Limitations and Challenges in Effective Web Data Mining

Web data mining and data collection is critical process for many business and market research firms today. Conventional Web data mining techniques involve search engines like Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc and keyword, directory and topic-based searches. Since the Web's existing structure cannot provide high-quality, definite and intelligent information, systematic web data mining may help you get desired business intelligence and relevant data.

Factors that affect the effectiveness of keyword-based searches include:

• Use of general or broad keywords on search engines result in millions of web pages, many of which are totally irrelevant.

• Similar or multi-variant keyword semantics my return ambiguous results. For an instant word panther could be an animal, sports accessory or movie name.

• It is quite possible that you may miss many highly relevant web pages that do not directly include the searched keyword.

The most important factor that prohibits deep web access is the effectiveness of search engine crawlers. Modern search engine crawlers or bot can not access the entire web due to bandwidth limitations. There are thousands of internet databases that can offer high-quality, editor scanned and well-maintained information, but are not accessed by the crawlers.

Almost all search engines have limited options for keyword query combination. For example Google and Yahoo provide option like phrase match or exact match to limit search results. It demands for more efforts and time to get most relevant information. Since human behavior and choices change over time, a web page needs to be updated more frequently to reflect these trends. Also, there is limited space for multi-dimensional web data mining since existing information search rely heavily on keyword-based indices, not the real data.

Above mentioned limitations and challenges have resulted in a quest for efficiently and effectively discover and use Web resources. Send us any of your queries regarding Web Data mining processes to explore the topic in more detail.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Limitations-and-Challenges-in-Effective-Web-Data-Mining&id=5012994

7 Checkouts For Choosing Document Scanning Service

Infrastructure is most costly part for your business. Every business needs more and more space to store important documents. They have to spend more of their cost for infrastructure and managing documents rather to spend on core activity.

Most companies experiencing low storage capacity. There are various important documents in row of cabinet which has to be managed properly. To manage the document companies are spending their time and money. Sometimes they also have to face the problem of not getting important document at proper time because of misplace. There is always an issue of privacy and theft, if document is easily accessible to any one. These are the common problem that most of the companies are facing while managing document.

To avoid this type of hazards, document scanning is best option. Through scanning, less storage space requires. Document can avail at any time you want within some second. This option also enables you to give more security for your important document.

Point to consider while choosing document scanning solution:
1. Cost: This is important factor while choosing. You have to consider the cost of the service they are offering to you. It must be lower.
2. Digital Scanning Document Service: You have to check that scanning services provider is providing digital scanning document services or not! They are having latest technological scanner for digital output of scanned document.
3. Scanning Storage: You also consider their facilities of storing the documents. If they do not having huge place to store your document to scan, how they can manage your document properly.
4. Staff for Scanning: You must check that they are having enough staff to manage and complete your document scanning project at proper time. You also can check that they are having any experience of scanning the documents.
5. Scanned Document Format: The Company offering scanning service is offering the output format which you desire. If they are not providing a format you desire, it's not wise to hire services from them.
6. Quality of Scanned Material: You can also check their quality of scanned document. Some companies in scanning industries offer 'free trial'. By using this type of service you can always check their quality the offer.
7. Organized Document: The Company you are hiring for document scanning, is offering full process of scanning? If they are not offering the organized scanning of document to you then it is worth less to hiring their scanning services.

I tried my best to cover the check points. If any left out please post in comments so other can get better idea of what to look forward while choosing document scanning service.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Checkouts-For-Choosing-Document-Scanning-Service&id=2369402

Bound Book Scanning

We talk to a lot of authors who want to publish an eBook, but only have a printed version of their book. They need a way to get the necessary electronic files, such as a .pdf or .doc, to get started.

Here's the solution to their problem: Bound Book Scanning, a mail-in book scan service. They offer affordable methods of transferring any paper book to a clear, searchable PDF and editable Word doc. Bound Book Scanning uses professional-grade equipment, careful handling, and customized processing to ensure top quality results. There's no minimum order and they offer fast turnaround times.

Fast and Affordable

You can get an instant quote for your scanning project at the Bound Book Scanning website. Each book is just $13.95 plus $.06 per page. For the average 200 page book, that's just $25.95. Once you mail in your materials, they'll digitize your book and send you your files in just 1-2 days.

Source: http://www.bookbaby.com/book-scanning

Web Data Extraction / Scraping Data from Kitco Inc. Text Only Market Page

I wish to capture data from

<html>
<head>
<title>Text Only Market Page</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<br><br>
<pre>
<b><font size=6>
  Kitco Inc.

  Text Only Market Page</font></b>

    <a href="http://www.kitco.com/market/">Graphic version of this page</a>

    <a href="http://www.kitco.com/market/LFrate.html">Precious Metals Lease Rates</a> 
    <a href="http://www.kitco.com/gold.londonfix.html">Historical Price Data</a> 
    <a href="http://www.kitco.com/market/marketnews.html">Precious Metals News Headlines</a>

    <font size=4><b><a href="https://online.kitco.com/bullion/completelist_USD.html#gold">Buy gold and silver online direct from Kitco!</a>
   Live quotes for all bullion products.</b></font>


   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   London Fix          GOLD          SILVER       PLATINUM           PALLADIUM
                   AM       PM                  AM       PM         AM       PM
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Jun 19,2012   1628.50   1625.50   28.8100   1486.00   1486.00   629.00   634.00 
   Jun 18,2012   1623.50   1615.50   28.4300   1486.00   1484.00   626.00   628.00 
   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


                  New York Spot Price
                MARKET IS OPEN
            Will close in 4 hour 25 minutes
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Metals          Bid        Ask           Change        Low       High
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Gold         1619.80     1620.80     -8.90  -0.55%    1616.60  1632.70
   Silver         28.46       28.56     -0.28  -0.97%      28.24    28.95
   Platinum     1479.00     1489.00      0.00   0.00%    1476.00  1500.00
   Palladium     627.00      632.00      0.00   0.00%     622.00   639.00
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Last Update on Jun 19, 2012 at 12:50.59
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------


                Asia / Europe Spot Price
                MARKET IS OPEN
            Will close in 4 hours 25 minutes
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Metals                      Bid          Ask      Change from NY close
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Gold                      1619.80      1620.80     -8.90   -0.55%
   Silver                      28.46        28.56     -0.28   -0.97%
   Platinum                  1479.00      1489.00     +0.00   +0.00%
   Palladium                  627.00       632.00     +0.00   +0.00%
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Last Update on Jun 19, 2012 at 12:50.59
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------


<b>   File created on Tue Jun 19 12:51:04 2012</b>


        <style type="text/css"><!--
 #main_container_footer {width:100%;text-align: center;}
    #main_container_footer #footer_container {width:auto; margin:25px auto 25px auto;}
    #main_container_footer #footer_container ul {margin:0; padding:0;}
    #main_container_footer #footer_container ul li {float:left; display:inline; list-style:none; padding:0 8px; font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#000; border-right:1px #000 solid;}
    #main_container_footer #footer_container ul li a {font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#000; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;}
    #main_container_footer #footer_container ul li a:hover {color:#ac1a2f; text-decoration:none; font-weight:normal;}
    #main_container_footer #footer_container ul li.no_border {border:0px;}
--></style>
  <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td>
 <div id="main_container_footer">
        <div id="footer_container">
            <ul>
                <li class="no_border"><script type="text/javascript">
copyright=new Date();
update=copyright.getFullYear();
document.write("&copy; "+ update + " Kitco Metals Inc.");
</script></li>
                <li><a href="https://corp.kitco.com/index.html">About Us</a></li>
                <li><a href="http://www.kitco.com/TermsofUse/" target="_top" onclick="Window_open(this.href,'KITCO','top=120,left=250,width=500,height=350'); return false">Website Terms of Use</a></li>
                <li><a href="https://online.kitco.com/help/privacy_policy.html" target="_top" onclick="Window_open(this.href,'KITCO','top=120,left=250,width=500,height=350'); return false">Privacy Policy</a></li>
                <li><a href="http://www.kitco.com/ads/">Advertise With Us</a></li>
                <li><a href="https://corp.kitco.com/en/corporate_culture.html">Careers</a></li>
                <li><a href="https://corp.kitco.com/en/contact.html" target="_top" onclick="Window_open(this.href,'KITCO','top=120,left=250,width=500,height=350'); return false">Contact Us</a></li>
                <li class="no_border"><a href="https://corp.kitco.com/en/feedback.html" target="_top" onclick="Window_open(this.href,'KITCO','top=120,left=250,width=500,height=350'); return false">Feedback</a></li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </div> 

    </td></tr></table><br /><br />
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
function Window_open (Address) {
  NewWindow = window.open(Address, "Popup", "width=695,height=600,left=100,top=200,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes");
  NewWindow.focus();
}
// -->
</script>
 <!-- img src="http://www.kitco.com/scripts/counter/counter.pl?txtonlyE.txt" width="1" height="1" -->
<!-- Google-Analytics Code-->
<script type="text/javascript">
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-4074364-3']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();
</script>
</body>
</html>

More specifically, I am looking to capture the following data:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
London Fix          GOLD          SILVER       PLATINUM           PALLADIUM
               AM       PM                  AM       PM         AM       PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jun 19,2012   1628.50   NA        28.8100   1486.00   1486.00   629.00   634.00 
Jun 18,2012   1623.50   1615.50   28.4300   1486.00   1484.00   626.00   628.00 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anybody have any suggestions how I can do this using PHP?



1 Answer



Quick and dirty regex method:

$data = file_get_contents('http://www.kitco.com/texten/texten.html');
preg_match_all('/([A-Z]{3,5}\s+[0-9]{1,2},[0-9]{4}\s+([0-9.NA]{2,10}\s+){1,7})/si',$data,$result);

$records = array();
foreach($result[1] as $date) {
    $temp = preg_split('/\s+/',$date);
    $index = array_shift($temp);
    $index.= array_shift($temp);
    $records[$index] = implode(',',$temp);
}
print_R($records);

Note, you'd probably want to add some validation, etc.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11103001/web-data-extraction-scraping-data-from-kitco-inc-text-only-market-page

Scraping webdata from a website that loads data in a streaming fashion

I'm trying to scrape some data off of the FEC.gov website using python for a project of mine. Normally I use python

mechanize and beautifulsoup to do the scraping.

I've been able to figure out most of the issues but can't seem to get around a problem. It seems like the data is

streamed into the table and mechanize.Browser() just stops listening.

So here's the issue: If you visit http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_ind/2011_P80003338/1/A ... you get the first 500

contributors whose last name starts with A and have given money to candidate P80003338 ... however, if you use

browser.open() at that url all you get is the first ~5 rows.

I'm guessing its because mechanize isn't letting the page fully load before the .read() is executed. I tried putting a

time.sleep(10) between the .open() and .read() but that didn't make much difference.

And I checked, there's no javascript or AJAX in the website (or at least none are visible when you use the 'view-

source'). SO I don't think its a javascript issue.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I could use selenium or something similar but that's something that I'm trying to avoid.

-Will

2 Answers

Why not use an html parser like lxml with xpath expressions.

I tried

>>> import lxml.html as lh
>>> data = lh.parse('http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_ind/2011_P80003338/1/A')
>>> name = data.xpath('/html/body/table[2]/tr[5]/td[1]/a/text()')
>>> name
[' AABY, TRYGVE']
>>> name = data.xpath('//table[2]/*/td[1]/a/text()')
>>> len(name)
500
>>> name[499]
' AHMED, ASHFAQ'
>>>



Similarly, you can create xpath expression of your choice to work with.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9435512/scraping-webdata-from-a-website-that-loads-data-in-a-streaming-

fashion

How can I circumvent page view limits when scraping web data using Python?

I am using Python to scrape US postal code population data from http:/www.city-data.com, through this directory: http://www.city-data.com/zipDir.html. The specific pages I am trying to scrape are individual postal code pages with URLs like this: http://www.city-data.com/zips/01001.html. All of the individual zip code pages I need to access have this same URL Format, so my script simply does the following for postal_code in range:

    Creates URL given postal code
    Tries to get response from URL
    If (2), Check the HTTP of that URL
    If HTTP is 200, retrieves the HTML and scrapes the data into a list
    If HTTP is not 200, pass and count error (not a valid postal code/URL)
    If no response from URL because of error, pass that postal code and count error
    At end of script, print counter variables and timestamp

The problem is that I run the script and it works fine for ~500 postal codes, then suddenly stops working and returns repeated timeout errors. My suspicion is that the site's server is limiting the page views coming from my IP address, preventing me from completing the amount of scraping that I need to do (all 100,000 potential postal codes).

My question is as follows: Is there a way to confuse the site's server, for example using a proxy of some kind, so that it will not limit my page views and I can scrape all of the data I need?

Thanks for the help! Here is the code:

##POSTAL CODE POPULATION SCRAPER##

import requests

import re

import datetime

def zip_population_scrape():

    """
    This script will scrape population data for postal codes in range
    from city-data.com.
    """
    postal_code_data = [['zip','population']] #list for storing scraped data

    #Counters for keeping track:
    total_scraped = 0
    total_invalid = 0
    errors = 0


    for postal_code in range(1001,5000):

        #This if statement is necessary because the postal code can't start
        #with 0 in order for the for statement to interate successfully
        if postal_code <10000:
            postal_code_string = str(0)+str(postal_code)
        else:
            postal_code_string = str(postal_code)

        #all postal code URLs have the same format on this site
        url = 'http://www.city-data.com/zips/' + postal_code_string + '.html'

        #try to get current URL
        try:
            response = requests.get(url, timeout = 5)
            http = response.status_code

            #print current for logging purposes
            print url +" - HTTP:  " + str(http)

            #if valid webpage:
            if http == 200:

                #save html as text
                html = response.text

                #extra print statement for status updates
                print "HTML ready"

                #try to find two substrings in HTML text
                #add the substring in between them to list w/ postal code
                try:           

                    found = re.search('population in 2011:</b> (.*)<br>', html).group(1)

                    #add to # scraped counter
                    total_scraped +=1

                    postal_code_data.append([postal_code_string,found])

                    #print statement for logging
                    print postal_code_string + ": " + str(found) + ". Data scrape successful. " + str(total_scraped) + " total zips scraped."
                #if substrings not found, try searching for others
                #and doing the same as above   
                except AttributeError:
                    found = re.search('population in 2010:</b> (.*)<br>', html).group(1)

                    total_scraped +=1

                    postal_code_data.append([postal_code_string,found])
                    print postal_code_string + ": " + str(found) + ". Data scrape successful. " + str(total_scraped) + " total zips scraped."

            #if http =404, zip is not valid. Add to counter and print log        
            elif http == 404:
                total_invalid +=1

                print postal_code_string + ": Not a valid zip code. " + str(total_invalid) + " total invalid zips."

            #other http codes: add to error counter and print log
            else:
                errors +=1

                print postal_code_string + ": HTTP Code Error. " + str(errors) + " total errors."

        #if get url fails by connnection error, add to error count & pass
        except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError:
            errors +=1
            print postal_code_string + ": Connection Error. " + str(errors) + " total errors."
            pass

        #if get url fails by timeout error, add to error count & pass
        except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
            errors +=1
            print postal_code_string + ": Timeout Error. " + str(errors) + " total errors."
            pass


    #print final log/counter data, along with timestamp finished
    now= datetime.datetime.now()
    print now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
    print str(total_scraped) + " total zips scraped."
    print str(total_invalid) + " total unavailable zips."
    print str(errors) + " total errors."



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25452798/how-can-i-circumvent-page-view-limits-when-scraping-web-data-using-python

Web data scraping (online news comments) with Scrapy (Python)

Since you seem like the try-first ask-question later type (that's a very good thing), I won't give you an answer, but a

(very detailed) guide on how to find the answer.

The thing is, unless you are a yahoo developer, you probably don't have access to the source code you're trying to

scrape. That is to say, you don't know exactly how the site is built and how your requests to it as a user are being

processed on the server-side. You can, however, investigate the client-side and try to emulate it. I like using Chrome

Developer Tools for this, but you can use others such as FF firebug.

So first off we need to figure out what's going on. So the way it works, is you click on the 'show comments' it loads

the first ten, then you need to keep clicking for the next ten comments each time. Notice, however, that all this

clicking isn't taking you to a different link, but lively fetches the comments, which is a very neat UI but for our

case requires a bit more work. I can tell two things right away:

    They're using javascript to load the comments (because I'm staying on the same page).
    They load them dynamically with AJAX calls each time you click (meaning instead of loading the comments with the

page and just showing them to you, with each click it does another request to the database).

Now let's right-click and inspect element on that button. It's actually just a simple span with text:

<span>View Comments (2077)</span>

By looking at that we still don't know how that's generated or what it does when clicked. Fine. Now, keeping the

devtools window open, let's click on it. This opened up the first ten. But in fact, a request was being made for us to

fetch them. A request that chrome devtools recorded. We look in the network tab of the devtools and see a lot of

confusing data. Wait, here's one that makes sense:

http://news.yahoo.com/_xhr/contentcomments/get_comments/?content_id=42f7f6e0-7bae-33d3-aa1d-

3dfc7fb5cdfc&_device=full&count=10&sortBy=highestRated&isNext=true&offset=20&pageNumber=2&_media.modules.content_commen

ts.switches._enable_view_others=1&_media.modules.content_comments.switches._enable_mutecommenter=1&enable_collapsed_com

ment=1

See? _xhr and then get_comments. That makes a lot of sense. Going to that link in the browser gave me a JSON object

(looks like a python dictionary) containing all the ten comments which that request fetched. Now that's the request you

need to emulate, because that's the one that gives you what you want. First let's translate this to some normal reqest

that a human can read:

go to this url: http://news.yahoo.com/_xhr/contentcomments/get_comments/
include these parameters: {'_device': 'full',
          '_media.modules.content_comments.switches._enable_mutecommenter': '1',
          '_media.modules.content_comments.switches._enable_view_others': '1',
          'content_id': '42f7f6e0-7bae-33d3-aa1d-3dfc7fb5cdfc',
          'count': '10',
          'enable_collapsed_comment': '1',
          'isNext': 'true',
          'offset': '20',
          'pageNumber': '2',
          'sortBy': 'highestRated'}

Now it's just a matter of trial-and-error. However, a few things to note here:

    Obviously the count is what decides how many comments you're getting. I tried changing it to 100 to see what

happens and got a bad request. And it was nice enough to tell me why - "Offset should be multiple of total rows". So

now we understand how to use offset

    The content_id is probably something that identifies the article you are reading. Meaning you need to fetch that

from the original page somehow. Try digging around a little, you'll find it.

    Also, you obviously don't want to fetch 10 comments at a time, so it's probably a good idea to find a way to fetch

the number of total comments somehow (either find out how the page gets it, or just fetch it from within the article

itself)

    Using the devtools you have access to all client-side scripts. So by digging you can find that that link to

/get_comments/ is kept within a javascript object named YUI. You can then try to understand how it is making the

request, and try to emulate that (though you can probably figure it out yourself)

    You might need to overcome some security measures. For example, you might need a session-key from the original

article before you can access the comments. This is used to prevent direct access to some parts of the sites. I won't

trouble you with the details, because it doesn't seem like a problem in this case, but you do need to be aware of it in

case it shows up.

    Finally, you'll have to parse the JSON object (python has excellent built-in tools for that) and then parse the

html comments you are getting (for which you might want to check out BeautifulSoup).

As you can see, this will require some work, but despite all I've written, it's not an extremely complicated task

either.

So don't panic.

It's just a matter of digging and digging until you find gold (also, having some basic WEB knowledge doesn't hurt).

Then, if you face a roadblock and really can't go any further, come back here to SO, and ask again. Someone will help

you.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20218855/web-data-scraping-online-news-comments-with-scrapy-python

A good web data extraction/screen scraper program?

I need to capture product data from a site on a regular basis and wondered if any one knows of a good software program? I've trialed Mozenda but its a monthly subscription and pricey in the long term. Obviously something thats free would be best but I don't mind paying either. Just need a decent program thats reliable and doesn't require much programming knowledge.

You can try ScraperWiki.com if you know python.

I've experimented with Screen-Scraper and found it easy to use. The application comes in multiple versions: basic (which is free), professional, and enterprise. Also, multiple platforms are supported.

Hire a programmer to do it so that there is only a one off cost. I often see similar projects on freelancing websites like Elance and oDesk.

I really like iMacros. You can give it a test drive to see if it meets your needs with the totally free Firefox extension (there's also IE versions), but there are also more full featured application and "server" versions that have more features and ability to do thing in an unattended manner.

Here are some other alternatives to consider:

    License the data from the provider. Call em up and ask 'em.

    Use Amazon Mechanical Turk to get humans to copy and paste and format it for ya. They are cheap.

    For automation, it depends on how complicated the HTML is and how often it changes. You could use Excel's Web Data Import if it's really simple.


You can use irobot from IRobotSoft, which is totally free, and provides more functionalityies than other paid software. Watch demos here http://irobotsoft.com/help/ for how simple it is.

Questions on their forum were answered very quickly.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2334164/a-good-web-data-extraction-screen-scraper-program

How to login to website and extract data using PHP [closed]

I have installed the tiny tiny rss on to my computer (Windows) and also have Xampp installed (localhost).

I want to be able to use PHP to extract data from the Tiny tiny RSS webpage.

I have tried this it which just opens the front page:

<?php
$homepage = file_get_contents('my install tiny tiny rss url');
echo $homepage;
?>

But how do I login and extract the data.

You can use cURL to send post data and headers. To login you need to replicate the exact data exchange between the client and the server.


SOurce: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20611918/how-to-login-to-website-and-extract-data-using-php

Is it ok to scrape data from Google results?

I'd like to fetch results from Google using curl to detect potential duplicate content. Is there a high risk of being banned by Google?

Google will eventually block your IP when you exceed a certain amount of requests.



Google disallows automated access in their TOS, so if you accept their terms you would break them.

That said, I know of no lawsuit from Google against a scraper. Even Microsoft scraped Google, they powered their search engine Bing with it. They got caught in 2011 red handed :)

There are two options to scrape Google results:

1) Use their API

    You can issue around 40 requests per hour You are limited to what they give you, it's not really useful if you want to track ranking positions or what a real user would see. That's something you are not allowed to gather.

    If you want a higher amount of API requests you need to pay.
    60 requests per hour cost 2000 USD per year, more queries require a custom deal.

2) Scrape the normal result pages

    Here comes the tricky part. It is possible to scrape the normal result pages. Google does not allow it.
    If you scrape at a rate higher than 15 keyword requests per hour you risk detection, higher than 20/h will get you blocked from my experience.
    By using multiple IPs you can up the rate, so with 100 IP addresses you can scrape up to 2000 requests per hour. (50k a day)
    There is an open source search engine scraper written in PHP at http://scraping.compunect.com It allows to reliable scrape Google, parses the results properly and manages IP addresses, delays, etc. So if you can use PHP it's a nice kickstart, otherwise the code will still be useful to learn how it is done.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22657548/is-it-ok-to-scrape-data-from-google-results

Data Scraping from PDF and Excel

I am doing a little data scraping, There are 3 types of file from which i am scraping data.

1- HTML
2- PDF
3- Excel(xls)

For HTML i am comfortable, i am using HTML Agility for that.

For PDF and excel i need suggestions from anyone.



Concerning Excel. If you are in a MS environment you can either do Office Automation or use OLEDB. In a Java

environment look at Apache POI.

EDIT: Concerning PDF in Java try Apache PDFBox . Can also work in .NET using IKVM

I can recommend Cogniview's PDF2XL, a reasonably inexpensive commercial product, to extract data from tables in PDF

files into Excel. We have used it with great success.

HTML Agility is a library. Its good to use. But then, why do you need separate tools for different data extraction

purposes? Use Automation Anywhere to extract data from any source. As far as I know, it would work for all the three

sources you have specified. Google it.

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3147803/data-scraping-from-pdf-and-excel

Excel VBA Data Mining Real-Time Data from a Web Page that Refreshes Data

I want to capture real-time data that updates into a table on a webpage; I prefer capturing it into excel using VBA, but I will write it in .NET C# or VB if I that is easier.

the data updates about 1 or 2 seconds, and I want to just grab the latest data quotes and log it into my spreadsheet; the table names are the same, only the data refreshes, and it does so automatically on the web page.

I've done a lot of Excel VBA and I know how to download a URL to a file--this is NOT what I want; I want to gain access to my webpage that is active and grab the data updates after I've logged into my site and selected a webpage that I like.

Is there a simple way to access this data on the webpage from Excel or .Net? Because it refreshes no more than once every 1 or 2 seconds, it is easy to just keep checking it for updates, and I can compare the latest data to see if it actually refreshed.


In Excel 2003, use Data/Import External Data/New Web Query
Browse to your page and select the table you want to import.
After that you can either do a manual Refresh, or use a timer procedure to do something like:

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9855794/excel-vba-data-mining-real-time-data-from-a-web-page-that-refreshes-data

Need to pull data from a website…web query? macro?

I have a list of every DOT # (Dept. of Trans.) in the country. I want to find out insurance effective date for each one of these companies. If you go to http://li-public.fmcsa.dot.gov --> "continue" --> then from the dropdown select "carrier search" and hit "go" it'll take you to a search form (that is the only way to get to this screen).

From there, you can input a DOT # X (use 61222 as an example) and it'll bring you to another screen. Click "view report in HTML" and then down on the bottom you'll see "Active/Pending Insurance". I want to pull the "effective date" from that page and stick it in the spreadsheet next to the DOT # X that I already know.

Of the thousands of DOT #'s in my list, not all will have filings on this website, if that makes a difference.

Can this be done with a Macro or Excel Web Query? I know I probably sound like a total novice, but I'd appreciate any help I could get.

Can you do it? Frankly even if you could you'd lock up the spreadsheet while it's doing that processing. And in the end, how would you handle an error half-way through?

I'd not do this in a client-facing application. This sounds more like something to do in server-side app that can do the processing and gather the information in a more controlled environment. Then you Excel spreadsheet could query that app and get the information in one fell swoop. Error handling is much simpler and you don't end up sitting there staring at Excel why it works its way through thousands of web sites. It was not built to do that elegantly.

What do you write the web service I'm describing in? Well it depends on your preference. Me, I'd write it in Ruby on Rails since it can easily handle the scraping aspect of the task and can report the data out easily as well. But it really falls back to whatever you're most comfortable coding in.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15286429/need-to-pull-data-from-a-website-web-query-macro

How to extract data from web 2.0 graphs using a scraper

I have recently come across a web page containing a graph object that displays the (x, y) values on the object as the mouse is rolled across it. Is there any way to automate the extraction of this data?

How is the graph data loaded? If embedded in the page source then you can extract it with xpath or regex. Else use Firebug to see how it is loaded.



You will need a solution that works inside the web browser, so the AJAX/Javascript is properly rendered.

I have used iMacros with good success for web scraping in the past. There are free/open-source and "PRO" paid editions (comparison table here).

Another option is always to custom code something with the Microsoft webbrowser control.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3980774/how-to-extract-data-from-web-2-0-graphs-using-a-scraper

Legality of Web Scraping vs Normal Use

I know the topic of web scraping has been discussed before (example), and I understand it's a bit of a grey area depending on a lot of factors (e.g. website's terms of use).

What I'd like to ask is: how is web scraping any different from (a) how we access the webpage via a web browser, and (b) how web crawlers (e.g. Google) download and index webpages?

Without knowing the legal background, I can't help but think that they're all just HTTP requests. If web scraping is illegal, then so should crawling and indexing (for instance be illegal).

Of course if your program is hitting the server so hard that it causes a denial of service, it's a different story altogether... my point is simply accessing and using data that is already open to the public.



I know this is a dead thread, but it would be nice to place some legal implications here due to its ranking in my Google Search. I cannot help but figure I am not the only one who searches like I do.

Legally, in the US, there are a few factors that seem to be important.

    Are you doing anything that is akin to hacking or gaining unauthorized access via the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Exploiting vulnerabilities and passing SQL in the URL to open a database no matter how bad the idiot programming like that was is illegal with a 15 year sentence (see the cases where an individual exploited security vulnerabilities in Verizon). Also, add a time out even if you round robin or use proxies. DDoS attacks are attacks. 1000 requests per second can shut down a lot of servers providing public information. The result here is up to 15 years in jail.

    Copyright Law: As mentioned, pure replication of data is illegal. Even 4% replication has been deemed a breach. With the recent gutting of the DMCA, a person is even more vulnerable to civil and criminal penalties.

    Trespass and Chattels: The following from wikipedia says it all.

    U.S. courts have acknowledged that users of "scrapers" or "robots" may be held liable for committing trespass to chattels,[5][6] which involves a computer system itself being considered personal property upon which the user of a scraper is trespassing. The best known of these cases, eBay v. Bidder's Edge, resulted in an injunction ordering Bidder's Edge to stop accessing, collecting, and indexing auctions from the eBay web site.

    Paywalls and Product: When going behind paywalls and breaching contract by clicking an agreement not to do something and then doing it, you add fuel to the protection of negligence v. willingness [an issue for damages and penalties not guilt] in civil and any criminal trials. (sorry originally wanted to say ignorance but it really isn't a defense)

    International: EU law and other law is way more lax. Corporations with big budgets dominate our legal landscape. They control the system in a very real way with their $$$.

Basically, get public information and information that is available without going behind a pay wall. Think like a user of the internet and combine a bunch of sources into a unique product. Don't just 'steal' an entire site (it isn't really stealing if it is a government site that offers public data especially for download but is if you download all or even more than a couple of the listings on ebay). Read the terms and conditions to know who actually owns the content.

Here are a few examples. Trulia owns its information but you could use it to go to an agents website and collect a legal amount of information. The legal amount is determinable. However, a public MLS listing lookup site with no agreement or terms and offering data to the public is fair game. The MLS numbers lists, however, are normally not fair game.

If a researcher can get to data, so can you. If a researcher needs permission, so do you. A computer is like having a million corporate researchers at your disposal.

AS for company policy, it is usually used internally to shield from liability and serves as a warning but is not entirely enforceable. The legal parts letting you know about copyrights and such are and usually are supposed to be known by everyone. Complete ignorance is not a legal protection. It does provide a ground set of rules. Be nice, or get banned is that message as far as I know.

My personal strategy is to start with public data and embellish it within legal means.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14735791/legality-of-web-scraping-vs-normal-use

Anyone knows an online tool that can scrape a page and create a REST API for the scraped data?

I'm looking for a SaaS solution that is able to login to a platform, scrape data (reports) and then allow accessing the data through an API. I have some reporting platforms that provide web reporting and email reporting but with no API. Online reporting doesn't help and email reporting, although can be automated and scraped, isn't so reliable.

If you are willing to do the scraping through your own connection, have a look at Import IO. They have a desktop application that you use to teach the system how to scrape a page, and then you run the crawler from that application - and you can run it for as long as you like, as far as I can tell.

You may then upload your data to the Import cloud, from where it is available via an API on the import.io servers. Useful data can be made public to donate it "to the commons" if you wish.


I did some more digging, found iMacros as a possible solution. Its Windows based, which is a drawback in my case, but it does allow automation of the scraping and afterwards interaction via common web scripting languages like PHP and ASP.net.


If you are familiar with jQuery, I think you can use node.js and Cheerio module, then you can create a simple application to do auto scraping. Actually I have already built a site to do on line web scraping based on the above mentioned tech, the site is www.datafiddle.net, you can take a look at it.


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19646028/anyone-knows-an-online-tool-that-can-scrape-a-page-and-create-a-rest-api-for-the

How do you scrape AJAX pages?

Overview:

All screen scraping first requires manual review of the page you want to extract resources from. When dealing with AJAX you usually just need to analyze a bit more than just simply the HTML.

When dealing with AJAX this just means that the value you want is not in the initial HTML document that you requested, but that javascript will be exectued which asks the server for the extra information you want.

You can therefore usually simply analyze the javascript and see which request the javascript makes and just call this URL instead from the start.

Example:

Take this as an example, assume the page you want to scrape from has the following script:

<script type="text/javascript">
function ajaxFunction()
{
var xmlHttp;
try
  {
  // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari
  xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
catch (e)
  {
  // Internet Explorer
  try
    {
    xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    }
  catch (e)
    {
    try
      {
      xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
      }
    catch (e)
      {
      alert("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
      return false;
      }
    }
  }
  xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=function()
    {
    if(xmlHttp.readyState==4)
      {
      document.myForm.time.value=xmlHttp.responseText;
      }
    }
  xmlHttp.open("GET","time.asp",true);
  xmlHttp.send(null);
  }
</script>

Then all you need to do is instead do an HTTP request to time.asp of the same server instead. Example from w3schools.


Sporce: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/260540/how-do-you-scrape-ajax-pages

using Perl to scrape a website

I am interested in writing a perl script that goes to the following link and extracts the number 1975: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results#count=20&query=%2Bevent_place_level_1%3ACalifornia%20%2Bevent_place_level_2%3A%22San%20Diego%22%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1923-1923~%20%2Bgender%3AM%20%2Brace%3AWhite&collection_id=2000219

That website is the amount of white men born in the year 1923 who live in San Diego County, California in 1940. I am trying to do this in a loop structure to generalize over multiple counties and birth years.

In the file, locations.txt, I put the list of counties, such as San Diego County.

The current code runs, but instead of the # 1975, it displays unknown. The number 1975 should be in $val\n.

I would very much appreciate any help!

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

use LWP::Simple;

open(L, "locations26.txt");

my $url = 'https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results#count=20&query=%2Bevent_place_level_1%3A%22California%22%20%2Bevent_place_level_2%3A%22%LOCATION%%22%20%2Bbirth_year%3A%YEAR%-%YEAR%~%20%2Bgender%3AM%20%2Brace%3AWhite&collection_id=2000219';

open(O, ">out26.txt");
 my $oldh = select(O);
 $| = 1;
 select($oldh);
 while (my $location = <L>) {
     chomp($location);
     $location =~ s/ /+/g;
      foreach my $year (1923..1923) {
                 my $u = $url;
                 $u =~ s/%LOCATION%/$location/;
                 $u =~ s/%YEAR%/$year/;
                 #print "$u\n";
                 my $content = get($u);
                 my $val = 'unknown';
                 if ($content =~ / of .strong.([0-9,]+)..strong. /) {
                         $val = $1;
                 }
                 $val =~ s/,//g;
                 $location =~ s/\+/ /g;
                 print "'$location',$year,$val\n";
                 print O "'$location',$year,$val\n";
         }
     }

Update: API is not a viable solution. I have been in contact with the site developer. The API does not apply to that part of the webpage. Hence, any solution pertaining to JSON will not be applicbale.



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14654288/using-perl-to-scrape-a-website

Data Scraping using php

Here is my code

    $ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

    $url=file_get_contents("http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/$ip");

    preg_match_all('/<th>(.*?)<\/th><td>(.*?)<\/td>/s',$url,$output,PREG_SET_ORDER);

    $isp=$output[1][2];

    $city=$output[9][2];

    $state=$output[8][2];

    $zipcode=$output[12][2];

    $country=$output[7][2];

    ?>
    <body>
    <table align="center">
    <tr><td>ISP :</td><td><?php echo $isp;?></td></tr>
    <tr><td>City :</td><td><?php echo $city;?></td></tr>
    <tr><td>State :</td><td><?php echo $state;?></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Zipcode :</td><td><?php echo $zipcode;?></td></tr>
    <tr><td>Country :</td><td><?php echo $country;?></td></tr>
    </table>
    </body>

How do I find out the ISP provider of a person viewing a PHP page?

Is it possible to use PHP to track or reveal it?

Error: http://i.imgur.com/LGWI8.png

Curl Scrapping

<?php
$curl_handle=curl_init();
curl_setopt( $curl_handle, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true );
$url='http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/ip/132.123.23.23';
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, Array("User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.15) Gecko/20080623 Firefox/2.0.0.15") );
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Your application name');
$query = curl_exec($curl_handle);

curl_close($curl_handle);
preg_match_all('/<th>(.*?)<\/th><td>(.*?)<\/td>/s',$url,$output,PREG_SET_ORDER);
echo $query;
$isp=$output[1][2];

$city=$output[9][2];

$state=$output[8][2];

$zipcode=$output[12][2];

$country=$output[7][2];
?>
<body>
<table align="center">
<tr><td>ISP :</td><td><?php echo $isp;?></td></tr>
<tr><td>City :</td><td><?php echo $city;?></td></tr>
<tr><td>State :</td><td><?php echo $state;?></td></tr>
<tr><td>Zipcode :</td><td><?php echo $zipcode;?></td></tr>
<tr><td>Country :</td><td><?php echo $country;?></td></tr>
</table>
</body>

Error: http://i.imgur.com/FJIq6.png

What's is wrong with my code here? Any alternative code , that i can use here.

I am not able to scrape that data as described here. http://i.imgur.com/FJIq6.png

P.S. Please post full code. It would be easier for me to understand.



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10461088/data-scraping-using-php

PDF scraping using R

I have been using the XML package successfully for extracting HTML tables but want to extend to PDF's. From previous questions it does not appear that there is a simple R solution but wondered if there had been any recent developments

Failing that, is there some way in Python (in which I am a complete Novice) to obtain and manipulate pdfs so that I could finish the job off with the R XML package

Extracting text from PDFs is hard, and nearly always requires lots of care.

I'd start with the command line tools such as pdftotext and see what they spit out. The problem is that PDFs can store the text in any order, can use awkward font encodings, and can do things like use ligature characters (the joined up 'ff' and 'ij' that you see in proper typesetting) to throw you.

pdftotext is installable on any Linux system



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7918718/pdf-scraping-using-r

Php Scraping data from a website

I am very new to programming and need a little help with getting data from a website and passing it into my PHP script.

The website is http://www.birthdatabase.com/.

I would like to plug in a name (First and Last) and retrieve the result. I know you can query the site by passing the name in the URL, but I am having problems scraping the results.

http://www.birthdatabase.com/cgi-bin/query.pl?textfield=FIRST&textfield2=LAST&age=&affid=

I am using the file_get_contents($URL) function to get the page but need help after that. Specifically, I would like to scrape only the results from a certain state if there are multiple results for that name.



You need the awesome simple_html_dom class.

With this class you can query the webpage's DOM in a similar way to jQuery.

First include the class in your page, then get the page content with this snippet:

$html = file_get_html('http://www.birthdatabase.com/cgi-bin/query.pl?textfield=' . $first . '&textfield2=' . $last . '&age=&affid=');

Then you can use CSS selections to scrape your data (something like this):

$n = 0;
foreach($html->find('table tbody tr td div font b table tbody') as $element) {
    @$row[$n]['tr']  = $element->find('tr')->text;
    $n++;
}

// output your data
print_r($row);



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15601584/php-scraping-data-from-a-website

I am interested in obtaining data from different reddit subreddits. Does anyone know

if there is a reddit/other api similar like twitter does to crawl all the pages?


Yes, reddit has an API that can be used for a variety of purposes such as data

collection, automatic commenting bots, or even to assist in subreddit moderation.

There are a few places to discover information on reddit's API:

    github reddit wiki -- provides the overview and rules for using reddit's API

(follow the rules)
    automatically generated API docs -- provides information on the requests needed to

access most of the API endpoints
    /r/redditdev -- the reddit community dedicated to answering questions both about

reddit's source code and about reddit's API

If there is a particular programming language you are already familiar with, you

should check out the existing set of API wrappers for various languages. Despite my

bias (I am the package maintainer) I am quite certain PRAW, for python, has support

for the largest number of reddit API features.



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14322834/obtaining-reddit-data

Scraping data in dynamic sites

I'm trying to scrape data from our local government. What I want is address from kids adoption offices. Here, in Brazil, all adoptions go through the government. So I have the URL of one office, there are 2 or 3 thousands more. But if I can manage to get one, the others will be easy. I made many attempts, bellow I show three.

The problem could be related to a Javascript (Ajax maybe) that refresh the page.

Note: I am not a PHP developer.

First attempt

echo '<html><head></head><body>';
echo '<h1>Scraper PHP GET 1</h1>';

echo ini_get("allow_url_fopen");
echo ini_get("allow_url_fopen");

// I used this url for test
//$url = 'http://www.portaldaadocao.com.br';

//This is the URL that I really want
$url = 'http://www.cnj.jus.br/cna/Controle/ConsultaPublicaBuscaControle.php?transacao=CONSULTA&vara=2673';

$html = file_get_contents($url);
var_dump($html);

echo '</body></html>';

// Output
// 11
// Warning:
file_get_contents(http://www.cnj.jus.br/cna/Controle/ConsultaPublicaBuscaControle.php?
transacao=CONSULTA&vara=2673) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: HTTP
request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/rsl/www/sc01_get.php on line 14
// bool(false)

Second attempt

echo '<html><head></head><body>';
echo '<h1>Scraper PHP CURL 3</h1>';

// I used this url for test
//$url = 'http://www.portaldaadocao.com.br';

//This is the URL that I really want
$url = 'http://www.cnj.jus.br/cna/Controle/ConsultaPublicaBuscaControle.php?transacao=CONSULTA&vara=2673';

$curl = curl_init($url);
@curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "foo");
@curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
@curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");;

$html=@curl_exec($curl);

if (!$html) {
    echo "<br />cURL error number:" .curl_errno($curl);
    echo "<br />cURL error:" . curl_error($curl);
    exit;
}
else{
   echo '<br>begin HTML[';
    echo  $html;
   echo '<br>]end html ';
}
echo '</body></html>';

// Output
// 1

third attempt

function curl($url){
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/535.6 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/16.0.897.0 Safari/535.6');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookie.txt");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookie.txt");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 30);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, "http://www.windowsphone.com");

    $data = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $data;
}

echo '<html><head></head><body>';
echo '<h1>Scraper PHP CURL 5</h1>';

// I used this url for test
//$url = 'http://www.portaldaadocao.com.br';

//This is the URL that I really want
$url = 'http://www.cnj.jus.br/cna/Controle/ConsultaPublicaBuscaControle.php?transacao=CONSULTA&vara=2673';

$curl = curl_init($url);
@curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "foo");
@curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
@curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");;

$html=@curl($curl);


if (!$html) {
    echo "<br />cURL error number:" .curl_errno($curl);
    echo "<br />cURL error:" . curl_error($curl);
    exit;
}
else{
    echo '<br>begin HTML[';
    echo  $html;
    echo '<br>]end html ';
}
echo '</body></html>';

// Output
// cURL error number:0
// cURL error:

If the pages are really ajax based meaning the information that you need to scrape is loaded or shown through javascript execution, you will need another approach. You would need to automate with a real browser. You can go the Selenium route which can be written in a number of languages or use CasperJS with Javascript as the programming language.



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24611046/scraping-data-in-dynamic-sites

What is the right way of storing screen-scraping data?

i'm working on a web site. it is scraping product details(names, features, prices etc.) from various web sites, processing and displaying them. i'am considering to run update script on each day and keep data fresh.

    scrape data
    process them
    store on database
    read(from db) and display them

i'am already storing all the data in a sql schema but i'm not sure. After each update, all the old records are vanishing. if the scraped new data comes corrupted somehow, there is nothing to show.

so, is there any common way to archive the old data? which one is more convenient: seperate sql schemas or xml files? or something else?

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13686474/what-is-the-right-way-of-storing-screen-scraping-data

Scraping dynamic data

I am scraping profiles on ask.fm for a research question. The problem is that only the top most recent questions are viewable and I have to click "view more" to see the next 15.

The source code for clicking view more looks like this:

<input class="submit-button-more submit-button-more-active" name="commit" onclick="return Forms.More.allowSubmit(this)" type="submit" value="View more" />

What is an easy way of calling this 4 times before scraping it. I want the most recent 60 posts on the site. Python is preferable.

You could probably use selenium to browse to the website and click on the button/link a few times. You can get that here:

    https://pypi.python.org/pypi/selenium

Or you might be able to do it with mechanize:

    http://wwwsearch.sourceforge.net/mechanize/

I have also heard good things about twill, but never used it myself:

    http://twill.idyll.org/



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19437782/scraping-dynamic-data

Web Scraping data from different sites

I am looking for a few ideas on how can I solve a design problem I'm going to be faced with building a web scraper to scrape multiple sites. Writing the scraper(s) is not the problem, matching the data from different sites (which may have small differences) is.

For the sake of being generic assume that I am scraping something like this from two or more different sites:

    public class Data {
        public int id;
        public String firstname;
        public String surname;
        ....
    }

If i scrape this from two different sites, I will encounter the situation where I could have the following:

Site A: id=100, firstname=William, surname=Doe

Site B: id=1974, firstname=Bill, surname=Doe

Essentially, I would like to consider these two sets of data the same (they are the same person but with their name slightly different on each site). I am looking for possible design solutions that can handle this.

The only idea I've come up with is scraping the data from a third location and using it as a reference list. Then when I scrape site A or B I can, over time, build up a list of failures and store them in a list for each scraper so that it can know (if i find id=100 then i know that the firstname will be William etc). I can't help but feel this is a rubbish idea!

If you need any more info, or if you think my description is a bit naff, let me know!

Thanks,

DMcB


Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23970057/web-scraping-data-from-different-sites

Scrape Data Point Using Python

I am looking to scrape a data point using Python off of the url http://www.cavirtex.com/orderbook .

The data point I am looking to scrape is the lowest bid offer, which at the current moment looks like this:

<tr>
 <td><b>Jan. 19, 2014, 2:37 a.m.</b></td>
 <td><b>0.0775/0.1146</b></td>
 <td><b>860.00000</b></td>
 <td><b>66.65 CAD</b></td>
</tr>

The relevant point being the 860.00 . I am looking to build this into a script which can send me an email to alert me of certain price differentials compared to other exchanges.

I'm quite noobie so if in your explanations you could offer your thought process on why you've done certain things it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

Edit: This is what I have so far which will return me the name of the title correctly, I'm having trouble grabbing the table data though.

import urllib2, sys
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

site= "http://cavirtex.com/orderbook"
hdr = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'}
req = urllib2.Request(site,headers=hdr)
page = urllib2.urlopen(req)
soup = BeautifulSoup(page)
print soup.title



Here is the code for scraping the lowest bid from the 'Buying BTC' table:

from selenium import webdriver

fp = webdriver.FirefoxProfile()
browser = webdriver.Firefox(firefox_profile=fp)
browser.get('http://www.cavirtex.com/orderbook')

lowest_bid = float('inf')
elements = browser.find_elements_by_xpath('//div[@id="orderbook_buy"]/table/tbody/tr/td')

for element in elements:
    text = element.get_attribute('innerHTML').strip('<b>|</b>')
    try:
        bid = float(text)
        if lowest_bid > bid:
            lowest_bid = bid
    except:
        pass

browser.quit()
print lowest_bid

In order to install Selenium for Python on your Windows-PC, run from a command line:

pip install selenium (or pip install selenium --upgrade if you already have it).

If you want the 'Selling BTC' table instead, then change "orderbook_buy" to "orderbook_sell".

If you want the 'Last Trades' table instead, then change "orderbook_buy" to "orderbook_trades".

Note:

If you consider performance critical, then you can implement the data-scraping via URL-Connection instead of Selenium, and have your program running much faster. However, your code will probably end up being a lot "messier", due to the tedious XML parsing that you'll be obliged to apply...

Here is the code for sending the previous output in an email from yourself to yourself:

import smtplib,ssl

def SendMail(username,password,contents):
    server = Connect(username)
    try:
        server.login(username,password)
        server.sendmail(username,username,contents)
    except smtplib.SMTPException,error:
        Print(error)
    Disconnect(server)

def Connect(username):
    serverName = username[username.index("@")+1:username.index(".")]
    while True:
        try:
            server = smtplib.SMTP(serverDict[serverName])
        except smtplib.SMTPException,error:
            Print(error)
            continue
        try:
            server.ehlo()
            if server.has_extn("starttls"):
                server.starttls()
                server.ehlo()
        except (smtplib.SMTPException,ssl.SSLError),error:
            Print(error)
            Disconnect(server)
            continue
        break
    return server

def Disconnect(server):
    try:
        server.quit()
    except smtplib.SMTPException,error:
        Print(error)

serverDict = {
    "gmail"  :"smtp.gmail.com",
    "hotmail":"smtp.live.com",
    "yahoo"  :"smtp.mail.yahoo.com"
}

SendMail("your_username@your_provider.com","your_password",str(lowest_bid))

The above code should work if your email provider is either gmail or hotmail or yahoo.

Please note that depending on your firewall configuration, it may ask your permission upon the first time you try it...



Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21217034/scrape-data-point-using-python

7 Checkouts For Choosing Document Scanning Service

Infrastructure is most costly part for your business. Every business needs more and more space to store important documents. They have to spend more of their cost for infrastructure and managing documents rather to spend on core activity.

Most companies experiencing low storage capacity. There are various important documents in row of cabinet which has to be managed properly. To manage the document companies are spending their time and money. Sometimes they also have to face the problem of not getting important document at proper time because of misplace. There is always an issue of privacy and theft, if document is easily accessible to any one. These are the common problem that most of the companies are facing while managing document.

To avoid this type of hazards, document scanning is best option. Through scanning, less storage space requires. Document can avail at any time you want within some second. This option also enables you to give more security for your important document.

Point to consider while choosing document scanning solution:

1. Cost: This is important factor while choosing. You have to consider the cost of the service they are offering to you. It must be lower.

2. Digital Scanning Document Service: You have to check that scanning services provider is providing digital scanning document services or not! They are having latest technological scanner for digital output of scanned document.

3. Scanning Storage: You also consider their facilities of storing the documents. If they do not having huge place to store your document to scan, how they can manage your document properly.

4. Staff for Scanning: You must check that they are having enough staff to manage and complete your document scanning project at proper time. You also can check that they are having any experience of scanning the documents.

5. Scanned Document Format: The Company offering scanning service is offering the output format which you desire. If they are not providing a format you desire, it's not wise to hire services from them.

6. Quality of Scanned Material: You can also check their quality of scanned document. Some companies in scanning industries offer 'free trial'. By using this type of service you can always check their quality the offer.

7. Organized Document: The Company you are hiring for document scanning, is offering full process of scanning? If they are not offering the organized scanning of document to you then it is worth less to hiring their scanning services.

I tried my best to cover the check points. If any left out please post in comments so other can get better idea of what to look forward while choosing document scanning service.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Checkouts-For-Choosing-Document-Scanning-Service&id=2369402

Benefits of Outsourcing Data Entry Work in India

Now Days it's a trend to outsource Data Entry Work to reliable service provider who provides excellent output out of their work. Many Companies or Organization prefer to outsource data entry work to offshore location. One of the key reasons why it's become so popular is the fact that the services they provide from highly qualified professionals with cost effective and time bound.

India is well positioned to address global BPO needs. Statistics expose that nearly half of the Fortune 800 companies believe India as a reliable target for offshore outsourcing.

There are lots of benefits of outsourcing data entry work in India

o Reduce capital costs of infrastructure
o Increase productivity and efficiency
o Reduce storage needs
o Latest standard and technology
o Extremely trained workforce
o Quick turn around time with high accuracy
o Strong quality maintained
o Saving human resources
o Focus on your core business.
o Competitive pricing which are low as 40-60% of the prevailing US costs
o Excellent training infrastructure

Data Entry is the procedure of handling and processing over data. There are different forms of data entry like data entry for survey forms, legal services, entry for medical claim forms. Data for keeping track for credit and debit card transactions.

Data entry online services include entering data into websites, e-books, entering image in different format, Data processing and submitting forms, creating database for indexing and mailing for data entered. It also used in insurance claim entry. Procedure of processing of the forms and insurances claims are kept track of data entry services. Scanned image are required for file access and credit and debit card entry.

Data Entry is one of the leading elements for running a business successfully.

Offshore Data Entry has great infrastructure for data entry work projects. We have great equipments, facilities which provide you accurate data entry with high data security. Our data entry services, data entry contract give you quality assurance.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Outsourcing-Data-Entry-Work-in-India&id=1269756

Advantages of Medical Records Scanning

Medical records contain important and sensitive information regarding patients, such as birth and family records, illness, and other personal matters. Most hospitals have a certain section where doctors keep these files. They process many papers every day so they have to organize everything to avoid mistakes. There are instances, however, when calamities and accidents strike that lead to the loss of files. Papers are hard to recover once they get wet or burned. This is why many hospitals and medical facilities look for alternatives in keeping medical records.

Technology lets people make digital copies, which is useful for keeping different types of files. This adds to the flexibility of medical records as you can save photos and videos unlike the traditional word texts. Many hospitals use Electronic Medical Records or EMR to convert old documents to a digital format. This reduces the clutter in record sections as you only need a computer to keep different files. It also improves the efficiency of their staff as they do not have to spend significant time looking for a specific record.

Here are some of the advantages of medical records scanning:

Saves Space

Most hospitals need an entire room to keep all the records of their patients. Digital records, on the other hand, only require a corner of the room. Digital copies remove all the bulk in an area and create additional space. It is like shrinking an entire room to a hard drive by using medical records scanning. This makes the area look bigger and spacious. People can even use the new area for a more beneficial purpose.

Security

A disadvantage of keeping physical records is the risk of theft. The hospital is a busy place and many people go in and out every day. You cannot monitor everyone so it is hard to find the real culprit. This might cause information leak, exposing the patient's confidential information. The benefit of having digital copies is it has a system that monitors people who access it. It records what documents you take, edit, and delete. This increases the security and offers a peace of mind to your patients. You do not have to worry about losing the files either because they have a backup, making file recovery easy.

Lower Labor Costs

Many devices can perform tasks that require many people. This reduces the need of employing and paying more people to do the same job. It also saves time because you do not have to screen all the applicants. You can allot the money you save from labor costs for another thing.

Fewer Mistakes

Digital systems perform a task according to what you input so there is no room for mistakes. It ensures that all files are processed correctly. It saves you from problems due to paperwork mistakes. The hospital is a delicate environment and one mistake can risk the life of a patient. medical records scanning is a great way to improve the working process in hospitals and medical facilities. It reduces paperwork, increases security, and adds space. Try it now to see its benefits.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Advantages-of-Medical-Records-Scanning&id=7466788

How Web Data Extraction Services Will Save Your Time and Money by Automatic Data Collection

Data scrape is the process of extracting data from web by using software program from proven website only. Extracted data any one can use for any purposes as per the desires in various industries as the web having every important data of the world. We provide best of the web data extracting software. We have the expertise and one of kind knowledge in web data extraction, image scrapping, screen scrapping, email extract services, data mining, web grabbing.

Who can use Data Scraping Services?

Data scraping and extraction services can be used by any organization, company, or any firm who would like to have a data from particular industry, data of targeted customer, particular company, or anything which is available on net like data of email id, website name, search term or anything which is available on web. Most of time a marketing company like to use data scraping and data extraction services to do marketing for a particular product in certain industry and to reach the targeted customer for example if X company like to contact a restaurant of California city, so our software can extract the data of restaurant of California city and a marketing company can use this data to market their restaurant kind of product.

MLM and Network marketing company also use data extraction and data scrapping services to to find a new customer by extracting data of certain prospective customer and can contact customer by telephone, sending a postcard, email marketing, and this way they build their huge network and build large group for their own product and company.

We helped many companies to find particular data as per their need for example.

Web Data Extraction

Web pages are built using text-based mark-up languages (HTML and XHTML), and frequently contain a wealth of useful data in text form. However, most web pages are designed for human end-users and not for ease of automated use. Because of this, tool kits that scrape web content were created. A web scraper is an API to extract data from a web site. We help you to create a kind of API which helps you to scrape data as per your need. We provide quality and affordable web Data Extraction application

Data Collection

Normally, data transfer between programs is accomplished using info structures suited for automated processing by computers, not people. Such interchange formats and protocols are typically rigidly structured, well-documented, easily parsed, and keep ambiguity to a minimum. Very often, these transmissions are not human-readable at all. That's why the key element that distinguishes data scraping from regular parsing is that the output being scraped was intended for display to an end-user.

Email Extractor

A tool which helps you to extract the email ids from any reliable sources automatically that is called a email extractor. It basically services the function of collecting business contacts from various web pages, HTML files, text files or any other format without duplicates email ids.

Screen scrapping

Screen scraping referred to the practice of reading text information from a computer display terminal's screen and collecting visual data from a source, instead of parsing data as in web scraping.

Data Mining Services

Data Mining Services is the process of extracting patterns from information. Datamining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform the data into information. Any format including MS excels, CSV, HTML and many such formats according to your requirements.

Web spider

A Web spider is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner or in an orderly fashion. Many sites, in particular search engines, use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data.

Web Grabber

Web grabber is just a other name of the data scraping or data extraction.

Web Bot

Web Bot is software program that is claimed to be able to predict future events by tracking keywords entered on the Internet. Web bot software is the best program to pull out articles, blog, relevant website content and many such website related data We have worked with many clients for data extracting, data scrapping and data mining they are really happy with our services we provide very quality services and make your work data work very easy and automatic.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Web-Data-Extraction-Services-Will-Save-Your-Time-and-Money-by-Automatic-Data-Collection&id=5159023

What to Look for When Hiring WordPress Developers?

The toughest part about hiring WordPress developers is that you don't really have an idea about what you don't know! Quite evidently it sounds like stating the obvious. Some of these "how to do" tips are really practical and will be easy to follow.

So this is what to look for when hiring WordPress developers:

Portfolio:

OK - this again may seem supremely obvious - but I have seen a lot of people offering WordPress customizations or design services (especially as WordPress grows, there are plenty of people jumping into this arena) - however, they don't have any sample work with them.

What's the Process?

a. Are you going to communicate over the phone?
b. How frequently are you going to do that?
c. What is the time period?
d. Will you receive updates?
e. Which kind of communication processes can you expect?

Design/Graphics:

When your graphics are finally done and your site looks fantastic - who ultimately owns the right to the final work? Do you have the right to use the artwork/graphics however and wherever you want to?

If you have paid for custom graphics, you have to make sure that you have the luxury and liberty to use them as and when you want them to! However, on the other hand, if you are using stock pictures, then you have to strictly follow the copyright guidelines enlisted on the site from where you have purchased the work.

Skills:

Yes, this is indeed another point that seems pretty obvious, isn't it? I had a few clients who recently hired individuals to make WordPress customizations, however surprisingly enough; they were not really acquainted with WordPress.

There are situations where the clients hired individuals who were graphic designers. They worked mainly with Dreamweaver; numerous client pages were made in Dreamweaver, and then pasted on to the WP editor. In such instances, if the client attempted to adjust things without understanding the HTML, they ran the huge risk of throwing the entire page off.

If you bring in somebody to help create a custom WordPress theme or create a WordPress customization, ascertain the fact that they really understand the features of WordPress! If you can't use the things that make WordPress what it's intended for - it is defeating enough and it seems like a vain uphill journey.

Functionality:

This relates straight to training. If additional features /options are uploaded on your website (as for example: shopping cart, video & audio plugins etc.), are you aware as to how to use them productively?

What exactly is included with set up? Let's take a shopping cart for example:

- Is the autoresponder integrated properly? (If at all possible)
- Are your products being effectively added?
- Is the Thanks page for purchases being set up?
- Are Product images (cropping/ editing, etc.) included?
- Is the Payment gateway installation included?

Many of these functionalities demand additional effort and time. Strive hard to understand in a crystal-clear manner what is being included for any such additional features.

Support:

When your website is done completely and your contract also is complete, is there any support available?

a. Enquire whether the support is handled through help desk, email, or a phone call?
b. Enquire about the charges for support?
c. Can there be an option for monthly maintenance/ support?
d. In case your designer does not offer support, are they able to refer someone else?

So, these are some of the important criteria, I would suggest that you consider when hiring anyone to create a WordPress website for you. Hope this can help!

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?What-to-Look-for-When-Hiring-WordPress-Developers?&id=8047568