Final Report
Final Report
Submitted by
K.M.K.Chaitanya -RA2111003020027
P.Rohith Varma -RA2111003020038
M.Sree Harsha-RA2111003020059
Dr. Sutha.J
(Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering)
of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
in
of
NOV 2024
SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(Deemed to be University U/S 3 of UGC Act, 1956)
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
Certified that this minor project report titled “Web Scraping Tools And Techniques”
is the bona-fide work of K.M.K.CHAITANYA [REG NO: RA2111003020027],
P.ROHITH VARMA [REG NO: RA2111003020038], M.SREE HARSHA [REG
NO: RA2111003020059] who carried out the minor project work under my
supervision. Certified further, that to the best of my knowledge, the work reported
herein does not form any other project report or dissertation on the basis of which a
degree or award was conferred on an occasion on this or any other candidate.
SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
Submitted for the minor project viva-voce held on__________at SRM Institute of Science and
Technology, Ramapuram, Chennai -600089.
DECLARATION
We hereby declare that the entire work contained in this minor project report titled “WEB
SCRAPING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES” has been carried out by K.M.K.CHAITANYA
[REG NO: RA2111003020027], P.ROHITH VARMA [REG NO: RA2111003020027], M.SREE HARSHA
[REG NO: RA2111003020059] at SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Ramapuram
Campus, Chennai- 600089, under the guidance of Sutha.J, Professor, Department of
Computer Science and Engineering.
Place: Chennai
Date: K.M.K.CHAITANYA
P.ROHITH VARMA
M.SREE HARSHA
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT v
LIST OF FIGURES vi
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.5 Methodology 3
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 4
3. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 6
3.2.1 Advantages 7
4. PROPOSED WORK 11
7.1 Conclusion 21
8 Source Code 24
8.2 References 30
LIST OF FIGURES
1
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
In the digital age, data is a crucial asset for business, researchers, and
developers. Web scraping has emerged as a powerful technique for
extracting valuable information from websites, enabling users to gather
data that is not readily available in structured formats. This project
explores the various tools and techniques used in web scraping,
highlighting their applications, advantages, and potential challenges.
Web scraping involves automating the extraction of content from web
pages, allowing for the collection of data such as product information,
user reviews, market trends, and much more. By leveraging libraries
and frameworks designed for web scraping, individuals and
organizations can streamline data collection processes, perform
competitive analysis, and gain insights into consumer behavior. In this
project, we will examine popular web scraping tools like Beautiful
Soup, Scrapy, and Selenium, discussing their features and use cases.
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1.1.1. Problem Statement
This project is situated within the domain of Data Science and Web
Development, focusing on Web Scraping It combines techniques from
data analysis and web technologies to enable effective data gathering
from online sources. Participants will explore applications such as
market research while considering ethical and legal implications.
3
1.4 Scope of the Project
The project will focus on developing tools to extract data from various
websites, including both static and dynamic content. It will implement
efficient data management strategies for storing and organizing the
scraped information. A user-friendly interface will be created to
simplify the configuration and management of scraping tasks.
Additionally, the project will emphasize ethical guidelines and
compliance with legal standards related to web scraping. Overall, it
aims to empower users with effective tools for data extraction and
analysis.
1.5 Methodology
The methodology for this project involves several key steps. First,
participants will research and select target websites from which to
scrape data, ensuring compliance with their terms of service. Next, they
will choose appropriate web scraping tools, such as Beautiful Soup or
Scrapy, based on the complexity of the data extraction task. Following
this, they will write scripts to send HTTP requests and parse the HTML
content to extract relevant information. Once the data is collected,
participants will implement data cleaning and transformation processes
to ensure the information is usable and structured. The cleaned data will
then be stored in a suitable format, such as CSV files or a database.
After data management, participants will focus on creating a dynamic
web page using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to display the extracted
data effectively. Finally, the project will conclude with a discussion on
the ethical implications of web scraping
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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
5
4. 2019 State-of-the-Art and Areas of Application: Web Scraping”
by Rabiyatou Diouf and Edouard Ngor Sarr, presented at the 4th
International Conference on Innovative Trends in Information
Technology (ICITIIT), examines popular Python libraries like
BeautifulSoup and pandas. This paper provides insights into how
these tools enable data analysis and enhance the capabilities of
web scraping applications.
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Chapter 3
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The existing system for web scraping often rely on manual data
collection methods, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
Many organizations use basic scripts that lack scalability and flexibility,
making it difficult to adapt to changes in website structures.
Additionally, existing tools may not effectively handle complex
websites with dynamic content, limiting their utility. Current solutions
also frequently overlook ethical considerations, resulting in potential
compliance issues. Overall, these limitations highlight the need for
more efficient, user-friendly scraping techniques and frameworks.
Many users also face a steep learning curve with existing tools, which
may not provide intuitive interfaces for non-technical users.
Compliance with ethical and legal standards is frequently overlooked,
raising concerns about data privacy and adherence to website terms of
service.
3.2.1 Advantages
• User-Friendly Interface.
• Data Organization.
• Data Accuracy.
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3.3 Feasibility Study
A Feasibility study is carried out to check the viability of the project and
to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed system. The
application of usage of mask in crowd areas must be evaluated. The
feasibility study is carried out in many forms:
• Economic Feasibility
• Operational Feasibility
• Technical Feasibility
• Legal Feasibility
• Schedule Feasibility
9
3.3.2 Technical Feasibility
10
3.4 System Specification
• Storage: 256 GB or more of SSD storage for fast data access and
processing.
11
Chapter 4
PROPOSED WORK
Figure 4.1 The web scraping process begins by identifying the target
website and analyzing its HTML structure to locate the desired data. Next,
the scraper sends HTTP requests to retrieve the HTML content and parses
it to extract relevant information. This data is then cleaned and structured
before being stored in a suitable format, such as a CSV file or a database.
Error handling is implemented to manage any potential issues that arise
during scraping. Throughout the process, ethical guidelines are followed
to ensure compliance with the website’s terms of service. Finally, the
extracted data is analyzed and utilized for various purposes, such as
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reporting or insights generation.
4.2 Design Phase
4.2.1 Data Flow Diagram
Figure 4.2 the flow of data through the system, highlighting how data
is collected, processed, and stored. It typically includes external entities
such as the user or client who initiates the scraping process and the
websites or servers from which data is extracted. Key processes include
data collection, where web pages are accessed and data is extracted, data
cleaning to remove unnecessary or corrupt information, data storage for
saving the cleaned data into databases or file formats like CSV or JSON,
and optional data analysis to derive insights from the extracted
information. Data stores are also represented, including a raw data store
for temporarily holding the initially scraped data and a cleaned data
store for the processed information ready for analysis. Arrows indicate
the direction of data movement, showing how data flows from websites
to data collection, then to raw data storage, through data cleaning, and
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finally into the cleaned data store or for analysis. A DFD serves to help
stakeholders understand how data moves through the system, making it
easier to identify potential bottlenecks, redundancies, or areas for
improvement in the web scraping workflow.
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in the pipeline can be depicted as a separate process, showing how data
transforms from initial scraping to final storage. Additionally, the
settings component outlines configuration options like concurrency and
user agents. Middleware are included to handle custom processing of
requests and responses, such as managing cookies or retries. Finally,
the diagram typically shows the data storage mechanism, illustrating
how processed data is saved to databases or files, providing a
comprehensive view of Scrapy's modular design and component
interactions.
1. HTTP Requests
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) requests play a crucial role in
web scraping, facilitating the interaction between the scraper (client)
and the website (server). Python modules such as requests streamline
the process of sending GET or POST requests to obtain web page
content. In the context of scraping, the client issues an HTTP request to
the server that hosts the desired webpage, which in turn responds by
delivering the HTML content of that page. This HTML can
subsequently be parsed and processed to extract targeted data elements.
2. Element Search
In web scraping, it is often necessary to extract data from specific
sections of a webpage, including text within paragraphs, table cells, or
images. Methods for element search, such as those offered by
BeautifulSoup (find, find_all) or by Selenium utilizing CSS selectors or
XPath, enable scrapers to accurately identify particular HTML
elements. CSS selectors are patterns that focus on elements based on
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attributes like class or ID, while XPath expressions provide a method
for navigating through HTML structures based on their paths. Both
techniques offer the flexibility needed to pinpoint elements precisely,
even within intricate layouts.
3. Data Extraction
After identifying the relevant elements, data extraction entails
obtaining the actual content contained within these elements, which
may include text, links, images, or data from tables. For example,
BeautifulSoup can be used to extract text from a paragraph (<p>),
retrieve the URL from an anchor tag (<a>), or obtain the source link
from an image tag (<img>). The extracted data can then be cleaned,
transformed, or organized into structured formats such as CSV or
JSON, facilitating further analysis or application use.
4. Error Handling
Scrapers often encounter issues, such as network errors, timeouts,
or unexpected HTML structures that can disrupt the scraping process.
Robust error handling is essential to manage these situations gracefully.
For instance, try-except blocks in Python can catch network-related
errors, allowing the script to retry or skip the problematic page. Error
handling is also crucial for handling HTML variations, where non-
standard structures may otherwise cause parsing errors. This feature
makes the scraper more resilient to website changes and network
inconsistencies.
5. Concurrency
Web scraping can be slow, especially when scraping multiple pages
sequentially. Concurrency, implemented through threading or
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asynchronous programming, allows multiple scraping tasks to run
simultaneously. This improves efficiency by enabling the scraper to
fetch data from multiple pages or websites in parallel. Python’s
concurrent. futures or libraries like asyncio and aiohttp can manage
concurrent requests, significantly reducing overall scraping time for
large-scale projects.
6. Community Support
Web scraping enjoys a large community of developers who share
knowledge, resources, and best practices. Platforms like GitHub, Stack
Overflow, and forums are valuable resources where users can seek help,
find code snippets, or learn about updates in libraries. Community
support also helps scrapers stay informed about ethical and legal
considerations and adapt to changing technologies.
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Chapter 5
18
5.1.2 TOTAL MOBILE INFORMATION SCRAPING OUTPUT
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Chapter 6
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6.2 Comparison of Existing and Proposed System
The proposed web scraping system using Scrapy offers significant
improvements over existing systems in several key areas. While many
traditional systems rely on synchronous methods, leading to longer
scraping times due to sequential processing, the proposed system
utilizes Scrapy's asynchronous architecture to handle multiple requests
concurrently, greatly speeding up data collection. Additionally, existing
systems often lack modularity, making them less adaptable to changes
in website structures, whereas the proposed system's modular design
allows for easy updates and modifications to components like spiders
and item pipelines without disrupting the entire workflow. Error
handling in traditional solutions can be limited, which may cause
disruptions; in contrast, the proposed system incorporates robust error
management and retry mechanisms, enhancing reliability. Furthermore,
existing systems typically require manual data processing after
scraping, while the proposed system enables direct data export in
formats such as JSON and CSV, streamlining integration with data
analysis tools. Overall, the proposed system demonstrates enhanced
speed, adaptability, reliability, and efficiency compared to existing web
scraping solutions
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Chapter 7
7.1 Conclusion
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Creating a Webpage with Scraped Data
• Dynamic Content Integration: Future web development practices
may include more seamless integration of scraped data into web
pages. Using frameworks like React or Vue.js, developers can create
dynamic webpages that update in real-time based on the latest scraped
information.
• APIs for Data Sharing: Creating APIs that allow users to share and
access scraped data easily can foster collaboration and data-driven
applications. This can include open datasets from various scraping
projects.
Improved Data Storage and Management
• Cloud-Based Solutions: Utilizing cloud platforms for data storage
will facilitate scalability and accessibility. Integrating scraping tools
with cloud databases can enhance data management and retrieval
processes.
• Data Visualization Tools: Incorporating visualization capabilities
within scraping tools can help users interpret and analyze the data
collected more effectively. This could involve built-in dashboards or
integration with popular visualization libraries.
Educational Resources and Community Building
• Training and Tutorials: As web scraping becomes increasingly
important, providing comprehensive educational resources will help
users better understand both the technical and ethical aspects of the
practice.
• Community Forums: Establishing forums or platforms for users to
share their experiences, challenges, and solutions can foster a
collaborative environment for learning and innovation.
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Chapter 8
SOURCE CODE
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8.1.2 CHECKING THE RESPONSE OF THE WEBSITE
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8.1.4 PRICES SCRAPING
27
8.1.6 IMAGE LINKS SCRAPING
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8.1.8 TOTAL MOBILE INFORMATION SCRAPING
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8.1.10 CREATING CSV FILE
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8.2 References
1. N. H. Anh, "Web Scraping: A Big Data Building Tool And Its Status
In The Fintech Sector In Viet Nam", Journal of Science and
Technology on Information and Communications, vol. 2, no. 1, pp.
41-54, 2023.
2. S. Han and C. K. Anderson, "Web scraping for hospitality research:
Overview opportunities and implications", Cornell Hospitality
Quarterly, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 89-104, 2021.
3. David Mathew Thomas and Sandeep Mathur, "Data Analysis by
Web Scraping using Python", IEEE 2019 3rd International
conference on Electronics Communication and Aerospace
Technology (ICECA) - Coimbatore, 6 2019.
4. Deng, S. (2020, June). Research on the Focused Crawler of Mineral
Intelligence Service Based on Semantic Similarity. In Journal of
Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1575, No. 1). IOP
Publishing:012042.
5. Kotouza, M. T., Tsarouchis, S. F., Kyprianidis, A. C., Chrysopoulos,
A. C., and Mitkas, P. A. (2020, June). Towards fashion
recommendation: an AI system for clothing data retrieval and
analysis. In IFIP International Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Applications and Innovations. Springer, Cham:433-444.
6. Wang, H., and Song, J. (2019). Fast Retrieval Method of Forestry
Information Features Based on Symmetry Function in
Communication Network. Symmetry, 11(3):416.
7. Suganya, E., and Vijayarani, S. (2021). Firefly Optimization
Algorithm Based Web Scraping for Web Citation Extraction.
Wireless Personal Communications, 118(2):1481-1505
8. A. S. Pankaj Kumar Kandpal, Ashish Mehta, “Honey bee bearing
pollen andnon-pollen image classification, vgg16 transfer learning
method using differentoptimizing functions,” International Journal
of Innovative Technology and ExploringEngineering (IJITEE), vol.
57, pp. 2–5, 12 2019.
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9. Hadi and M. Al-Zewairi, "Using IPython for Teaching Web
Scraping", Social Media Shaping e-Publishing and Academia, pp.
47-54, 2017.
10.Wendt, H.; Henriksson, M. Building a Selenium-Based Data
Collection Tool. Bachelor’s Thesis, 16 ECTS, Information
Technology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, May
2020.
11.Yao, T.; Zhai, Z.; Gao, B. Text Classification Model Based on
fastText. In Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE International
Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Information Systems
(ICAIIS), Dalian, China, 20–22 March 2020; pp. 154–157.
12.Rahmatulloh, A., and Gunawan, R. (2020). Web Scraping with
HTML DOM Method for Data Collection of Scientific Articles
from Google Scholar. Indonesian Journal of Information Systems,
2(2):95-104.
13.Suganya, E., and Vijayarani, S. (2021). Firefly Optimization
Algorithm Based Web Scraping for Web Citation Extraction.
Wireless Personal Communications, 118(2):1481-1505.
14.Mahto, D. K., and Singh, L. (2016, March). A dive into Web
Scraper world. In 2016 3rd International Conference on Computing
for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom), IEEE:689-693.
15.Rahmatulloh, A., and Gunawan, R. (2020). Web Scraping with
HTML DOM Method for Data Collection of Scientific Articles
from Google Scholar. Indonesian Journal of Information Systems,
2(2):95-104.
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