Web Scraping Backend Web Development project using Node Js

Published on 05 Jul 2021. Written by Dineshkumar E

In this web development project, we are going to use Node Js and develop a web scraper to collect information from a website. As part of this project, you will learn and work with Node Js to connect the frontend and backend. Backend deals with server-side development. Unlike the frontend, the backend works behind the screen. It focuses on the architecture of a website, databases, scripting, etc. Backend developers write code to create communication between browser and server. For backend development, they build applications using server-side languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, etc. And tools like Oracle, SQL, to communicate with the server and display it in the front-end for the user. 

Read more..

SLNOTE


What is Node Js?

Node js is free and an open-source server environment that runs on various platforms like Linux, Mac OS, Windows, etc. It uses JavaScript to communicate with the server. With the help of Node Js, you can create a page with dynamic content and create, read, open, write, delete, and close files on the server. Node Js can collect form data and add, delete, modify data in the database. 

Advantages of using Node Js for backend development 

• JavaScript is a widely-used programming language in front end development similarly it becomes easier to start with Node Js which is used at the backend. Anyone with little experience in Javascript can easily learn Node js and it consumes less time. 
• Since Node Js is used to serve both client and server-side it is considered as full stack javascript. 
• It is supported by a large community actively contributing towards further development and improvement.
• Anyone can easily scale the applications in both vertical and horizontal directions with the help of Node js.

SLLATEST
Web Scraping project implementation

Web scraping is the process of automating the monotonous tasks of collecting information from websites. Web scraping can be used to collect prices from e-commerce websites, emails, or leads to train Machine Learning and AI models. Below are two major processes involved in web scraping: 

• Data Acquisition using HTML request library or browser
• Analyzing the data to get the required information

To get started with the project you need Node Js and npm installed on your computer. Then install the following dependencies to develop the web scraper. 

• Axios - It is a promise-based HTTP client that comes with an easy to use API that can be used in both Node js and browser. 
• Cheerio - It makes Jquery implementation easy to select, edit, and view DOM elements for Node js
• Puppeteer - it is a Node Js library used to control headless Chrome or Chromium browser over the DevTools Protocol. 

Now we are going to scrap the data from the Reddit website. Since reddit uses javascript to load the content using an HTTP request library like axios will not work. Thus Pupeepter is used to scrap pages that require javascript execution. 

Create a file named reddit-scrapper.js file and add the required code. This code launches puppeteer and executes the Javascript on the page to collect the HTML content by navigating to the provided URL.

After this Cheerio is used to analyze and extract the required data from the HTML string. 

SLDYK
Kit required to develop Web Scraping Backend Web Development project using Node Js:

• node js
• HTML
• CSS

Technologies you will learn by working on Web Scraping Backend Web Development project using Node Js:

• Web Development
• Back end web development

Any Questions?