Crawlee & Apify•3y ago

Making API request with crawlee?

I need to make an api POST request to retrieve information in the body . I tried using the Basic crawler, since it uses Got-scrapping under the hood. I've had no success and I optedfor installing an axios package instead. The code

 import { BasicCrawler} from 'crawlee'; 
// import { stored_data}  from './cookies.js';


const crawler = new BasicCrawler({
    async requestHandler ({ sendRequest , log }){
        const response = await sendRequest ({
            url: 'https://intouch.techdata.com/Intouch/ProductFE/api/ProductSearch/Search',
            method: 'POST',
            headers: { 
                hello:'hello',
                referer:'https://intouch.techdata.com/InTouch/MVC/ProductSearch/Search?tscv=4294949918',
            },
            json: {"TaxonomySubClassValue":4294950346,"DimensionValueIds":[4294950346],"SpecialistId":"1","SpecialistName":"BroadLine","IsWestminster":false,"SortBy":0,"ResultPreview":0,"RecordsPageSize":20,"RecordsOffset":2,"ShowTopSellersFromEndeca":true},
            responseType:'json' 
        });
        log.info(response.body);
    }
});

await crawler. Run()

 import { BasicCrawler} from 'crawlee'; 
// import { stored_data}  from './cookies.js';


const crawler = new BasicCrawler({
    async requestHandler ({ sendRequest , log }){
        const response = await sendRequest ({
            url: 'https://intouch.techdata.com/Intouch/ProductFE/api/ProductSearch/Search',
            method: 'POST',
            headers: { 
                hello:'hello',
                referer:'https://intouch.techdata.com/InTouch/MVC/ProductSearch/Search?tscv=4294949918',
            },
            json: {"TaxonomySubClassValue":4294950346,"DimensionValueIds":[4294950346],"SpecialistId":"1","SpecialistName":"BroadLine","IsWestminster":false,"SortBy":0,"ResultPreview":0,"RecordsPageSize":20,"RecordsOffset":2,"ShowTopSellersFromEndeca":true},
            responseType:'json' 
        });
        log.info(response.body);
    }
});

await crawler. Run()

11 Replies

foreign-sapphire•3y ago

And what is the exact problem you have?

like-goldOP•3y ago

I just wanted to understand why it didn't work with BasicCrawler, is there a mistake in my code?

foreign-sapphire•3y ago

I cannot tell because I would have to analyze that you are passing everything correctly. Look at the got library for correct params

complex-teal•3y ago

I'd recommend using HttpCrawler https://crawlee.dev/docs/examples/http-crawler

HTTP crawler | Crawlee

This example demonstrates how to use HttpCrawler to crawl a list of URLs from an external file, load each URL using a plain HTTP request, and save HTML.

like-goldOP•3y ago

How can I use Http crawler for a post request with custom headers and body ?

MEE6•3y ago

@Joaquim just advanced to level 2! Thanks for your contributions! 🎉

complex-teal•3y ago

Here's an example:

import { HttpCrawler } from 'crawlee';
import type { RequestOptions } from 'crawlee';

const requests: RequestOptions[] = [
    {
        url: 'https://foo.com',
        method: 'POST',
        payload: JSON.stringify({
            foo: 'bar',
        }),
        headers: {
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            'cookie': 'key=value; other_key=other_value;'
        },
    },
];

const crawler = new HttpCrawler({
    requestHandler: () => {
        // ...
    },
});

await crawler.run(requests);

import { HttpCrawler } from 'crawlee';
import type { RequestOptions } from 'crawlee';

const requests: RequestOptions[] = [
    {
        url: 'https://foo.com',
        method: 'POST',
        payload: JSON.stringify({
            foo: 'bar',
        }),
        headers: {
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            'cookie': 'key=value; other_key=other_value;'
        },
    },
];

const crawler = new HttpCrawler({
    requestHandler: () => {
        // ...
    },
});

await crawler.run(requests);

complex-teal•3y ago

I'd recommend checking out the RequestOptions interface to understand all the options available: https://crawlee.dev/api/core/interface/RequestOptions

RequestOptions | API | Crawlee

Specifies required and optional fields for constructing a {@apilink Request}.

like-goldOP•3y ago

Thanks really helpful, I guess I won't need install axios in future projects after I master this

foreign-sapphire•3y ago

You can also do any extra HTTP with context.sendRequest from the handler

like-goldOP•3y ago

Isn't it more convenient or equal to use addRequest ?

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Making API request with crawlee?

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