python-ecosia-images

Python module for searching and downloading images from Ecosia

Installing

pip install ecosia-images

Setup

The only requisite to work with the library is to have a web browser and its driver installed. Currently the package works with either Google Chrome or Firefox.

If using Google Chrome it is required to also have Chromedriver installed and reachable in PATH. See the following link for more information.

As for Firefox, Geckodriver is required to be installed and reachable in PATH.

Examples

Start a crawler

>>> from ecosia_images import crawler
>>> searcher = crawler()

The browser to be used can be passed to the crawler constructor

>>> from ecosia_images import crawler
>>> searcher = crawler(browser='firefox')

To see all valid browser options, see ecosia_images.browser_options.

>>> from ecosia_images import browser_options
>>> browser_options
['chrome', 'firefox']

Search images and get the links to the pictures

After declaring a crawler and using it to search for a keyword, the resulting links will be accesible by the links property

>>> searcher = crawler()
>>> searcher.search('number 9')
>>> searcher.links
{ ... } # urls

Search with options

Searches can also include the options that Ecosia provides for refining results. The available keys and values for refining searches are stored in ecosia_images.download_options.

>>> from ecosia_images import download_options
>>> download_options
{
    'size': ['small', 'medium', 'large', 'wallpaper'],
    'color': ['colorOnly', 'monochrome', 'red', 'orange', 'yellow', 'green', 'teal', 'blue', 'purple', 'pink', 'brown', 'black', 'gray'],
    'image_type': ['photo', 'clipart', 'line', 'animated'],
    'freshness': ['day', 'week', 'month'],
    'license': ['share', 'shareCommercially', 'modify', 'modifyCommercially', 'public']
}

The selected options can be specified when calling the search method of the crawler.

>>> searcher.search('trees', color='monochrome', size='wallpaper')
>>> searcher.links
{ ... } # links to big pictures of trees in black and white

Gather more links

If more links are needed the function gather_more can be used.

>>> searcher.search('bees')
>>> len(searcher.links)
50  # Give or take
>>> searcher.gather_more()
>>> len(searcher.links)
100 # Give or take

Download images

In all the following cases, the script first checks whether the image has been already downloaded so it does not downloads it again. Also, the functions will return the file paths to the downloaded images.

The download function will download a given number of pictures and save them in a folder whose name coincides with the keyword. This folder will be created inside the one specified when calling the function. In the following example, the images would be saved inside /path/to/folder/downloads/keyword/.

>>> searcher.search('keyword')
>>> searcher.download(100, '/path/to/folder/')
[ ... ] # list with file paths

If no folder is specified, the images will be saved inside a new folder named downloads located in the current working directory.

>>> searcher.search('apples')
>>> searcher.download(100)  # The pictures will be saved at ./downloads/apples/
[ ... ]

There is also the download_all function which will download all the currently available links in the crawler object

>>> searcher.search('pidgeons')
>>> searcher.download_all()
[ ... ]

Stoping the client

It is necessary to stop the crawler to avoid the leak of resources.

>>> searcher.stop()

Disclaimer

The dowloaded images come from the Ecosia search engine and they may have copyrights. Do not download or use any image that violates its copyright terms. You can take advantage of the license option of the search function to avoid using copyrighted material.