsing from a website. We do so if its API is absent. While doing so HTML markup is not scraped. Instead CSS or XPath selectors are used. That is why data scraping API is trusted. It is most efficient way for this to be implemented.
As a coin has two sides, similarly there are some flaws of using scraper API technique. Some of them are here.
FLAWS
- It is difficult to perform. There are developers who are not professionals. For them, this process is very tricky to deal with. It creates difficult situations that a newbie cannot tackle.
- Similarly this process lacks the result authentication as well. We must treat the data we are extracting from any websites. It is necessary before we make the analytical report. If not treated properly, it can create misunderstandings and confusions.
So we have to deal with these particular situations. There are alternatives available for data scraping API technique. These alternatives are actually software. We use them to extract data from a website in an effective way similar to Scraper API. But surely a software is always better than a method because it contains preprogrammed solutions for various critical situations that a developer can face. That is why these we do prefer these software. They are large in number but here we are going to discuss about some of them in detail.
SCRAPER API-ALTERNATIVES
Parse hub is a modern tool of a technique we call web scraping API. It is special due to its significance for modern web and its problems. It can deal with all of them in an efficient way
Scrapy is also very beneficial for data scraping. It is surely a software with an open source and collaborative framework for data parsing from a website. Its performance is very efficient. It provided us with reliable results of data parsing. It do not has any speed problem as well and for all these reasons it is very reliable source of extraction of data from any website we want.
Portia is another software which is available for us. When we do discuss data extraction API, it is also here as a part of it. It is also an open source software that allows us to fetch any type of data from a website in effective and efficient way. It is a visual scraping tool and allows us to get data from any website without coding. These properties make this software a best choice for web scraping.