Web scraping is a useful technique for extracting data from websites in an automated fashion. It can be particularly useful for businesses that need to gather large amounts of data from websites for analysis and decision making. However, web scraping can be complex due to the poorly structured nature of web data and the legal minefield surrounding the practice. Websites can be generated in two places: on the server or on the client (your computer). Server-side generated websites are generally easier to scrape, as the data is made available through the HTML generated by the server in response to a request from the client. Client-side generated websites, on the other hand, are loaded through javascript and can be more difficult to scrape.
Guide to webscraping in Alteryx:
- Input the URLs you want to scrape: To start, you will need to input the list of URLs that you want to scrape. You can do this using the Input tool. This tool allows you to input a list of URLs as a text file or directly into the tool as a string.
- Use the Download tool to bring the data into Alteryx: Once you have inputted your list of URLs, you can use the Download tool to bring the data into Alteryx. To configure the Download tool, you will need to specify which field contains the URL (in this case, the field is called "URL"). You can also set headers, payload, and connection parameters if needed. Make sure to output the data as a string, as this will make it easier to parse using the Regex tool later on.
- Inspect the website structure: To understand how the website is structured and whether it has been generated on the server or client side, you can use the inspect function in a browser like Chrome or Firefox. This will show you the HTML structure of the website and allow you to view the "view page source" to determine whether the data you are looking for is easily accessible. If the data is visible on the "view page source," this means the website has been server-side generated and is easier to scrape.
- Use the Regex tool to parse the data: Once you have downloaded the data using the Download tool, you can use the Regex tool to parse the data and extract the information you need. The Regex tool has four output methods: Replace, Tokenize, Match, and Parse. You can choose the output method that best fits your needs depending on the type of data you are extracting. For example, if you want to extract specific values from the data, you can use the Parse output method. If you want to split the data into separate columns, you can use the Tokenize output method.
- Use the data for analysis and decision making: Once you have successfully extracted the data from the website using web scraping in Alteryx, you can use the data for analysis and decision making. Depending on the nature of the data, you may need to clean and transform it further using other Alteryx tools. For example, you may need to use the Text to Columns tool to split the data into separate columns, or the Filter tool to remove unwanted rows. Once you have cleaned and transformed the data, you can use it to gain insights and make informed business decisions.
Web scraping can be a powerful tool for extracting data from websites, but it is important to keep in mind that it can be complex and legally delicate. It is always a good idea to check the terms of service of the website you are scraping to ensure that you are not violating any rules. Additionally, you should be mindful of the data you are collecting and ensure that you are handling it responsibly and ethically.