Web Crawler Api
19 Top Web Scraping APIs & Free Alternatives List – RapidAPI
About Web Scraping APIs
Web scraping APIs, sometimes known as web crawler APIs, are used to “scrape” data from the publicly available data on the Internet. The most famous example of this type of API is the one that Google uses to determine its search results.
What are Web Scraper APIs?
Web scrapers are designed to “scrape” or parse the data from a website and then return it for processing by another application. Prior to the advent of the Internet, the predecessors of these APIs were called screen scrapers. Screen scrapers were used to read the data on an application screen and then send it elsewhere for processing.
How do Web Scraping APIs work?
Web scrapers work by visiting various target websites and parsing the data contained within those websites. They are generally looking for specific types of data, or in some cases, may read the website in too. There are methods of excluding access to web scrapers, but very few sites do so. Also, unless the API has access to a private or corporate intranet, it will not be able to access those sites that are behind a firewall.
Who is Web Scraper APIs for?
Developers who wish to use data from multiple websites are the perfect candidates to use this type of API. Google, Yahoo, and Bing all employ web crawlers to determine how pages will appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).
Why are Web Scraper APIs important?
This type of API is important because they allow developers to compile many sets of existing data into one source, thereby eliminating costly duplication of effort. Think of a web scraper as a means of avoiding recreating the wheel. If the data is already out there somewhere, it can be gathered and used much more easily than trying to compile a fresh set of data
What you can expect from scraping APIs?
Basically, a web crawler API can go out and look for whatever data you want to gather from target websites. The crawler is designed to gather data, classify data, and aggregate data, most do nothing to transform the data in any way. Think of these APIs as hunter/gatherers. They go out and catch the ingredients for dinner, but they don’t cook them.
Are there examples of free scraping APIs?
There are many free web scraping tools out there. Some of these include Octoparse, ParseHub,, several extensions for the Chrome web browser,, and
Best Web Scraping APIs
ScrapingBee
Scraper’s Proxy
ScrapingAnt
ScrapingMonkey
AI Web Scraper
Site Scraper
ScrapeGoat
Scraper Box
Web Scraping API SDKs
All web scraping APIs are supported and made available in multiple developer programming languages and SDKs including:
PHP
Python
Ruby
Objective-C
Java (Android)
C# ()
cURL
Just select your preference from any API endpoints page.
Sign up today for free on RapidAPI to begin using Web Scraping APIs!
Crawler API – AWS Glue
The Crawler API describes AWS Glue crawler data types, along with the API
for creating, deleting, updating, and listing crawlers.
Data Types
Crawler Structure
Schedule Structure
CrawlerTargets Structure
S3Target Structure
JdbcTarget Structure
MongoDBTarget Structure
DynamoDBTarget Structure
CatalogTarget Structure
CrawlerMetrics Structure
SchemaChangePolicy Structure
LastCrawlInfo Structure
RecrawlPolicy Structure
LineageConfiguration Structure
Specifies a crawler program that examines a data source and uses classifiers
to try to determine its schema. If successful, the crawler records metadata concerning
the data source in the AWS Glue Data Catalog.
Fields
Name – UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 255 bytes long, matching the Single-line string pattern.
The name of the crawler.
Role – UTF-8 string.
The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of an IAM role that’s used to access customer
resources, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) data.
Targets – A CrawlerTargets object.
A collection of targets to crawl.
DatabaseName – UTF-8 string.
The name of the database in which the crawler’s output is stored.
Description – Description string, not more than 2048 bytes long, matching the URI address multi-line string pattern.
A description of the crawler.
Classifiers – An array of UTF-8 strings.
A list of UTF-8 strings that specify the custom classifiers that are associated
with the crawler.
RecrawlPolicy – A RecrawlPolicy object.
A policy that specifies whether to crawl the entire dataset again, or to
crawl only folders that were added since the last crawler run.
SchemaChangePolicy – A SchemaChangePolicy object.
The policy that specifies update and delete behaviors for the crawler.
LineageConfiguration – A LineageConfiguration object.
A configuration that specifies whether data lineage is enabled for the
crawler.
State – UTF-8 string (valid values: READY | RUNNING | STOPPING).
Indicates whether the crawler is running, or whether a run is pending.
TablePrefix – UTF-8 string, not more than 128 bytes long.
The prefix added to the names of tables that are created.
Schedule – A Schedule object.
For scheduled crawlers, the schedule when the crawler runs.
CrawlElapsedTime – Number (long).
If the crawler is running, contains the total time elapsed since the last
crawl began.
CreationTime – Timestamp.
The time that the crawler was created.
LastUpdated – Timestamp.
The time that the crawler was last updated.
LastCrawl – A LastCrawlInfo object.
The status of the last crawl, and potentially error information if an error
occurred.
Version – Number (long).
The version of the crawler.
Configuration – UTF-8 string.
Crawler configuration information. This versioned JSON string allows
users to specify aspects of a crawler’s behavior. For more information, see Include
and Exclude Patterns.
CrawlerSecurityConfiguration – UTF-8 string, not more than 128 bytes long.
The name of the SecurityConfiguration structure to be
used by this crawler.
A scheduling object using a cron statement to schedule
an event.
ScheduleExpression – UTF-8 string.
A cron expression used to specify the schedule (see Time-Based
Schedules for Jobs and Crawlers. For example, to run something every
day at 12:15 UTC, you would specify: cron(15 12 * *? *).
State – UTF-8 string (valid values: SCHEDULED | NOT_SCHEDULED | TRANSITIONING).
The state of the schedule.
Specifies data stores to crawl.
S3Targets – An array of S3Target objects.
Specifies Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) targets.
JdbcTargets – An array of JdbcTarget objects.
Specifies JDBC targets.
MongoDBTargets – An array of MongoDBTarget objects.
Specifies Amazon DocumentDB or MongoDB targets.
DynamoDBTargets – An array of DynamoDBTarget objects.
Specifies Amazon DynamoDB targets.
CatalogTargets – An array of CatalogTarget objects.
Specifies AWS Glue Data Catalog targets.
Specifies a data store in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Path – UTF-8 string.
The path to the Amazon S3 target.
Exclusions – An array of UTF-8 strings.
A list of glob patterns used to exclude from the crawl. For more information,
see Catalog
Tables with a Crawler.
ConnectionName – UTF-8 string.
The name of a connection which allows a job or crawler to access data in Amazon
S3 within an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud environment (Amazon VPC).
SampleSize – Number (integer).
Sets the number of files in each leaf folder to be crawled when crawling
sample files in a dataset. If not set, all the files are crawled. A valid value is
an integer between 1 and 249.
EventQueueArn – UTF-8 string.
A valid Amazon SQS ARN. For example, arn:aws:sqs:region:account:sqs.
DlqEventQueueArn – UTF-8 string.
A valid Amazon dead-letter SQS ARN. For example, arn:aws:sqs:region:account:deadLetterQueue.
Specifies a JDBC data store to crawl.
The name of the connection to use to connect to the JDBC target.
The path of the JDBC target.
Specifies an Amazon DocumentDB or MongoDB data store to crawl.
The name of the connection to use to connect to the Amazon DocumentDB or
MongoDB target.
The path of the Amazon DocumentDB or MongoDB target (database/collection).
ScanAll – Boolean.
Indicates whether to scan all the records, or to sample rows from the table.
Scanning all the records can take a long time when the table is not a high throughput
table.
A value of true means to scan all records, while a value of
false means to sample the records. If no value is specified, the
value defaults to true.
Specifies an Amazon DynamoDB table to crawl.
The name of the DynamoDB table to crawl.
scanAll – Boolean.
scanRate – Number (double).
The percentage of the configured read capacity units to use by the AWS Glue crawler.
Read capacity units is a term defined by DynamoDB, and is
a numeric value that acts as rate limiter for the number of reads that can be performed
on that table per second.
The valid values are null or a value between 0. 1 to 1. 5. A null value is used
when user does not provide a value, and defaults to 0. 5 of the configured Read Capacity
Unit (for provisioned tables), or 0. 25 of the max configured Read Capacity Unit
(for tables using on-demand mode).
Specifies an AWS Glue Data Catalog target.
DatabaseName – Required: UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 255 bytes long, matching the Single-line string pattern.
The name of the database to be synchronized.
Tables – Required: An array of UTF-8 strings, at least 1 string.
A list of the tables to be synchronized.
Metrics for a specified crawler.
CrawlerName – UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 255 bytes long, matching the Single-line string pattern.
TimeLeftSeconds – Number (double), not more than None.
The estimated time left to complete a running crawl.
StillEstimating – Boolean.
True if the crawler is still estimating how long it will take to complete
this run.
LastRuntimeSeconds – Number (double), not more than None.
The duration of the crawler’s most recent run, in seconds.
MedianRuntimeSeconds – Number (double), not more than None.
The median duration of this crawler’s runs, in seconds.
TablesCreated – Number (integer), not more than None.
The number of tables created by this crawler.
TablesUpdated – Number (integer), not more than None.
The number of tables updated by this crawler.
TablesDeleted – Number (integer), not more than None.
The number of tables deleted by this crawler.
A policy that specifies update and deletion behaviors for the crawler.
UpdateBehavior – UTF-8 string (valid values: LOG | UPDATE_IN_DATABASE).
The update behavior when the crawler finds a changed schema.
DeleteBehavior – UTF-8 string (valid values: LOG | DELETE_FROM_DATABASE | DEPRECATE_IN_DATABASE).
The deletion behavior when the crawler finds a deleted object.
Status and error information about the most recent crawl.
Status – UTF-8 string (valid values: SUCCEEDED | CANCELLED | FAILED).
Status of the last crawl.
ErrorMessage – Description string, not more than 2048 bytes long, matching the URI address multi-line string pattern.
If an error occurred, the error information about the last crawl.
LogGroup – UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 512 bytes long, matching the Log group string pattern.
The log group for the last crawl.
LogStream – UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 512 bytes long, matching the Log-stream string pattern.
The log stream for the last crawl.
MessagePrefix – UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 255 bytes long, matching the Single-line string pattern.
The prefix for a message about this crawl.
StartTime – Timestamp.
The time at which the crawl started.
When crawling an Amazon S3 data source after the first crawl is complete,
specifies whether to crawl the entire dataset again or to crawl only folders that
were added since the last crawler run. For more information, see Incremental Crawls in AWS Glue in the developer guide.
RecrawlBehavior – UTF-8 string (valid values: CRAWL_EVERYTHING | CRAWL_NEW_FOLDERS_ONLY).
Specifies whether to crawl the entire dataset again or to crawl only folders
that were added since the last crawler run.
A value of CRAWL_EVERYTHING specifies crawling the entire
dataset again.
A value of CRAWL_NEW_FOLDERS_ONLY specifies crawling
only folders that were added since the last crawler run.
A value of CRAWL_EVENT_MODE specifies crawling only the changes identified by Amazon S3 events.
Specifies data lineage configuration settings for the crawler.
CrawlerLineageSettings – UTF-8 string (valid values: ENABLE | DISABLE).
Specifies whether data lineage is enabled for the crawler. Valid values
are:
ENABLE: enables data lineage for the crawler
DISABLE: disables data lineage for the crawler
Operations
CreateCrawler Action (Python: create_crawler)
DeleteCrawler Action (Python: delete_crawler)
GetCrawler Action (Python: get_crawler)
GetCrawlers Action (Python: get_crawlers)
GetCrawlerMetrics Action (Python: get_crawler_metrics)
UpdateCrawler Action (Python: update_crawler)
StartCrawler Action (Python: start_crawler)
StopCrawler Action (Python: stop_crawler)
BatchGetCrawlers Action (Python: batch_get_crawlers)
ListCrawlers Action (Python: list_crawlers)
Creates a new crawler with specified targets, role, configuration, and
optional schedule. At least one crawl target must be specified, in the s3Targets
field, the jdbcTargets field, or the DynamoDBTargets
field.
Request
Name – Required: UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 255 bytes long, matching the Single-line string pattern.
Name of the new crawler.
Role – Required: UTF-8 string.
The IAM role or Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of an IAM role used by the new crawler
to access customer resources.
The AWS Glue database where results are written, such as: arn:aws:daylight:us-east-1::database/sometable/*.
A description of the new crawler.
Targets – Required: A CrawlerTargets object.
A list of collection of targets to crawl.
Schedule – UTF-8 string.
A list of custom classifiers that the user has registered. By default,
all built-in classifiers are included in a crawl, but these custom classifiers
always override the default classifiers for a given classification.
The table prefix used for catalog tables that are created.
The policy for the crawler’s update and deletion behavior.
users to specify aspects of a crawler’s behavior. For more information, see Configuring
a Crawler.
Tags – A map array of key-value pairs, not more than 50 pairs.
Each key is a UTF-8 string, not less than 1 or more than 128 bytes long.
Each value is a UTF-8 string, not more than 256 bytes long.
The tags to use with this crawler request. You may use tags to limit access
to the crawler. For more information about tags in AWS Glue, see AWS Tags in AWS Glue in the developer guide.
Response
No Response parameters.
Errors
InvalidInputException
AlreadyExistsException
OperationTimeoutException
ResourceNumberLimitExceededException
Removes a specified crawler from the AWS Glue Data Catalog, unless
the crawler state is RUNNING.
The name of the crawler to remove.
EntityNotFoundException
CrawlerRunningException
SchedulerTransitioningException
Retrieves metadata for a specified crawler.
The name of the crawler to retrieve metadata for.
Crawler – A Crawler object.
The metadata for the specified crawler.
Retrieves metadata for all crawlers defined in the customer account.
MaxResults – Number (integer), not less than 1 or more than 1000.
The number of crawlers to return on each call.
NextToken – UTF-8 string.
A continuation token, if this is a continuation request.
Crawlers – An array of Crawler objects.
A list of crawler metadata.
A continuation token, if the returned list has not reached the end of those
defined in this customer account.
Retrieves metrics about specified crawlers.
CrawlerNameList – An array of UTF-8 strings, not more than 100 strings.
A list of the names of crawlers about which to retrieve metrics.
The maximum size of a list to return.
A continuation token, if this is a continuation call.
CrawlerMetricsList – An array of CrawlerMetrics objects.
A list of metrics for the specified crawler.
A continuation token, if the returned list does not contain the last metric
available.
Updates a crawler. If a crawler is running, you must stop it using StopCrawler
before updating it.
The IAM role or Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of an IAM role that is used by the
new crawler to access customer resources.
The AWS Glue database where results are stored, such as: arn:aws:daylight:us-east-1::database/sometable/*.
Description – UTF-8 string, not more than 2048 bytes long, matching the URI address multi-line string pattern.
A list of targets to crawl.
VersionMismatchException
Starts a crawl using the specified crawler, regardless of what is scheduled.
If the crawler is already running, returns a CrawlerRunningException.
Name of the crawler to start.
If the specified crawler is running, stops the crawl.
Name of the crawler to stop.
CrawlerNotRunningException
CrawlerStoppingException
Returns a list of resource metadata for a given list of crawler names. After
calling the ListCrawlers operation, you can call this operation
to access the data to which you have been granted permissions. This operation
supports all IAM permissions, including permission conditions that uses tags.
CrawlerNames – Required: An array of UTF-8 strings, not more than 100 strings.
A list of crawler names, which might be the names returned from the ListCrawlers
operation.
A list of crawler definitions.
CrawlersNotFound – An array of UTF-8 strings, not more than 100 strings.
A list of names of crawlers that were not found.
Retrieves the names of all crawler resources in this AWS account, or the resources
with the specified tag. This operation allows you
to see which resources are available in your account, and their names.
This operation takes the optional Tags field, which you
can use as a filter on the response so that tagged resources can be retrieved as
a group. If you choose to use tags filtering, only resources with the tag are retrieved.
Specifies to return only these tagged resources.
CrawlerNames – An array of UTF-8 strings, not more than 100 strings.
The names of all crawlers in the account, or the crawlers with the specified
tags.
OperationTimeoutException
Web Scraping vs API: What’s the Difference? | ParseHub
Web Scraping and do these terms mean? And more importantly, how are they different? Here at ParseHub, we’ll break down both terms and get to the bottom of these, we’ll discuss what is web scraping and what is an we will discuss what is the difference between between Web Scraping and API. What is Web Scraping? Web Scraping refers to the process of extracting data from a website or specific can be done either manually or by using software tools called web scrapers. These software tools are usually preferred as they are faster, more powerful and therefore more web scrapers extract the user’s desired data, they often also restructure the data into a more convenient format such as an Excel web scraping, a user is able to select any website they’d want to extract data from, build their web scraping project and extract the to learn more about web scraping? Check out our in-depth guide on web scraping and what it is an API? An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of procedures and communication protocols that provide access to the data of an application, operating system or other nerally, this is done to allow the development of other applications that use the same example, a weather forecast company could create an API to allow other developers to access their data set and create anything they’d want with it. Be it their own weather mobile app, weather website, research studies, a result, APIs rely on the owner of the dataset in question. They might offer access to it for free, charge for access or just not offer and API at all. They might also limit the number of requests that a single user can make or the detail of the data they can Scraping vs API: What’s the Difference? At this point, you might be able to tell the differences between web scraping and an API. But let’s break them goal of both web scraping and APIs is to access web scraping allows you to extract data from any website through the use of web scraping software. On the other hand, APIs give you direct access to the data you’d a result, you might find yourself in a scenario where there might not be an API to access the data you want, or the access to the API might be too limited or these scenarios, web scraping would allow you to access the data as long as it is available on a example, you could use a web scraper to extract product data information from Amazon since they do not provide an API for you to access this osing ThoughtsAs you can see, the uses of web scrapers and APIs change depending on the context of the situation you’re might be able to access all the data you need with the use of an API. But if access to the API is limited, or too expensive or just non-existent, a web scraper can allow you to essentially build your own API for any you would like to learn more web scraping, you can read our beginners guide to web scraping. Download ParseHub For free
Frequently Asked Questions about web crawler api
What is crawling API?
The Crawler API describes AWS Glue crawler data types, along with the API for creating, deleting, updating, and listing crawlers.
What is web scraping API?
Web scraping allows you to extract data from any website through the use of web scraping software. On the other hand, APIs give you direct access to the data you’d want. … In these scenarios, web scraping would allow you to access the data as long as it is available on a website.Mar 9, 2020
Is it legal to scrape API?
It is perfectly legal if you scrape data from websites for public consumption and use it for analysis. However, it is not legal if you scrape confidential information for profit. For example, scraping private contact information without permission, and sell them to a 3rd party for profit is illegal.Aug 16, 2021
