WaterCrawl Python Client

A Python client library for interacting with the WaterCrawl API - a powerful web crawling and scraping service.

Installation

pip install watercrawl-py

Quick Start

from watercrawl import WaterCrawlAPIClient

# Initialize the client
client = WaterCrawlAPIClient('your-api-key')

# Simple URL scraping
result = client.scrape_url('https://example.com')

# Advanced crawling with options
crawl_request = client.create_crawl_request(
    url='https://example.com',
    spider_options={},
    page_options={},
    plugin_options={}
)

# Monitor and download results
for result in client.monitor_crawl_request(crawl_request['uuid']):
    if result['type'] == 'result':
        print(result['data'])  # it is a result object per page

API Examples

Client Initialization

from watercrawl import WaterCrawlAPIClient

# Initialize with default base URL
client = WaterCrawlAPIClient('your-api-key')

# Or specify a custom base URL
client = WaterCrawlAPIClient('your-api-key', base_url='https://custom-app.watercrawl.dev/')

Crawling Operations

List all crawl requests

# Get the first page of requests (default page size: 10)
requests = client.get_crawl_requests_list()

# Specify page number and size
requests = client.get_crawl_requests_list(page=2, page_size=20)

Get a specific crawl request

request = client.get_crawl_request('request-uuid')

Create a crawl request

# Simple request with just a URL
request = client.create_crawl_request(url='https://example.com')

# Advanced request with a single URL
request = client.create_crawl_request(
    url='https://example.com',
    spider_options={
        "max_depth": 1, # maximum depth to crawl
        "page_limit": 1, # maximum number of pages to crawl
        "allowed_domains": [], # allowed domains to crawl
        "exclude_paths": [], # exclude paths
        "include_paths": [] # include paths
    },
    page_options={
        "exclude_tags": [], # exclude tags from the page
        "include_tags": [], # include tags from the page
        "wait_time": 1000, # wait time in milliseconds after page load
        "include_html": False, # the result will include HTML
        "only_main_content": True, # only main content of the page automatically remove headers, footers, etc.
        "include_links": False, # if True the result will include links
        "timeout": 15000, # timeout in milliseconds
        "accept_cookies_selector": None, # accept cookies selector e.g. "#accept-cookies"
        "locale": "en-US", # locale
        "extra_headers": {}, # extra headers e.g. {"Authorization": "Bearer your_token"}
        "actions": [] # actions to perform {"type": "screenshot"} or {"type": "pdf"}
    },
    plugin_options={}
)

Create a batch crawl request

# Batch crawl multiple URLs at once
request = client.create_batch_crawl_request(
    urls=['https://example.com', 'https://example.org'],
    spider_options={
        "proxy_server": None,
    },
    page_options={
        "exclude_tags": [],
        "include_tags": [],
        "wait_time": 1000,
        "only_main_content": True,
        "include_html": False,
        "include_links": True,
        "timeout": 15000,
        "accept_cookies_selector": None,
        "locale": None,
        "extra_headers": {},
        "actions": []
    },
    plugin_options={}
)

Stop a crawl request

client.stop_crawl_request('request-uuid')

Download a crawl request result

# Download the crawl request as a ZIP file
zip_data = client.download_crawl_request('request-uuid')

# Save to a file
with open('crawl_results.zip', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(zip_data)

Monitor a crawl request

# Monitor with automatic result download (default)
for event in client.monitor_crawl_request('request-uuid'):
    if event['type'] == 'state':
        print(f"Crawl state: {event['data']['status']}")
    elif event['type'] == 'result':
        print(f"Received result for: {event['data']['url']}")
    # you will get also engine feedbacks with type feed here

# Monitor without downloading results will return result as url instead of result object
for event in client.monitor_crawl_request('request-uuid', download=False):
    print(f"Event type: {event['type']}")

Get crawl request results

# Get the first page of results
results = client.get_crawl_request_results('request-uuid')

# Specify page number and size
results = client.get_crawl_request_results('request-uuid', page=2, page_size=20)

# Download results directly (instead of just getting URLs)
results = client.get_crawl_request_results('request-uuid', download=True)

Quick URL scraping

# Synchronous scraping (default)
result = client.scrape_url('https://example.com')

# With page options
result = client.scrape_url(
    'https://example.com',
    page_options={}
)

# Asynchronous scraping
request = client.scrape_url('https://example.com', sync=False)
# Later check for results with get_crawl_request

Sitemap Operations

Get sitemap from a crawl request

# Get sitemap in different formats from a crawl request
sitemap_json = client.get_crawl_request_sitemap('request-uuid', output_format='json')
sitemap_graph = client.get_crawl_request_sitemap('request-uuid', output_format='graph')
sitemap_markdown = client.get_crawl_request_sitemap('request-uuid', output_format='markdown')

# Or use a crawl request object
crawl_request = client.get_crawl_request('request-uuid')
sitemap_json = client.get_crawl_request_sitemap(crawl_request, output_format='json')

Create a dedicated sitemap request

sitemap_request = client.create_sitemap_request(
    url='https://example.com',
    options={
        "include_subdomains": True,
        "ignore_sitemap_xml": False,
        "search": None,
        "include_paths": [],
        "exclude_paths": []
    }
)

List sitemap requests

# Get the first page of sitemap requests
requests = client.get_sitemap_requests_list()

# Specify page number and size
requests = client.get_sitemap_requests_list(page=2, page_size=20)

Get a specific sitemap request

sitemap_request = client.get_sitemap_request('sitemap-uuid')

Monitor a sitemap request

# Monitor sitemap generation with automatic result download
for event in client.monitor_sitemap_request('sitemap-uuid'):
    if event['type'] == 'state':
        print(f"Sitemap state: {event['data']['status']}")
    elif event['type'] == 'feed':
        print(f"Feed: {event['data']['message']}")

Get sitemap results

# Get sitemap in different formats
sitemap_json = client.get_sitemap_results('sitemap-uuid', output_format='json')
sitemap_graph = client.get_sitemap_results('sitemap-uuid', output_format='graph')
sitemap_markdown = client.get_sitemap_results('sitemap-uuid', output_format='markdown')

# You can also use the sitemap request object
sitemap_request = client.get_sitemap_request('sitemap-uuid')
sitemap_json = client.get_sitemap_results(sitemap_request, output_format='json')

Stop a sitemap request

client.stop_sitemap_request('sitemap-uuid')

Deprecated sitemap functions

The following functions are deprecated and will be removed in a future version:

# Use get_crawl_request_sitemap instead
sitemap = client.download_sitemap('request-uuid')
graph_data = client.download_sitemap_graph('request-uuid')
markdown = client.download_sitemap_markdown('request-uuid')

Search Operations

Create a search request

# Simple search
search = client.create_search_request(query="python programming")

# Search with options and limited results
search = client.create_search_request(
    query="python tutorial", 
    search_options={
        "language": null, # language code e.g. "en" or "fr" or "es"
        "country": null, # country code e.g. "us" or "fr" or "es"
        "time_renge": "any", # time range e.g. "any" or "hour" or "day" or "week" or "month" or "year"
        "search_type": "web", # search type e.g. "web" now just web is supported
        "depth": "basic" # depth e.g. "basic" or "advanced" or "ultimate"
    },
    result_limit=5, # limit the number of results
    sync=True, # wait for results
    download=True # download results
)

# Asynchronous search
search = client.create_search_request(
    query="machine learning",
    search_options={},
    result_limit=5, # limit the number of results
    sync=False, # Don't wait for results
    download=False # Don't download results
)

Monitor a search request

# Monitor with automatic result download the event type just state for now
for event in client.monitor_search_request('search-uuid'):
    if event['type'] == 'state':
        print(f"Search state: {event['status']}")
    
# Monitor without downloading results
for event in client.monitor_search_request('search-uuid', download=False):
    print(f"Event: {event}")

Get search request details

search = client.get_search_request('search-uuid', download=True)

Stop a search request

client.stop_search_request('search-uuid')

Features

• Simple and intuitive API client
• Support for both synchronous and asynchronous crawling
• Comprehensive crawling options and configurations
• Built-in request monitoring and result downloading
• Efficient session management and request handling
• Support for sitemaps and search operations

Documentation

For detailed documentation and examples, visit WaterCrawl Documentation.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.7
• requests library

Compatibility

• WaterCrawl API >= 0.9.2

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

For support, please visit:

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Homepage: GitHub Repository
• Documentation: WaterCrawl Docs

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.