This project involves building an advanced web crawler designed to extract, analyze, and store data from various websites. The crawler will be capable of handling dynamic content, adhering to robots.txt rules, and managing IP rotation to avoid detection. The goal is to provide users with a powerful tool for data gathering, research, and competitive analysis.
The project aims to develop a scalable and efficient API that allows users to configure crawling jobs, manage data extraction settings, and retrieve processed data. This API will support various front-end applications, including web and mobile interfaces.
In today's data-driven world, web scraping has become essential for businesses and researchers seeking insights from online sources. This project will create an API that enables users to collect and analyze web data effortlessly while ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards.
User Interaction Overview
User Registration and Authentication
Sign Up: New users can create an account by providing their email and password. A confirmation email will be sent for account verification.
Login: Registered users can log in using their email and password. The API will support multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced security.
Crawl Job Management:
Create Crawl Job: Users can define new crawling jobs by specifying target URLs, data extraction rules, and scheduling options.
Manage Crawl Jobs: Users can view, edit, and delete existing crawl jobs, as well as monitor their status.
Data Extraction and Storage:
Extract Data: The crawler will collect data based on user-defined criteria and store it in a structured format.
View Extracted Data: Users can retrieve and view the data collected from crawl jobs.
Reporting and Analytics:
Generate Reports: Users can create reports based on the extracted data, with options for data visualization.
Analytics Dashboard: Users can access an analytics dashboard to visualize data trends
and insights.
Objectives
Allow users to sign up, log in, and manage their accounts securely.
Enable users to create and manage crawling jobs efficiently.
Facilitate data extraction from various websites and store it in a structured format.
Provide reporting and analytics features for data analysis.
Ensure compliance with web scraping best practices and legal standards.
Functional Requirements
User Management
Sign Up: Users can create an account using their email and password.
Login: Users can authenticate using their email and password.
Profile Management: Users can update their profile information.
Crawl Job Management
Create Crawl Job: Users can define a new crawl job with target URLs and extraction rules.
Edit Crawl Job: Users can modify existing crawl jobs.
Delete Crawl Job: Users can remove crawl jobs they no longer need.
Monitor Crawl Status: Users can view the status and logs of ongoing and completed crawl jobs.
Data Extraction and Storage
Generate Reports: Users can create reports based on extracted data.
Analytics Dashboard: Users can visualize trends and insights from the data.
Non-Functional Requirements
Scalability: The API should handle a growing number of users and crawling tasks.
Performance: The API should provide fast response times and efficiently manage concurrent crawling operations.
Security: Implement robust authentication and data protection measures.
Reliability: The API should ensure high availability and handle errors gracefully.
Usability: The API should be easy to use and well-documented for users and developers.
Use Cases
User Sign Up and Login: New users create an account, and existing users log in.
Manage Crawl Jobs: Users create, edit, and monitor their crawl jobs.
Data Extraction: Users initiate data extraction and retrieve the collected data
Generate Reports: Users create reports and access analytics.
User Stories
As a user, I want to sign up for an account so that I can use the web crawler.
As a user, I want to log in to my account to manage my crawling jobs.
As a user, I want to create new crawl jobs to extract data from specific websites.
As a user, I want to view the data collected from my crawl jobs for analysis.
As a user, I want to generate reports based on my extracted data to share insights.
Technical Requirements
Programming Language: Choose an appropriate backend language (e.g., Python, Node.js).
Web Scraping Framework: Use a robust web scraping library or framework (e.g., Scrapy, Beautiful Soup).
Database: Use a database to store user data, crawl jobs, and extract data (e.g., PostgreSQL,
MongoDB)Authentication: Implement JWT for secure user authentication.
API Documentation: Use Swagger or similar tools for API documentation.
API Endpoints
User Management
POST /signup: Register a new user.
POST /login: Authenticate a user.
GET /profile: Retrieve user profile details.
PUT /profile: Update user profile.
Crawl Job Management
POST /crawl-jobs: Create a new crawl job.
GET /crawl-jobs: Retrieve all crawl jobs for the user.
PUT /crawl-jobs/{id}: Update a crawl job by ID.
DELETE /crawl-jobs/{id}: Delete a crawl job by ID.
Data Extraction
GET /crawl-jobs/{id}/data: Retrieve extracted data for a specific crawl job.
GET /crawl-jobs/{id}/status: Check the status of a specific crawl job.
Reporting and Analytics
POST /reports: Generate a new report based on extracted data.
GET /reports: Retrieve generated reports for the user.
Security
Use HTTPS to encrypt data in transit.
Implement input validation and sanitization to prevent security vulnerabilities.
Use strong password hashing algorithms like bcrypt.
Performance
Implement rate limiting to manage API requests.
Optimize database queries for efficient retrieval of crawl jobs and extracted data.
Documentation
Provide comprehensive API documentation using tools like Swagger.
Create user guides and developer documentation to assist with integration and usage.
Glossary
API: Application Programming Interface.
Crawl Job: A defined task for the web crawler to extract data from specified URLs.
Data Extraction: The process of collecting data from websites.
Robots.txt: A file used by websites to communicate with web crawlers about which parts of the site should not be crawled.
Appendix
Include any relevant diagrams, data models, and additional references.
