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Python Client

PyPI version License: MIT

A Python client library for interacting with the WaterCrawl API - a powerful web crawling and scraping service.

Installation​

pip install watercrawl-py

Requirements​

  • Python >= 3.8
  • requests library

Quick Start​

from watercrawl import WaterCrawlAPIClient

# Initialize the client
client = WaterCrawlAPIClient('your-api-key')

# Simple URL scraping
result = client.scrape_url('https://example.com')

# Advanced crawling with options
crawl_request = client.create_crawl_request(
    url='https://example.com',
    spider_options={},
    page_options={},
    plugin_options={}
)

# Monitor and download results
for result in client.monitor_crawl_request(crawl_request['uuid']):
    if result['type'] == 'result':
        print(result['data'])  # it is a result object per page

API Examples​

Client Initialization​

from watercrawl import WaterCrawlAPIClient

# Initialize with default base URL
client = WaterCrawlAPIClient('your-api-key')

# Or specify a custom base URL
client = WaterCrawlAPIClient('your-api-key', base_url='https://custom-app.watercrawl.dev/')

Crawling Operations​

List all crawl requests​

# Get the first page of requests (default page size: 10)
requests = client.get_crawl_requests_list()

# Specify page number and size
requests = client.get_crawl_requests_list(page=2, page_size=20)

Get a specific crawl request​

request = client.get_crawl_request('request-uuid')

Create a crawl request​

# Simple request with just a URL
request = client.create_crawl_request(url='https://example.com')

# Advanced request with a single URL
request = client.create_crawl_request(
    url='https://example.com',
    spider_options={
        "max_depth": 1, # maximum depth to crawl
        "page_limit": 1, # maximum number of pages to crawl
        "allowed_domains": [], # allowed domains to crawl
        "exclude_paths": [], # exclude paths
        "include_paths": [] # include paths
    },
    page_options={
        "exclude_tags": [], # exclude tags from the page
        "include_tags": [], # include tags from the page
        "wait_time": 1000, # wait time in milliseconds after page load
        "include_html": False, # the result will include HTML
        "only_main_content": True, # only main content of the page automatically remove headers, footers, etc.
        "include_links": False, # if True the result will include links
        "timeout": 15000, # timeout in milliseconds
        "accept_cookies_selector": None, # accept cookies selector e.g. "#accept-cookies"
        "locale": "en-US", # locale
        "extra_headers": {}, # extra headers e.g. {"Authorization": "Bearer your_token"}
        "actions": [] # actions to perform {"type": "screenshot"} or {"type": "pdf"}
    },
    plugin_options={}
)

Stop a crawl request​

client.stop_crawl_request('request-uuid')

Download a crawl request result​

# Download the crawl request as a ZIP file
zip_data = client.download_crawl_request('request-uuid')

# Save to a file
with open('crawl_results.zip', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(zip_data)

Monitor a crawl request​

# Monitor with automatic result download (default)
for event in client.monitor_crawl_request('request-uuid'):
    if event['type'] == 'state':
        print(f"Crawl state: {event['data']['status']}")
    elif event['type'] == 'result':
        print(f"Received result for: {event['data']['url']}")

# Monitor without downloading results will return result as url instead of result object
for event in client.monitor_crawl_request('request-uuid', download=False):
    print(f"Event type: {event['type']}")

Get crawl request results​

# Get the first page of results
results = client.get_crawl_request_results('request-uuid')

# Specify page number and size
results = client.get_crawl_request_results('request-uuid', page=2, page_size=20)

Quick URL scraping​

# Synchronous scraping (default)
result = client.scrape_url('https://example.com')

# With page options
result = client.scrape_url(
    'https://example.com',
    page_options={}
)

# Asynchronous scraping
request = client.scrape_url('https://example.com', sync=False)
# Later check for results with get_crawl_request

Sitemap Operations​

Download a sitemap​

# Download using a crawl request object
crawl_request = client.get_crawl_request('request-uuid')
sitemap = client.download_sitemap(crawl_request)

# you need to give crawl request uuid or crawl request object
sitemap = client.download_sitemap('request-uuid')

# Process sitemap entries
for entry in sitemap:
    print(f"URL: {entry['url']}, Title: {entry['title']}")

Download sitemap as graph data​

# you need to give crawl request uuid or crawl request object
graph_data = client.download_sitemap_graph('request-uuid')

Download sitemap as markdown​

# you need to give crawl request uuid or crawl request object
markdown = client.download_sitemap_markdown('request-uuid')

Search Operations​

Create a search request​

# Simple search
search = client.create_search_request(query="python programming")

# Search with options and limited results
search = client.create_search_request(
    query="python tutorial", 
    search_options={
        "language": null, # language code e.g. "en" or "fr" or "es"
        "country": null, # country code e.g. "us" or "fr" or "es"
        "time_renge": "any", # time range e.g. "any" or "hour" or "day" or "week" or "month" or "year"
        "search_type": "web", # search type e.g. "web" now just web is supported
        "depth": "basic" # depth e.g. "basic" or "advanced" or "ultimate"
    },
    result_limit=5, # limit the number of results
    sync=True, # wait for results
    download=True # download results
)

# Asynchronous search
search = client.create_search_request(
    query="machine learning",
    search_options={},
    result_limit=5, # limit the number of results
    sync=False, # Don't wait for results
    download=False # Don't download results
)

Monitor a search request​

# Monitor with automatic result download the event type just state for now
for event in client.monitor_search_request('search-uuid'):
    if event['type'] == 'state':
        print(f"Search state: {event['status']}")
    
# Monitor without downloading results
for event in client.monitor_search_request('search-uuid', download=False):
    print(f"Event: {event}")

Get search request details​

search = client.get_search_request('search-uuid')

Stop a search request​

client.stop_search_request('search-uuid')

Features​

  • Simple and intuitive API client
  • Support for both synchronous and asynchronous crawling
  • Comprehensive crawling options and configurations
  • Built-in request monitoring and result downloading
  • Efficient session management and request handling
  • Support for sitemaps and search operations

Compatibility​

  • WaterCrawl API >= 0.7.1

Changelog​

Please see CHANGELOG.md for more information on what has changed recently.

License​

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support​

For support, please visit:

Contributing​

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.