PHP Simple Web Scraper

A PHP application for Heroku, which can dump web site outputs including JavaScript generated contents.

Demo

Visit here. If the server is sleeping, it takes several seconds to wake up.

Usage

Basic Usage

Perform an HTTP request with the url query parameter and encoded URL as a value.

http(s)://{app-address}/?url={encoded target url}

Example

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com

Parameters

output

Determines the output type, which includes html, json, screenshot.

html (default)

HTML source code of the target web site. JavaScript generated contents are also retrieved and dumped.

json

output=json

HTTP response data as JSON. Useful for cross domain communications with JSONP.

Example

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com&output=json

screenshot

output=screenshot

A jpeg image of the site snapshot.

Example

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com&output=screenshot

file-type

When screenshot is given for the output parameter, the output file type can be set with the file-type parameter. Default: jpg.

It accepts the following values: pdf, png, jpg, jpeg, bmp, ppm.

width

When screenshot is given for the output parameter, width sets the screenshot image width.

height

When screenshot is given for the output parameter, height sets the screenshot image height. Leave it unset to get full height. The default minimum height is 720 pixels.

Example

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com&output=screenshot&file-type=png

user-agent

Sets a custom user agent. By default, the client's user agent accessing the app will be used. This can be changed by specifying the value with this parameter.

If random is given, the user-agent will be randomly assigned.

Example

To set a user agent, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100102 Firefox/57.0,

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismybrowser.com%2Fdetect%2Fwhat-http-headers-is-my-browser-sending&user-agent=Mozilla/5.0%20(Windows%20NT%206.1;%20Win64;%20x64;%20rv:57.0)%20Gecko/20100102%20Firefox/57.0

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismybrowser.com%2Fdetect%2Fwhat-http-headers-is-my-browser-sending&user-agent=random

load-images

Decides whether to load images. By default, this is disabled for the html and json output types. Enabled for the screenshot output type.

Accepts a boolean value true, false, or 1, 0.

Example

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismybrowser.com%2Fdetect%2Fwhat-http-headers-is-my-browser-sending&user-agent=Mozilla/5.0%20(Windows%20NT%206.1;%20Win64;%20x64;%20rv:57.0)%20Gecko/20100102%20Firefox/57.0

output-encoding

Sets the encoding used for the output. Default: utf8

cache-lifespan

All requests are cached for 20 minutes by default. This detemines how long the cache should be retained. If you do not want a cached result or want to renew the cache, pass 0. Default: 1200.

headers

Sets a custom HTTP headers. Accepts the value as an array.

Example

To set DNT value,

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatismybrowser.com%2Fdetect%2Fwhat-http-headers-is-my-browser-sending&headers[DNT]=1

method

HTTP request method. Default: GET. Accepts the followings.

• OPTIONS
• GET
• HEAD
• POST
• PUT
• DELETE
• PATCH

When using POST, give sending post data with the data request key. The program checks $_REQUEST[ 'data' ] to send POST data.

Example

http(s)://{app-address}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhttpbin.org%2Fpost&method=POST&data[foo]=bar

Run as Heroku Application

This is a Heroku application and meant to be deployed to a Heroku application instance.

Requirements

• Heroku account
• Heroku CLI
• Git

Steps to Deploy

a) Quick Deploy

You may simply use the following button to deploy this application:

b) Manual Deploy

1. Clone this repository to your local machine. Create a directory and from there, in a console window, type the following.

git clone https://github.com/michaeluno/php-simple-web-scraper.git

This will download the repository files.

2. Change the working directory to the cloned one.

cd php-simple-web-scraper

3. Login to Heroku from Heroku CLI.

heroku login

4. Create a new Heroku app.

heroku create

This gives somehing like this with a random app name. glacial-basin-46381 is the app name in the below example.

https://glacial-basin-46381.herokuapp.com/ | https://git.heroku.com/glacial-basin-46381.git

5. Type the following. Replace {heroku-app-name} with your app name given in the above step.

heroku git:remote -a {heroku-app-name}

6. Upload the files to Heroku.

git push heroku master

7. Open the app in your browser.

heroku open