Exploring Web Scraping and Reverse Engineering APIs

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The chapter delves into the speaker's experiences with web scraping, including automating tasks like tracking online marketplace items and managing files using hazel scripts. They also discuss reverse engineering APIs to extract data and files, highlighting the challenges and benefits of these activities. The chapter covers topics such as using proxy servers, interacting with client-side content, and the importance of mimicking real user behavior in web scraping and testing.

Web scraping 101! Dive into the world of web scraping with Scott and Wes as they explore everything from tooling setup and navigating protected routes to effective data management. In this Tasty Treat episode, you’ll gain invaluable insights and techniques to scrape (almost) any website with ease.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
03:13 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
05:00 What is scraping?
Socialblade.
08:01 Examples of past scrapers.
Canadian Tire.
10:06 Cloud app downloader.
16:13 Other use cases.
16:58 Scraping 101.
17:28 Client Side.
19:08 Private API.
Proxyman.
22:40 Server rendered.
23:27 Initial state.
24:57 What format is the data in?
Google Puppeteer Extension.
27:08 Working with the DOM.
27:12 Linkedom npm package.
29:02 querySelector everything.
31:28 How to find the elements without classes.
34:08 Use XPath selectors for select by word.
34:53 Make them as flexible as you can. Classes change!
35:10 AI is good at this!
36:26 File downloading.
38:20 Working with protected routes.
Proxyman.
40:41 Programatically retrieve authentication keys because they are short-lived.
Fetch Cookie.
43:20 Deal-breakers.
Mechanical Turk.
44:58 What happened with Amazon?
Uniqlo Self-Checkout
46:42 Wes’ portable refrigerator utopia.
47:25 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs.