Crawlbase API PHP class

A lightweight, dependency free PHP class that acts as wrapper for Crawlbase API.

Installing

Choose a way of installing:

• Use Packagist PHP package manager.
• Download the project from Github and save it into your project so you can require it require_once('crawlbase-php/src/[class].php')

Crawling API

First initialize the CrawlingAPI class. You can get your free token here.

$api = new Crawlbase\CrawlingAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);

GET requests

Pass the url that you want to scrape plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

$api->get(string $url, array $options = []);

Example:

$response = $api->get('https://www.facebook.com/britneyspears');
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

You can pass any options from Crawlbase API.

Example:

$response = $api->get('https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5bx4bx/thanks_obama/', [
  'user_agent' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; rv:20.0) Gecko/20121202 Firefox/30.0',
  'format' => 'json'
]);
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

Optionally pass store parameter to true to store a copy of the API response in the Crawlbase Cloud Storage.

Example:

$response = $api->get('https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5bx4bx/thanks_obama/', [
  'store' => true
]);

if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo 'storage url: ' . $response->headers->storage_url . PHP_EOL;
}

POST requests

Pass the url that you want to scrape, the data that you want to send which can be either a json or a string, plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

$api->post(string $url, array or string $data, array options = []);

Example:

$response = $api->post('https://producthunt.com/search', ['text' => 'example search']);
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

You can send the data as application/json instead of x-www-form-urlencoded by setting option post_content_type as json.

$response = $api->post('https://httpbin.org/post', json_encode(['some_json' => 'with some value']), ['post_content_type' => 'json']);
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

PUT requests

Pass the url that you want to scrape, the data that you want to send which can be either a json or a string, plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

$api->put(string $url, array or string $data, array options = []);

Example:

$response = $api->put('https://producthunt.com/search', ['text' => 'example search']);
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

Javascript requests

If you need to scrape any website built with Javascript like React, Angular, Vue, etc. You just need to pass your javascript token and use the same calls. Note that only ->get is available for javascript and not ->post.

$api = new Crawlbase\CrawlingAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_JAVASCRIPT_TOKEN']);

$response = $api->get('https://www.nfl.com');
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

Same way you can pass javascript additional options.

$response = $api->get('https://www.freelancer.com', ['page_wait' => 5000]);
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo $response->body;
}

Original status

You can always get the original status and crawlbase status from the response. Read the Crawlbase documentation to learn more about those status.

$response = $api->get('https://craiglist.com');
echo $response->headers->original_status . PHP_EOL;
echo $response->headers->pc_status . PHP_EOL;

Scraper API

First initialize the ScraperAPI class. You can get your free token here. Please note that only some websites are supported, check the API documentation for more information.

$api = new Crawlbase\ScraperAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);

Pass the url that you want to scrape plus any options from the ones available in the API documentation.

Example:

$response = $api->get('https://www.amazon.com/DualSense-Wireless-Controller-PlayStation-5/dp/B08FC6C75Y/');
echo 'status code: ' . $response->statusCode . PHP_EOL;
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  var_dump($response->json); // Will print scraped Amazon details
}

Leads API

First initialize the LeadsAPI class. You can get your free token here.

$api = new Crawlbase\LeadsAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);

Pass the domain where you want to search for leads.

Example:

$response = $api->getFromDomain('target.com');
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  foreach ($response->json->leads as $key => $lead) {
    echo $lead->email . PHP_EOL;
  }
}

Screenshots API usage

Initialize with your Screenshots API token and call the get method.

$api = new Crawlbase\ScreenshotsAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);
$response = $api->get('https://www.apple.com');
echo 'success: ' . $response->headers->success . PHP_EOL;
echo 'remaining requests: ' . $response->headers->remaining_requests . PHP_EOL;
file_put_contents('apple.jpg', $response->body);

or you can specify a callback that automatically saves the file to the temporary folder

$api = new Crawlbase\ScreenshotsAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);
$response = $api->get('https://www.apple.com', [
  'callback' => function($filepath) {
    echo 'filepath: ' . $filepath . PHP_EOL;
  }
]);
echo 'success: ' . $response->headers->success . PHP_EOL;
echo 'remaining requests: ' . $response->headers->remaining_requests . PHP_EOL;

or specifying a file path via saveToPath option

$api = new Crawlbase\ScreenshotsAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);
$response = $api->get('https://www.apple.com', [
  'saveToPath' => 'apple.jpg',
  'callback' => function($filepath) {
    echo 'filepath: ' . $filepath . PHP_EOL;
  }
]);
echo 'success: ' . $response->headers->success . PHP_EOL;
echo 'remaining requests: ' . $response->headers->remaining_requests . PHP_EOL;

Note that $api.get(url, options) method accepts an options

Storage API usage

Initialize the Storage API using your private token.

$api = new Crawlbase\StorageAPI(['token' => 'YOUR_TOKEN']);

Pass the url that you want to get from Crawlbase Storage.

$response = $api->get('https://www.apple.com');

echo 'status code: ' . $response->statusCode . PHP_EOL;
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo 'body: ' . $response->body . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'original status: ' . $response->headers->original_status . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'crawlbase status: ' . $response->headers->pc_status . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'rid: ' . $response->headers->rid . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'url: ' . $response->headers->url . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'stored date: ' . $response->headers->stored_at . PHP_EOL;
}

or you can use the RID

$response = $api->get('RID_REPLACE');

echo 'status code: ' . $response->statusCode . PHP_EOL;
if ($response->statusCode === 200) {
  echo 'body: ' . $response->body . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'original status: ' . $response->headers->original_status . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'crawlbase status: ' . $response->headers->pc_status . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'rid: ' . $response->headers->rid . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'url: ' . $response->headers->url . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'stored date: ' . $response->headers->stored_at . PHP_EOL;
}

Note: One of the two RID or URL must be sent. So both are optional but it's mandatory to send one of the two.

Delete request

To delete a storage item from your storage area, use the correct RID

if ($api->delete('RID_REPLACE')) {
  echo 'delete success' . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'status code: ' . $api->response->statusCode . PHP_EOL;
} else {
  echo 'delete failed' . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'status code: ' . $api->response->statusCode . PHP_EOL;
}

Bulk request

To do a bulk request with a list of RIDs, please send the list of rids as an array

$items = $api->bulk(['RID1', 'RID2', 'RID3', ...]);
foreach ($items as $item) {
  echo 'body: ' . $item->body . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'stored at: ' . $item->stored_at . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'original status: ' . $item->original_status . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'crawlbase status: ' . $item->pc_status . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'rid: ' . $item->rid . PHP_EOL;
  echo 'url: ' . $item->url . PHP_EOL;
  echo PHP_EOL;
}

RIDs request

To request a bulk list of RIDs from your storage area

$rids = $api->rids();
foreach ($rids as $rid) {
  echo $rid . PHP_EOL;
}

You can also specify a limit as a parameter

$rids = $api->rids(10);

Total Count

To get the total number of documents in your storage area

$totalCount = $api->totalCount();
echo 'total count: ' . $totalCount . PHP_EOL;

If you have questions or need help using the library, please open an issue or contact us.

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