back
The back method is the equivalent of hitting the "back" button in a browser, it returns the previous page
(response) and returns that URL, it will not backtrack beyond the first request.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get(...);
...
$scraper->get(...);
...
my $last_url = $scraper->back;
cookies
The cookies method returns an HTTP::Cookie object. Note! Cookies can be made persistent by enabling
session-support. Session-support is enable by simply specifying a file to be used.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->session->write('session.yml'); # enable session support
$scraper->get(...);
my $cookies = $scraper->cookies;
crawl
The crawl method is very useful when it is desired to crawl an entire website or at-least partially, it
automates the tasks of creating a queue, fetching and parsing html pages, and establishing simple flow-
control. See the SYNOPSIS for a simplified example, ... the following is a more complex example.
my $scrappy = Scrappy->new;
$scrappy->crawl('http://search.cpan.org/recent',
'/recent' => {
'#cpansearch li a' => sub {
my ($self, $item) = @_;
# follow all recent modules from search.cpan.org
$self->queue->add($item->{href});
}
},
'/~:author/:name-:version/' => {
'body' => sub {
my ($self, $item, $args) = @_;
my $reviews = $self
->select('.box table tr')->focus(3)->select('td.cell small a')
->data->[0]->{text};
$reviews = $reviews =~ /\d+ Reviews/ ?
$reviews : '0 reviews';
print "found $args->{name} version $args->{version} ".
"[$reviews] by $args->{author}\n";
}
}
);
domain
The domain method returns the domain host of the current page. Local pages, e.g.
file:///this/that/the_other will return undef.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get('http://www.google.com');
print $scraper->domain; # print www.google.com
download
The download method is passed a URL, a Download Directory Path and a optionally a File Path, then it will
follow the link and store the response contents into the specified file without leaving the current page.
Basically it downloads the contents of the request (especially when the request pushes a file download).
If a File Path is not specified, Scrappy will attempt to name the file automatically resorting to a
random 6-charater string only if all else fails, then returns to the originating page.
my $scaper = Scrappy->new;
my $requested_url = '...';
$scraper->download($requested_url, '/tmp');
# supply your own file name
$scraper->download($requested_url, '/tmp', 'somefile.txt');
dumper
The dumper method is a convenience feature that passes the passed-in objects to Data::Dumper which in
turn returns a stringified representation of that object/data-structure.
my $scaper = Scrappy->new;
my $requested_url = '...';
$scraper->get($requested_url);
my $data = $scraper->select('//a[@href]')->data;
# print out the scraped data
print $scraper->dumper($data);
form
The form method is used to submit a form on the current page.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->form(fields => {
username => 'mrmagoo',
password => 'foobarbaz'
});
# or more specifically, for pages with multiple forms
$scraper->form(form_name => 'login_form', fields => {
username => 'mrmagoo',
password => 'foobarbaz'
});
$scraper->form(form_number => 1, fields => {
username => 'mrmagoo',
password => 'foobarbaz'
});
get
The get method takes a URL or URI object, fetches a web page and returns the Scrappy object.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
if ($scraper->get($new_url)->page_loaded) {
...
}
# $self->content has the HTTP::Response object
log
The log method logs an event with the event logger.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->debug(1); # unnecessary, on by default
$scraper->logger->verbose(1); # more detailed log
$scraper->log('error', 'Somthing bad happened');
...
$scraper->log('info', 'Somthing happened');
$scraper->log('warn', 'Somthing strange happened');
$scraper->log('coolness', 'Somthing cool happened');
Note! Event logs are always recorded but never automatically written to a file unless explicitly told to
do so using the following:
$scraper->logger->write('log.yml');
page_content_type
The page_content_type method returns the content_type of the current page.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get('http://www.google.com/');
print $scraper->page_content_type; # prints text/html
page_data
The page_data method returns the HTML content of the current page, additionally this method when passed a
string with HTML markup, updates the content of the current page with that data and returns the modified
content.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get(...);
my $html = $scraper->page_data;
page_ishtml
The page_ishtml method returns true/false based on whether our content is HTML, according to the HTTP
headers.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get($requested_url);
if ($scraper->is_html) {
...
}
page_loaded
The page_loaded method returns true/false based on whether the last request was successful.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get($requested_url);
if ($scraper->page_loaded) {
...
}
page_match
The page_match method checks the passed-in URL (or URL of the current page if left empty) against the URL
pattern (route) defined. If URL is a match, it will return the parameters of that match much in the same
way a modern web application framework processes URL routes.
my $url = 'http://somesite.com/tags/awesomeness';
...
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
# match against the current page
my $this = $scraper->page_match('/tags/:tag');
if ($this) {
print $this->{'tag'};
# ... prints awesomeness
}
.. or ..
# match against a passed url
my $this = $scraper->page_match('/tags/:tag', $url, {
host => 'somesite.com'
});
if ($this) {
print "This is the ", $this->{tag}, " page";
# ... prints this is the awesomeness page
}
page_reload
The page_reload method acts like the refresh button in a browser, it simply repeats the current request.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get(...);
...
$scraper->reload;
page_status
The page_status method returns the 3-digit HTTP status code of the response.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get(...);
if ($scraper->page_status == 200) {
...
}
page_text
The page_text method returns a text representation of the last page having all HTML markup stripped.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get(...);
my $text = $scraper->page_text;
page_title
The page_title method returns the content of the title tag if the current page is HTML, otherwise returns
undef.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get('http://www.google.com/');
my $title = $scraper->page_title;
print $title; # print Google
pause
This method sets breaks between your requests in an attempt to simulate human interaction.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->pause(20);
$scraper->get($request_1);
$scraper->get($request_2);
$scraper->get($request_3);
Given the above example, there will be a 20 sencond break between each request made, get, post, request,
etc., You can also specify a range to have the pause method select from at random...
$scraper->pause(5,20);
$scraper->get($request_1);
$scraper->get($request_2);
# reset/turn it off
$scraper->pause(0);
print "I slept for ", ($scraper->pause), " seconds";
Note! The download method is exempt from any automatic pausing.
plugin
The plugin method allow you to load a plugin. Using the appropriate case is recommended but not
necessary. See Scrappy::Plugin for more information.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->plugin('foo_bar'); # will load Scrappy::Plugin::FooBar
$scraper->plugin('foo-bar'); # will load Scrappy::Plugin::Foo::Bar
$scraper->plugin('Foo::Bar'); # will load Scrappy::Plugin::Foo::Bar
# more pratically
$scraper->plugin('whois', 'spammer_check');
... somewhere in code
my $var = $scraper->plugin_method();
# example using core plugin Scrappy::Plugin::RandomProxy
my $s = Scrappy->new;
$s->plugin('random_proxy');
$s->use_random_proxy;
$s->get(...);
post
The post method takes a URL, a hashref of key/value pairs, and optionally an array of key/value pairs,
and posts that data to the specified URL, then returns an HTTP::Response object.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->post($requested_url, {
input_a => 'value_a',
input_b => 'value_b'
});
# w/additional headers
my %headers = ('Content-Type' => 'multipart/form-data');
$scraper->post($requested_url, {
input_a => 'value_a',
input_b => 'value_b'
}, %headers);
Note! The most common post headers for content-type are application/x-www-form-urlencoded and
multipart/form-data.
proxy
The proxy method will set the proxy for the next request to be tunneled through.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->proxy('http', 'http://proxy1.example.com:8000/');
$scraper->get($requested_url);
$scraper->proxy('http', 'ftp', 'http://proxy2.example.com:8000/');
$scraper->get($requested_url);
# best practice when using proxies
use Tiny::Try;
my $proxie = Scrappy->new;
$proxie->proxy('http', 'http://proxy.example.com:8000/');
try {
$proxie->get($requested_url);
} catch {
die "Proxy failed\n";
};
Note! When using a proxy to perform requests, be aware that if they fail your program will die unless you
wrap your code in an eval statement or use a try/catch mechanism. In the example above we use Tiny::Try
to trap any errors that might occur when using proxy.
request_denied
The request_denied method is a simple shortcut to determine if the page you requested got loaded or
redirected. This method is very useful on systems that require authentication and redirect if not
authorized. This function return boolean, 1 if the current page doesn't match the requested page.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get($url_to_dashboard);
if ($scraper->request_denied) {
# do login, again
}
else {
# resume ...
}
response
The response method returns the HTTP::Repsonse object of the current page.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get(...);
my $res = $scraper->response;
select
The select method takes XPATH or CSS selectors and returns a Scrappy::Scraper::Parser object which
contains the matching elements.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
# return a list of links
my $list = $scraper->select('#profile li a')->data; # see Scrappy::Scraper::Parser
foreach my $link (@{$list}) {
print $link->{href}, "\n";
}
# Zoom in on specific chunks of html code using the following ...
my $list = $scraper
->select('#container table tr') # select all rows
->focus(4) # focus on the 5th row
->select('div div')->data;
# The code above selects the div > div inside of the 5th tr in #container table
# Access attributes html, text and other attributes as follows...
$element = $scraper->select('table')->data->[0];
$element->{html}; # HTML representation of the table
$element->{text}; # Table stripped of all HTML
$element->{cellpadding}; # cellpadding
$element->{height}; # ...
stash
The stash method sets a stash (shared) variable or returns a reference to the entire stash object.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->stash(age => 31);
print 'stash access works'
if $scraper->stash('age') == $scraper->stash->{age};
my @array = (1..20);
$scraper->stash(integers => [@array]);
store
The store method stores the contents of the current page into the specified file. If the content-type
does not begin with 'text', the content is saved as binary data.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get($requested_url);
$scraper->store('/tmp/foo.html');
url
The url method returns the complete URL for the current page.
my $scraper = Scrappy->new;
$scraper->get('http://www.google.com/');
print $scraper->url; # prints http://www.google.com/
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