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ScraperAPI vs Our Current Implementation

What ScraperAPI Offers

Core Features

  • API key authentication
  • Geotargeting (country/ZIP codes)
  • Device type targeting (desktop/mobile)
  • Custom headers support
  • JavaScript rendering
  • Screenshot capture
  • Session management
  • Proxy rotation (residential/datacenter)
  • Async request processing
  • Structured data extraction for platforms
  • Cost control parameters
  • Cached results

Our Current Implementation (routes/scrape.js:8-55)

What We Have

  • Basic POST /api/scrape endpoint
  • URL + CSS selectors input
  • Pool-based browser management
  • Error handling with retry logic
  • Status/metrics endpoints

Missing Key Features

  1. Authentication: No API key system
  2. Request Parameters: Only supports url and selectors
  3. Geotargeting: No country/location targeting
  4. Custom Headers: Not configurable via API
  5. Device Targeting: No mobile/desktop options
  6. Screenshots: No image capture capability
  7. Async Processing: All requests are synchronous
  8. Caching: No result caching system
  9. Session Management: No persistent sessions
  10. Cost Controls: No timeout/credit limits

Recommended Enhancements for routes/scrape.js

Enhanced request body structure needed:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "selectors": {...},
  "options": {
    "country_code": "US",
    "device_type": "desktop",
    "render": true,
    "session_number": 123,
    "custom_headers": {...},
    "timeout": 30000,
    "screenshot": false,
    "format": "json"
  }
}

Priority Implementation Order

  1. Custom headers support
  2. Device type targeting
  3. JavaScript rendering control
  4. Screenshot capability
  5. Session management
  6. Geotargeting with proxies
  7. Async processing queue
  8. Result caching system

Our Current Approach (routes/scrape.js:8-55)

  • CSS Selectors Only:
    {"title": "h1", "price": ".price"}
  • Simple key-value mapping
  • Limited to basic DOM element selection

What Major Scraping APIs Offer

1. XPath Support (Essential Missing Feature)

  • Why Important: Can navigate both forward/backward in DOM, select by text content
  • Use Cases: Finding elements by text, complex DOM navigation, attribute-based selection
  • Example:
    //span[contains(text(), 'Price:')]/following-sibling::span

2. JSONPath for API Data

  • Why Important: Many sites serve data via JSON APIs embedded in pages
  • Use Cases: Extracting data from <script> tags, API responses, structured data
  • Example:
    $.products[*].price (for JSON arrays)

3. Regex Extraction

  • Why Important: Pattern-based extraction for unstructured text
  • Use Cases: Phone numbers, emails, specific text patterns
  • Example:
    /\$\d+\.\d{2}/g (for prices)

4. Multiple Selection Methods Per Field

Most APIs support fallback strategies:

{
  "price": {
    "css": ".price",
    "xpath": "//span[@class='price-value']",
    "regex": "\\$\\d+\\.\\d{2}"
  }
}

5. Attribute Extraction

Beyond text content:

  • href attributes from links
  • src from images
  • data-* attributes
  • All element attributes

6. Advanced Features in Market

  • Template-based extraction (Octoparse): Pre-built selectors for popular sites
  • Auto-detection (Octoparse): AI-suggested selectors
  • JMESPath queries: Advanced JSON transformation
  • Full page data extraction: No selectors needed, returns everything

Recommended Enhancements for Our API

Enhanced selector format:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "selectors": {
    "title": "h1", // Current: CSS only
    "price": {     // New: Multiple methods
      "css": ".price",
      "xpath": "//span[@class='price']",
      "regex": "\\$\\d+\\.\\d{2}",
      "attribute": "data-price"
    },
    "description": {
      "jsonpath": "$.product.description",  // For JSON data
      "fallback": "meta[name='description']"
    }
  }
}

Priority Implementation

  1. XPath support - Critical for complex selections
  2. Attribute extraction - Common use case
  3. Regex patterns - Text pattern matching
  4. JSONPath - For modern web apps with JSON data
  5. Multiple method fallbacks - Reliability improvement

Current CSS-only approach covers ~60% of use cases. Adding XPath alone would bring you to ~85% market coverage.