# HTTP requests The `Fetcher` class provides rapid and lightweight HTTP requests using the high-performance `curl_cffi` library with a lot of stealth capabilities. !!! success "Prerequisites" 1. You've completed or read the [Fetchers basics](../fetching/choosing.md) page to understand what the [Response object](../fetching/choosing.md#response-object) is and which fetcher to use. 2. You've completed or read the [Querying elements](../parsing/selection.md) page to understand how to find/extract elements from the [Selector](../parsing/main_classes.md#selector)/[Response](../fetching/choosing.md#response-object) object. 3. You've completed or read the [Main classes](../parsing/main_classes.md) page to know what properties/methods the [Response](../fetching/choosing.md#response-object) class is inheriting from the [Selector](../parsing/main_classes.md#selector) class. ## Basic Usage You have one primary way to import this Fetcher, which is the same for all fetchers. ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher ``` Check out how to configure the parsing options [here](choosing.md#parser-configuration-in-all-fetchers) ### Shared arguments All methods for making requests here share some arguments, so let's discuss them first. - **url**: The targeted URL - **stealthy_headers**: If enabled (default), it creates and adds real browser headers. It also sets the referer header as if this request came from a Google search of the URL's domain. - **follow_redirects**: As the name implies, tell the fetcher to follow redirections. **Enabled by default** - **timeout**: The number of seconds to wait for each request to be finished. **Defaults to 30 seconds**. - **retries**: The number of retries that the fetcher will do for failed requests. **Defaults to three retries**. - **retry_delay**: Number of seconds to wait between retry attempts. **Defaults to 1 second**. - **impersonate**: Impersonate specific browsers' TLS fingerprints. Accepts browser strings or a list of them like `"chrome110"`, `"firefox102"`, `"safari15_5"` to use specific versions or `"chrome"`, `"firefox"`, `"safari"`, `"edge"` to automatically use the latest version available. This makes your requests appear to come from real browsers at the TLS level. If you pass it a list of strings, it will choose a random one with each request. **Defaults to the latest available Chrome version.** - **http3**: Use HTTP/3 protocol for requests. **Defaults to False**. It might be problematic if used with `impersonate`. - **cookies**: Cookies to use in the request. Can be a dictionary of `name→value` or a list of dictionaries. - **proxy**: As the name implies, the proxy for this request is used to route all traffic (HTTP and HTTPS). The format accepted here is `http://username:password@localhost:8030`. - **proxy_auth**: HTTP basic auth for proxy, tuple of (username, password). - **proxies**: Dict of proxies to use. Format: `{"http": proxy_url, "https": proxy_url}`. - **proxy_rotator**: A `ProxyRotator` instance for automatic proxy rotation. Cannot be combined with `proxy` or `proxies`. - **headers**: Headers to include in the request. Can override any header generated by the `stealthy_headers` argument - **max_redirects**: Maximum number of redirects. **Defaults to 30**, use -1 for unlimited. - **verify**: Whether to verify HTTPS certificates. **Defaults to True**. - **cert**: Tuple of (cert, key) filenames for the client certificate. - **selector_config**: A dictionary of custom parsing arguments to be used when creating the final `Selector`/`Response` class. !!! note "Notes:" 1. The currently available browsers to impersonate are (`"edge"`, `"chrome"`, `"chrome_android"`, `"safari"`, `"safari_beta"`, `"safari_ios"`, `"safari_ios_beta"`, `"firefox"`, `"tor"`)
2. The available browsers to impersonate, along with their corresponding versions, are automatically displayed in the argument autocompletion and updated with each `curl_cffi` update.
3. If any of the arguments `impersonate` or `stealthy_headers` are enabled, the fetchers will automatically generate real browser headers that match the browser version used. Other than this, for further customization, you can pass any arguments that `curl_cffi` supports for any method if that method doesn't already support them. ### HTTP Methods There are additional arguments for each method, depending on the method, such as `params` for GET requests and `data`/`json` for POST/PUT/DELETE requests. Examples are the best way to explain this: > Hence: `OPTIONS` and `HEAD` methods are not supported. #### GET ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher >>> # Basic GET >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com') >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/get', stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True) >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/get', proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030') >>> # With parameters >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com/search', params={'q': 'query'}) >>> >>> # With headers >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com', headers={'User-Agent': 'Custom/1.0'}) >>> # Basic HTTP authentication >>> page = Fetcher.get("https://example.com", auth=("my_user", "password123")) >>> # Browser impersonation >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com', impersonate='chrome') >>> # HTTP/3 support >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com', http3=True) ``` And for asynchronous requests, it's a small adjustment ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import AsyncFetcher >>> # Basic GET >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://example.com') >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/get', stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True) >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/get', proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030') >>> # With parameters >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://example.com/search', params={'q': 'query'}) >>> >>> # With headers >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://example.com', headers={'User-Agent': 'Custom/1.0'}) >>> # Basic HTTP authentication >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get("https://example.com", auth=("my_user", "password123")) >>> # Browser impersonation >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://example.com', impersonate='chrome110') >>> # HTTP/3 support >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.get('https://example.com', http3=True) ``` Needless to say, the `page` object in all cases is [Response](choosing.md#response-object) object, which is a [Selector](../parsing/main_classes.md#selector) as we said, so you can use it directly ```python >>> page.css('.something.something') >>> page = Fetcher.get('https://api.github.com/events') >>> page.json() [{'id': '', 'type': 'PushEvent', 'actor': {'id': '', 'login': '', 'display_login': '', 'gravatar_id': '', 'url': 'https://api.github.com/users/', 'avatar_url': 'https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/'}, 'repo': {'id': '', ... ``` #### POST ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher >>> # Basic POST >>> page = Fetcher.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}, params={'q': 'query'}) >>> page = Fetcher.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}, stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True) >>> page = Fetcher.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}, proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030', impersonate="chrome") >>> # Another example of form-encoded data >>> page = Fetcher.post('https://example.com/submit', data={'username': 'user', 'password': 'pass'}, http3=True) >>> # JSON data >>> page = Fetcher.post('https://example.com/api', json={'key': 'value'}) ``` And for asynchronous requests, it's a small adjustment ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import AsyncFetcher >>> # Basic POST >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}) >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}, stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True) >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}, proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030', impersonate="chrome") >>> # Another example of form-encoded data >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.post('https://example.com/submit', data={'username': 'user', 'password': 'pass'}, http3=True) >>> # JSON data >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.post('https://example.com/api', json={'key': 'value'}) ``` #### PUT ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher >>> # Basic PUT >>> page = Fetcher.put('https://example.com/update', data={'status': 'updated'}) >>> page = Fetcher.put('https://example.com/update', data={'status': 'updated'}, stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True, impersonate="chrome") >>> page = Fetcher.put('https://example.com/update', data={'status': 'updated'}, proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030') >>> # Another example of form-encoded data >>> page = Fetcher.put("https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/put", data={'key': ['value1', 'value2']}) ``` And for asynchronous requests, it's a small adjustment ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import AsyncFetcher >>> # Basic PUT >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.put('https://example.com/update', data={'status': 'updated'}) >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.put('https://example.com/update', data={'status': 'updated'}, stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True, impersonate="chrome") >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.put('https://example.com/update', data={'status': 'updated'}, proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030') >>> # Another example of form-encoded data >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.put("https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/put", data={'key': ['value1', 'value2']}) ``` #### DELETE ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher >>> page = Fetcher.delete('https://example.com/resource/123') >>> page = Fetcher.delete('https://example.com/resource/123', stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True, impersonate="chrome") >>> page = Fetcher.delete('https://example.com/resource/123', proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030') ``` And for asynchronous requests, it's a small adjustment ```python >>> from scrapling.fetchers import AsyncFetcher >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.delete('https://example.com/resource/123') >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.delete('https://example.com/resource/123', stealthy_headers=True, follow_redirects=True, impersonate="chrome") >>> page = await AsyncFetcher.delete('https://example.com/resource/123', proxy='http://username:password@localhost:8030') ``` ## Session Management For making multiple requests with the same configuration, use the `FetcherSession` class. It can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous code without issue; the class automatically detects and changes the session type, without requiring a different import. The `FetcherSession` class can accept nearly all the arguments that the methods can take, which enables you to specify a config for the entire session and later choose a different config for one of the requests effortlessly, as you will see in the following examples. ```python from scrapling.fetchers import FetcherSession # Create a session with default configuration with FetcherSession( impersonate='chrome', http3=True, stealthy_headers=True, timeout=30, retries=3 ) as session: # Make multiple requests with the same settings and the same cookies page1 = session.get('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/get') page2 = session.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', data={'key': 'value'}) page3 = session.get('https://api.github.com/events') # All requests share the same session and connection pool ``` You can also use a `ProxyRotator` with `FetcherSession` for automatic proxy rotation across requests: ```python from scrapling.fetchers import FetcherSession, ProxyRotator rotator = ProxyRotator([ 'http://proxy1:8080', 'http://proxy2:8080', 'http://proxy3:8080', ]) with FetcherSession(proxy_rotator=rotator, impersonate='chrome') as session: # Each request automatically uses the next proxy in rotation page1 = session.get('https://example.com/page1') page2 = session.get('https://example.com/page2') # You can check which proxy was used via the response metadata print(page1.meta['proxy']) ``` You can also override the session proxy (or rotator) for a specific request by passing `proxy=` directly to the request method: ```python with FetcherSession(proxy='http://default-proxy:8080') as session: # Uses the session proxy page1 = session.get('https://example.com/page1') # Override the proxy for this specific request page2 = session.get('https://example.com/page2', proxy='http://special-proxy:9090') ``` And here's an async example ```python async with FetcherSession(impersonate='firefox', http3=True) as session: # All standard HTTP methods available response = await session.get('https://example.com') response = await session.post('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/post', json={'data': 'value'}) response = await session.put('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/put', data={'update': 'info'}) response = await session.delete('https://scrapling.requestcatcher.com/delete') ``` or better ```python import asyncio from scrapling.fetchers import FetcherSession # Async session usage async with FetcherSession(impersonate="safari") as session: urls = ['https://example.com/page1', 'https://example.com/page2'] tasks = [ session.get(url) for url in urls ] pages = await asyncio.gather(*tasks) ``` The `Fetcher` class uses `FetcherSession` to create a temporary session with each request you make. ### Session Benefits - **A lot faster**: 10 times faster than creating a single session for each request - **Cookie persistence**: Automatic cookie handling across requests - **Resource efficiency**: Better memory and CPU usage for multiple requests - **Centralized configuration**: Single place to manage request settings ## Examples Some well-rounded examples to aid newcomers to Web Scraping ### Basic HTTP Request ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher # Make a request page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com') # Check the status if page.status == 200: # Extract title title = page.css('title::text').get() print(f"Page title: {title}") # Extract all links links = page.css('a::attr(href)').getall() print(f"Found {len(links)} links") ``` ### Product Scraping ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher def scrape_products(): page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com/products') # Find all product elements products = page.css('.product') results = [] for product in products: results.append({ 'title': product.css('.title::text').get(), 'price': product.css('.price::text').re_first(r'\d+\.\d{2}'), 'description': product.css('.description::text').get(), 'in_stock': product.has_class('in-stock') }) return results ``` ### Downloading Files ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher page = Fetcher.get('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/D4Vinci/Scrapling/main/images/main_cover.png') with open(file='main_cover.png', mode='wb') as f: f.write(page.body) ``` ### Pagination Handling ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher def scrape_all_pages(): base_url = 'https://example.com/products?page={}' page_num = 1 all_products = [] while True: # Get current page page = Fetcher.get(base_url.format(page_num)) # Find products products = page.css('.product') if not products: break # Process products for product in products: all_products.append({ 'name': product.css('.name::text').get(), 'price': product.css('.price::text').get() }) # Next page page_num += 1 return all_products ``` ### Form Submission ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher # Submit login form response = Fetcher.post( 'https://example.com/login', data={ 'username': 'user@example.com', 'password': 'password123' } ) # Check login success if response.status == 200: # Extract user info user_name = response.css('.user-name::text').get() print(f"Logged in as: {user_name}") ``` ### Table Extraction ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher def extract_table(): page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com/data') # Find table table = page.css('table')[0] # Extract headers headers = [ th.text for th in table.css('thead th') ] # Extract rows rows = [] for row in table.css('tbody tr'): cells = [td.text for td in row.css('td')] rows.append(dict(zip(headers, cells))) return rows ``` ### Navigation Menu ```python from scrapling.fetchers import Fetcher def extract_menu(): page = Fetcher.get('https://example.com') # Find navigation nav = page.css('nav')[0] menu = {} for item in nav.css('li'): links = item.css('a') if links: link = links[0] menu[link.text] = { 'url': link['href'], 'has_submenu': bool(item.css('.submenu')) } return menu ``` ## When to Use Use `Fetcher` when: - Need rapid HTTP requests. - Want minimal overhead. - Don't need JavaScript execution (the website can be scraped through requests). - Need some stealth features (ex, the targeted website is using protection but doesn't use JavaScript challenges). Use `FetcherSession` when: - Making multiple requests to the same or different sites. - Need to maintain cookies/authentication between requests. - Want connection pooling for better performance. - Require consistent configuration across requests. - Working with APIs that require a session state. Use other fetchers when: - Need browser automation. - Need advanced anti-bot/stealth capabilities. - Need JavaScript support or interacting with dynamic content