- Web Scraper Extension Firefox Browser
- Web Scraper Extension
- Firefox Extension Web Scraper
- Web Scraper Extension Firefox Downloads
- Free Web Scraper Tool
Web Scraper Extensions. The browser environment is becoming popular among web scrapers, and there are a good number of web scraper tools you can install as extensions and add-ons on your browser to help you scrape data from websites. (Chrome and Firefox) presents one of the best web scraping tools you can use to extract data out of web. Go to the add-ons page (extensions) of the Mozilla Firefox browser. Open the settings menu by clicking on the corresponding icon. Select the menu item 'install addon from file' in the drop-down list. Select the file with the plugin 'web-scraper-chrome-extension-v.zip' provided on the disk with the distribution package of the program. Web Scraper allows you to build Site Maps from different types of selectors. This system makes it possible to tailor data extraction to different site structures. Export data in CSV, XLSX and JSON formats Build scrapers, scrape sites and export data in CSV format directly from your browser.
Some websites can contain a very large amount of invaluable data.
Stock prices, product details, sports stats, company contacts, you name it.
If you wanted to access this information, you’d either have to use whatever format the website uses or copy-paste the information manually into a new document. Here’s where web scraping can help.
What is Web Scraping?
Web scraping refers to the extraction of data from a website. This information is collected and then exported into a format that is more useful for the user. Be it a spreadsheet or an API.
Although web scraping can be done manually, in most cases, automated tools are preferred when scraping web data as they can be less costly and work at a faster rate.
But in most cases, web scraping is not a simple task. Websites come in many shapes and forms, as a result, web scrapers vary in functionality and features.
If you want to find the best web scraper for your project, make sure to read on.
How do Web Scrapers Work?
Automated web scrapers work in a rather simple but also complex way. After all, websites are built for humans to understand, not machines.
First, the web scraper will be given one or more URLs to load before scraping. The scraper then loads the entire HTML code for the page in question. More advanced scrapers will render the entire website, including CSS and Javascript elements.
Then the scraper will either extract all the data on the page or specific data selected by the user before the project is run.
Ideally, the user will go through the process of selecting the specific data they want from the page. For example, you might want to scrape an Amazon product page for prices and models but are not necessarily interested in product reviews.
Lastly, the web scraper will output all the data that has been collected into a format that is more useful to the user.
Most web scrapers will output data to a CSV or Excel spreadsheet, while more advanced scrapers will support other formats such as JSON which can be used for an API.
What Kind of Web Scrapers are There?
Web scrapers can drastically differ from each other on a case-by-case basis.
For simplicity’s sake, we will break down some of these aspects into 4 categories. Of course, there are more intricacies at play when comparing web scrapers.
- self-built or pre-built
- browser extension vs software
- User interface
- Cloud vs Local
Self-built or Pre-built
Just like how anyone can build a website, anyone can build their own web scraper.
However, the tools available to build your own web scraper still require some advanced programming knowledge. The scope of this knowledge also increases with the number of features you’d like your scraper to have.
On the other hand, there are numerous pre-built web scrapers that you can download and run right away. Some of these will also have advanced options added such as scrape scheduling, JSON and Google Sheets exports and more.
Browser extension vs Software
In general terms, web scrapers come in two forms: browser extensions or computer software.
Browser extensions are app-like programs that can be added onto your browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Some popular browser extensions include themes, ad blockers, messaging extensions and more.
Web scraping extensions have the benefit of being simpler to run and being integrated right into your browser.
However, these extensions are usually limited by living in your browser. Meaning that any advanced features that would have to occur outside of the browser would be impossible to implement. For example, IP Rotations would not be possible in this kind of extension.
On the other hand, you will have actual web scraping software that can be downloaded and installed on your computer. While these are a bit less convenient than browser extensions, they make up for it in advanced features that are not limited by what your browser can and cannot do.
User Interface
Web Scraper Extension Firefox Browser
The user interface between web scrapers can vary quite extremely.
For example, some web scraping tools will run with a minimal UI and a command line. Some users might find this unintuitive or confusing.
On the other hand, some web scrapers will have a full-fledged UI where the website is fully rendered for the user to just click on the data they want to scrape. These web scrapers are usually easier to work with for most people with limited technical knowledge.
Some scrapers will go as far as integrating help tips and suggestions through their UI to make sure the user understands each feature that the software offers.
Cloud vs Local
From where does your web scraper actually do its job?
Local web scrapers will run on your computer using its resources and internet connection. This means that if your web scraper has a high usage of CPU or RAM, your computer might become quite slow while your scrape runs. With long scraping tasks, this could put your computer out of commission for hours.
Additionally, if your scraper is set to run on a large number of URLs (such as product pages), it can have an impact on your ISP’s data caps.
Cloud-based web scrapers run on an off-site server which is usually provided by the company who developed the scraper itself. This means that your computer’s resources are freed up while your scraper runs and gathers data. You can then work on other tasks and be notified later once your scrape is ready to be exported.
This also allows for very easy integration of advanced features such as IP rotation, which can prevent your scraper from getting blocked from major websites due to their scraping activity.
What are Web Scrapers Used For?
By this point, you can probably think of several different ways in which web scrapers can be used. We’ve put some of the most common ones below (plus a few unique ones).
- Scraping site data before a website migration
- Scraping financial data for market research and insights
The list of things you can do with web scraping is almost endless. After all, it is all about what you can do with the data you’ve collected and how valuable you can make it.
Web Scraper Extension
Read our Beginner's guide to web scraping to start learning how to scrape any website!
The Best Web Scraper
So, now that you know the basics of web scraping, you’re probably wondering what is the best web scraper for you?
The obvious answer is that it depends.
The more you know about your scraping needs, the better of an idea you will have about what’s the best web scraper for you. However, that did not stop us from writing our guide on what makes the Best Web Scraper.
Of course, we would always recommend ParseHub. Not only can it be downloaded for FREE but it comes with an incredibly powerful suite of features which we reviewed in this article. Including a friendly UI, cloud-based scrapping, awesome customer support and more.
Want to become an expert on Web Scraping for Free? Take ourfree web scraping courses and become Certified in Web Scraping today!
April 17, 2019
Sitemap.xml, Release
We are happy to announce that Web Scraper 0.4.0 has been released. This release contains a new selector, updates to other selectors and improved CSS selector generator. Starting from version 0.4.0 Web Scraper is also available in Firefox.
Sitemap.xml link selector
Many websites want to be crawled by scrapers. For example, news outlets want their articles to appear in search engine results. In order for this to happen, a search engine has to crawl the entire site. The site can make this work more efficient by listing all of the relevant URLs in a sitemap.xml file. This makes the job for a crawler more efficient and also ensures that everything within the site is being indexed.
With Sitemap.xml Link selector you can leverage this feature to access all of the relevant URLs in a site without having to build a path through the site using the Link selectors for navigation and pagination. With a single selector you can access every product page in an e-commerce site. It is always worth checking out whether the site has sitemap.xml files before creating other selectors, as using this method can speed up the scraper configuration significantly.
When using the Sitemap.xml Link selector use the Add from robots.txt button to automatically discover sitemap.xml links. If no links are discovered you can conduct a manual check whether a example.com/sitemap.xml page exists. Add child selectors under the Sitemap.xml Link selector that extract data from URLs that the sitemap.xml file leads to.
Element click selector
Firefox Extension Web Scraper
With this release it is now possible to add an Element Click Selector under another Element Click Selector. With this feature you can go through multiple product color/size variations within a single product page to get the SKU and the price for every variation.
You can also now use element click selector to click through options within a <select> element.
Element scroll down selector
Web Scraper Extension Firefox Downloads
Element scroll down selector now scrolls down with a smooth animation. It will additionally try a few tricks to trigger the data load event within the website. Generally the Element scroll down selector isn't as reliable as Link selectors but with this update it should also work in some additional edge cases.
Firefox
I'll start by saying big thanks to Firefox team. They have done a lot work in order to bring the Web Extensions API into their browser. The most painful part of this probably was that they had to remove their previous add-on API with all of the add-ons that developers had been building for years. Despite this, this was a good choice that they made. The Web Extensions API is compatible with other browser and removes the overhead of developing the same solution for different platforms.
You can download Firefox version of Web Scraper here. If the Firefox version isn't behaving as expected please let us know by posting a bug report in Web Scraper Forum.
Free Web Scraper Tool
CSS Selector generator
When you are selecting an element within a page, Web Scraper generates a CSS selector. In this release we made some improvements to the CSS Selector generator. When generating a CSS Selector the generator will additionally try to use element attributes and their values. Additionally it will generate better CSS selectors for description lists using the :contains() selector. We made some additional tweaks to reduce the use of order based selector :nth-of-type() which frequently doesn't work well across multiple pages.