We'll use BeautifulSoup for parsing the HTML. Let's write a simple Python function to get this value. A simple Google search leads me to Socialblade's Real-time Youtube Subscriber Count Page.įrom visual inspection, we find that the subscriber count is inside a tag with ID rawCount.
Finally, we use the information for whatever purpose we intended to.įor example, let's say we want to extract the number of subscribers of PewDiePie and compare it with T-series. The following steps involve methodically making requests to the webpage and implementing the logic for extracting the information, using the patterns we identified. The first step involves using built-in browser tools (like Chrome DevTools and Firefox Developer Tools) to locate the information we need on the webpage and identifying structures/patterns to extract it programmatically. Visual inspection: Figure out what to extract.From now onwards in the post, we will simply use the term "web scraping" to imply "Automated web scraping." How is Web Scraping Done?īefore we move to the things that can make scraping tricky, let's break down the process of web scraping into broad steps: In automated web scraping, instead of letting the browser render pages for us, we use self-written scripts to parse the raw response from the server. However, extracting data manually from web pages can be a tedious and redundant process, which justifies an entire ecosystem of multiple tools and libraries built for automating the data-extraction process.
#Pagination webscraper manual
It can either be a manual process or an automated one. Web scraping, in simple terms, is the act of extracting data from websites. Please keep in mind the importance of scraping with respect. This article sheds light on some of the obstructions a programmer may face while web scraping, and different ways to get around them. It's like a cat and mouse game between the website owner and the developer operating in a legal gray area.
Scraping is a simple concept in its essence, but it's also tricky at the same time.
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