What is data scraping and what kinds of parsers are there
A parser is a program that automatically collects content or any other information from websites. Usually, http parsers are made as desktop applications, but there are online parsers as well. For most cases, desktop parsers are more user-friendly and functional, but for some simple tasks an online parser is suitable too. Marketing, SEO-, satellite specialists, content managers, online-store owners and professionals of many other fields use parsers.
The process of web scraping can be conditionally divided into three phases:
- 1. Content obtaining. In order to get required content, a web-page’s code needs to be downloaded. Then, needed data will be extracted out of the web-page.
2. Extracting and conversion of the collected data. At this stage, the previously obtained data is being extracted from the web-page code, and converted to required format.
3. Result producing. This is the last phase of the parser’s work. The obtained data is being recorded in the needed form. Typically, information is saved in file formats, CMS or databases.
Tasks solved through the use of parser
First of all, a parser is used for automatic scraping of information. A lot of people collect information from web-sites to do rewriting or copywriting. Also, content managers and online-store owners use it in order to fill their website with products.
Usually, website parsing is used for such purposes:
- Maintenance of information relevancy. A parser is usually applied for cases where information may become irrelevant within minutes.
- Full or partial copying of information from a website with subsequent placement on your resources. Such method is frequently used in satellites. Besides, automatic translation or synonymization can make the collected information unique.
- Integration of information from different sources in one place. It can be gathering of news-related articles or collecting positions from job-hunting sites and placing them on a single website.
The cross functional Datacol parser handles all of the mentioned above and many other task related to scraping data from the Internet.
Benefits of using the website parsing
You are certainly assured yourself now, that parsers considerably simplify and completely automate a lot of tasks, which could take you days. Therefore, the use of a web parser is quite reasonable and cost-effective decision. Datacol parser can be downloaded at this link.