Can Scrapy Scrape Dynamic Content Loaded via AJAX?

Scraping Dynamic Content from AJAX-driven Websites with Scrapy

One of the challenges in web scraping is extracting data from websites that use dynamic content loading techniques such as AJAX. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) enables websites to dynamically update portions of content without reloading the entire page.

Can Scrapy Scrape Dynamic Content?

Yes, Scrapy can be used to scrape dynamic content by leveraging its support for HTTP requests and JavaScript rendering.

How Scrapy Scrapes Dynamic Content

1. Analyze HTTP Requests: Use browser debugging tools (e.g., Firebug) to analyze the AJAX requests responsible for loading the dynamic content.
2. Construct a FormRequest: Create a FormRequest using the extracted URL, headers, and form data from the AJAX request. Scrapy's FormRequest allows for POST requests with custom form data.
3. Handle the AJAX Response: In the callback function of the FormRequest, parse the AJAX response (usually JSON or XML) and extract the required data.

Example: Scraping Rubin-Kazan Guestbook

The following Scrapy spider demonstrates how to scrape the dynamic guest messages from rubin-kazan.ru using AJAX:

import scrapy

class RubiGuesstSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = 'RubiGuesst'
    start_urls = ['http://www.rubin-kazan.ru/guestbook.html']

    # Parse the main page to find the AJAX URL
    def parse(self, response):
        url_list_gb_messages = re.search(r'url_list_gb_messages="(.*)"', response.body).group(1)
        yield scrapy.FormRequest('http://www.rubin-kazan.ru' + url_list_gb_messages, callback=self.scrape_messages,
                          formdata={'page': str(page + 1), 'uid': ''})

    # Scrape the dynamic JSON response with guest messages
    def scrape_messages(self, response):
        json_response = response.json()
        # Extract guest messages and their details

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