By sifting through massive web scraped data, businesses have uncovered hidden stories, patterns, and insights that would otherwise go unnoticed. Even so, a question persists: Which is the optimal web scraping approach?
Well, meet one framework that allows you to build a full-fledged web scraper with a GUI and a backend. Yes, I’m talking about Next.js.
With Next.js, you get to build a web scraper with features such as dashboards and search bars to interact with scraped data. Plus, you can have a web scraper extract web data in real-time, showing it instantly on the frontend.
Interested in this web scraping approach? Keep exploring!
Your Guide to Creating a Web Scraper in Next.js
Next.js web scraping can be done through hydration data or with the help of a browser automation tool or HTML parsing tool. However, Next.js web scraping through hydration is best suited for scraping websites built using the Next.js technology.
So, to ensure you can scrape any website with minimal to no issues, this guide covers the second method. You should come into this with a clear understanding of the fundamentals of web scraping, including HTTP requests, parsing HTML, and using browser automation tools.
Competency in JavaScript, Node.js, Next.js, HTML & CSS and asynchronous programming is required, too. Ready? Here’s how you build a web scraper in Next.js.
1. Pinpoint the purpose and required data
What do you want to achieve through web scraping? Perhaps you want to collect pricing data for competitive analysis, or you want to monitor stock prices. A clear purpose eliminates distractions, ensuring you extract useful information only.
Once you have a clear purpose in mind, list the exact data points needed to fulfill the purpose. For instance, If you want to undertake a pricing comparison, you’ll need product names, images, reviews, and prices.
By sticking to a specific set of data points, you collect only the required data. This way, you don’t overwhelm the target site’s servers.
2. Examine and select the target sites
With a clear purpose and defined data points, proceed to find the websites from which you desire to extract the data.
Upon locking in on a specific sites, examine its structure. Is the website static or dynamic? Use browser tools to determine whether the website is static or dynamic.
Next, does the website have an API? Does it include anti-scraping mechanisms? By answering these questions, you start painting the picture of how your scraper should interact with the website.
For instance, if the website in question has an API that can serve the data you need, then there’s no need to scrape HTML. You can just implement an API call to the site to serve you the necessary data.
Plus, if the site does include anti-scraping measures, you may need a CAPTCHA-solving tool or proxies to help bypass them. Moreover, Next.js does include features to help with bypassing anti-scraping mechanisms.
Helpful Read – Next.js Cheatsheet
3. Choose a browser automation tool or HTML parsing tool
Even though we want to build a web scraper in Next.js, note that Next.js does not include built-in scraping tools. Why? It is a framework for building React-based web applications, not scraping them.
So, to build a web scraper, we must import external web scraping tools. And, since Next.js is layered over Node.js, you have the option of importing browser automation tools to scrape dynamic sites, or HTML parsing tools to scrape static sites.
For browser automation tools, you can choose between Playwright and Puppeteer. For an HTML parsing tool, Cheerio should do.
4. Set up and configure your environment
To build a functional scraper in Next.js, you’ll need to first install the Node.js ecosystem. Next.js and all the scraping tools and setup will run on Node.js (as the primary backend engine).
Next, you need to install Next.js to provide the structure for building React apps with backend API routes. Following this, you need to install an HTTP request library for triggering or initializing a specific API route.
Lastly, based on the nature of the target website (static or dynamic), install an HTML parsing tool or browser automation tool respectively. Then, create a Next.js project and create an API route within the project, and test it.
In Next.js, an API route is the backend endpoint that’ll allow you to run the server-side code of your web scraper application. In short, it is what makes web scraping possible in Next.js without exposing the scraping logic to the users.
5. Assemble your web data scraper
After you’ve set everything up and tested the functionality of your API route, it is now time to put together the components of your web scraper.
Build interactive pages with the help of Next.js’s React-based components. Through the pages, the user should be able to input the target site’s URL and define scraping parameters.
Setup the HTTP request library to pick up the URL and parameters and pass them to the specified API route (back-end server). Once the server receives the URL, it should pass it to the select scraping tool.
The scraping tool should then send a request to the target site, obtain the necessary data, and pass it to the API route for processing and structuring to JSON. Once processed and structured, the API route should send the data to the front end for user viewing.
Overall, Next.js’s React-based components power the front end of your web scraper, breathing life into data display and user controls like buttons and input fields.
API routes, on the other hand, power the server-side logic, handling tasks such as managing web scraping stools, processing data, managing database operations, and securing data exchange processes and access control (user authentication).
6. Test, debug, and optimize your web scraper
Finally, you should test your web scraper before deploying it to a cloud server or a VPS.
Run the setup locally and check for data accuracy. Input different URLs and examine the scraper’s output when exposed to different page structures.
In case there are issues or errors, implement fault tolerance into your scraper as you resolve the errors. While debugging issues or errors, find ways to optimize your scraper, too.
For example, you can implement caching to store results in a memory or database to avoid redundant scrapes. You can also use rotating user agents and proxies to avoid IP bans or triggering anti-data scraping mechanisms.
Closing Words
In one framework, two functions build a web scraper with a GUI using React-based components and build the backend using API routes.
Yes, there is no need to separate your frontend and backend projects when it comes to building a web scraper in Next.js.
With this guide, you are now in the position to build one for yourself, powering various business operations including competitor analysis and market research efficiently.
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