crawlbase

Crawlbase node

Dependency free module for scraping and crawling websites using Crawlbase API

Installation

Install using npm

npm i crawlbase

Require the necessary API class in your project.
You can get your Crawlbase free token from here.

const { CrawlingAPI, ScraperAPI, LeadsAPI, ScreenshotsAPI } = require('crawlbase');

Crawling API usage

Initialize with one of your account tokens, either normal or javascript token. Then make get or post requests accordingly.

const api = new CrawlingAPI({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });

GET requests

Pass the url that you want to scrape plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

api.get(url, options);

Example:

api.get('https://www.facebook.com/britneyspears').then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

You can pass any options from Crawlbase API.

Example:

api.get('https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5bx4bx/thanks_obama/', {
  userAgent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; rv:20.0) Gecko/20121202 Firefox/30.0',
  format: 'json'
}).then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

POST requests

Pass the url that you want to scrape, the data that you want to send which can be either a json or a string, plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

api.post(url, data, options);

Example:

api.post('https://producthunt.com/search', { text: 'example search' }).then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

You can send the data as application/json instead of x-www-form-urlencoded by setting options postType as json.

api.post('https://httpbin.org/post', { some_json: 'with some value' }, { postType: 'json' }).then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

PUT requests

Pass the url that you want to scrape, the data that you want to send which can be either a json or a string, plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

api.put(url, data, options);

Example:

api.put('https://producthunt.com/search', { text: 'example search' }).then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

Javascript requests

If you need to scrape any website built with Javascript like React, Angular, Vue, etc. You just need to pass your javascript token and use the same calls. Note that only .get is available for javascript and not .post.

const api = new CrawlingAPI({ token: 'YOUR_JAVASCRIPT_TOKEN' });

api.get('https://www.nfl.com').then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

Same way you can pass javascript additional options.

api.get('https://www.freelancer.com', { pageWait: 5000 }).then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.body);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

Original status and PC status

You can always get the original status and crawlbase status from the response. Read the Crawlbase documentation to learn more about those status.

api.get('https://craiglist.com').then(response => {
  console.log(response.originalStatus, response.cbStatus);
}).catch(error => console.error);

Scraper API usage

Initialize the Scraper API and use it in the same way as the Crawling API (see above). Use it with your normal token.

const api = new ScraperAPI({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });

api.get('https://www.amazon.com/Halo-SleepSack-Swaddle-Triangle-Neutral/dp/B01LAG1TOS').then(response => {
  if (response.statusCode === 200) {
    console.log(response.json);
  }
}).catch(error => console.error);

Leads API usage

Initialize with your Leads API token and call the getFromDomain method.

const api = new LeadsAPI({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });

api.getFromDomain('somesite.com').then(response => {
  console.log(response.leads);
});

Screenshots API usage

Initialize with your Screenshots API token and call the get method, then do whatever you need with the binary content. For example save it in a file.

You can pass any of the available parameters

const api = new ScreenshotsAPI({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });

api.get('https://www.amazon.com').then(response => {
  fs.writeFileSync('amazon.jpg', response.body, { encoding: 'binary' });
});

// Example with parameters
api.get('https://www.amazon.com', { device: 'mobile' }).then(response => {
  fs.writeFileSync('amazon-mobile.jpg', response.body, { encoding: 'binary' });
});

If you have questions or need help using the library, please open an issue or contact us.

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