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SEP-014 - CrawlSpider v2

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======= ==================================================================== SEP 14 Title CrawlSpider v2 Author Insophia Team Created 2010-01-22 Updated 2010-02-04 Status Final. Partially implemented but discarded because of lack of use in r2632 ======= ====================================================================

======================== SEP-014 - CrawlSpider v2

This SEP proposes a rewrite of Scrapy CrawlSpider and related components

Current flaws and inconsistencies

  1. Request's callbacks are hard to persist.
  2. Link extractors are inflexible and hard to maintain, link processing/filtering is tightly coupled. (e.g. canonicalize)
  3. Isn't possible to crawl an url directly from command line because the Spider does not know which callback use.

These flaws will be corrected by the changes proposed in this SEP.

Proposed API Changes

  • Separate the functionality of Rule-LinkExtractor-Callback
  • Separate the functionality of LinkExtractor to Request Extractor and Request Processor
  • Separate the process of determining response callback and the extraction of new requests (link extractors)
  • The callback will be determine by Matcher Objects on request/response objects

Matcher Objects

Matcher Objects (aka Matcher) are responsible for determining if given request or response matches an arbitrary criteria. The Matcher receives as argument the request or the response, giving a powerful access to all request/response attributes.

In the current CrawlSpider, the Rule Object has the responsibility to determine the callback of given extractor, and the link extractor contains the url pattern (aka regex). Now the Matcher will contain only the pattern or criteria to determine which request/response will execute any action. See below Spider Rules.

Request Extractors

Request Extractors takes response object and determines which requests follow.

This is an enhancement to LinkExtractors which returns urls (links), Request Extractors return Request objects.

Request Processors

Request Processors takes requests objects and can perform any action to them, like filtering or modifying on the fly.

The current LinkExtractor had integrated link processing, like canonicalize. Request Processors can be reutilized and applied in series.

Request Generator

Request Generator is the decoupling of the CrawlSpider's method _request_to_follow(). Request Generator takes the response object and applies the Request Extractors and Request Processors.

Rules Manager

The Rules are a definition of Rule objects containing Matcher Objects and callback.

The Legacy Rules were used to perform the link extraction and attach the callback to the generated Request object. The proposed new Rules will be used to determine the callback for given response. This opens a whole of opportunities, like determine the callback for given url, and persist the queue of Request objects because the callback is determined the matching the Response object against the Rules.

Usage Examples

Basic Crawling

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Basic Crawling

class SampleSpider(CrawlSpider): rules = [ # The dispatcher uses first-match policy Rule(UrlRegexMatch(r"product.html?id=\d+"), "parse_item", follow=False), # by default, if the first param is string is wrapped into UrlRegexMatch Rule(r".+", "parse_page"), ]

   request_extractors = [
       # crawl all links looking for products and images
       SgmlRequestExtractor(),
   ]

   request_processors = [
       # canonicalize all requests' urls
       Canonicalize(),
   ]

   def parse_item(self, response):
       # parse and extract items from response
       pass

   def parse_page(self, response):
       # extract images on all pages
       pass

Custom Processor and External Callback

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Using external callbacks

Custom Processor

def filter_today_links(requests): # only crawl today links today = datetime.datetime.today().strftime("%Y-%m-%d") return [r for r in requests if today in r.url]

Callback defined out of spider

def my_external_callback(response): # process item pass

class SampleSpider(CrawlSpider): rules = [ # The dispatcher uses first-match policy Rule(UrlRegexMatch(r"/news/(.+)/"), my_external_callback), ]

   request_extractors = [
       RegexRequestExtractor(r"/sections/.+"),
       RegexRequestExtractor(r"/news/.+"),
   ]

   request_processors = [
       # canonicalize all requests' urls
       Canonicalize(),
       filter_today_links,
   ]

Implementation

Work-in-progress

Package Structure

::

contrib_exp |- crawlspider/ |- spider.py |- CrawlSpider |- rules.py |- Rule |- CompiledRule |- RulesManager |- reqgen.py |- RequestGenerator |- reqproc.py |- Canonicalize |- Unique |- ... |- reqext.py |- SgmlRequestExtractor |- RegexRequestExtractor |- ... |- matchers.py |- BaseMatcher |- UrlMatcher |- UrlRegexMatcher |- ...

Request/Response Matchers

.. code-block:: python

#!python """ Request/Response Matchers

Perform evaluation to Request or Response attributes """

class BaseMatcher(object): """Base matcher. Returns True by default."""

   def matches_request(self, request):
       """Performs Request Matching"""
       return True

   def matches_response(self, response):
       """Performs Response Matching"""
       return True

class UrlMatcher(BaseMatcher): """Matches URL attribute"""

   def __init__(self, url):
       """Initialize url attribute"""
       self._url = url

   def matches_url(self, url):
       """Returns True if given url is equal to matcher's url"""
       return self._url == url

   def matches_request(self, request):
       """Returns True if Request's url matches initial url"""
       return self.matches_url(request.url)

   def matches_response(self, response):
       """REturns True if Response's url matches initial url"""
       return self.matches_url(response.url)

class UrlRegexMatcher(UrlMatcher): """Matches URL using regular expression"""

   def __init__(self, regex, flags=0):
       """Initialize regular expression"""
       self._regex = re.compile(regex, flags)

   def matches_url(self, url):
       """Returns True if url matches regular expression"""
       return self._regex.search(url) is not None

Request Extractor

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Requests Extractor

Extractors receive response and return list of Requests

class BaseSgmlRequestExtractor(FixedSGMLParser): """Base SGML Request Extractor"""

   def __init__(self, tag="a", attr="href"):
       """Initialize attributes"""
       FixedSGMLParser.__init__(self)

       self.scan_tag = tag if callable(tag) else lambda t: t = tag
       self.scan_attr = attr if callable(attr) else lambda a: a = attr
       self.current_request = None

   def extract_requests(self, response):
       """Returns list of requests extracted from response"""
       return self._extract_requests(response.body, response.url, response.encoding)

   def _extract_requests(self, response_text, response_url, response_encoding):
       """Extract requests with absolute urls"""
       self.reset()
       self.feed(response_text)
       self.close()

       base_url = self.base_url if self.base_url else response_url
       self._make_absolute_urls(base_url, response_encoding)
       self._fix_link_text_encoding(response_encoding)

       return self.requests

   def _make_absolute_urls(self, base_url, encoding):
       """Makes all request's urls absolute"""
       for req in self.requests:
           url = req.url
           # make absolute url
           url = urljoin_rfc(base_url, url, encoding)
           url = safe_url_string(url, encoding)
           # replace in-place request's url
           req.url = url

   def _fix_link_text_encoding(self, encoding):
       """Convert link_text to unicode for each request"""
       for req in self.requests:
           req.meta.setdefault("link_text", "")
           req.meta["link_text"] = str_to_unicode(req.meta["link_text"], encoding)

   def reset(self):
       """Reset state"""
       FixedSGMLParser.reset(self)
       self.requests = []
       self.base_url = None

   def unknown_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
       """Process unknown start tag"""
       if "base" == tag:
           self.base_url = dict(attrs).get("href")

       if self.scan_tag(tag):
           for attr, value in attrs:
               if self.scan_attr(attr):
                   if value is not None:
                       req = Request(url=value)
                       self.requests.append(req)
                       self.current_request = req

   def unknown_endtag(self, tag):
       """Process unknown end tag"""
       self.current_request = None

   def handle_data(self, data):
       """Process data"""
       current = self.current_request
       if current and not "link_text" in current.meta:
           current.meta["link_text"] = data.strip()

class SgmlRequestExtractor(BaseSgmlRequestExtractor): """SGML Request Extractor"""

   def __init__(self, tags=None, attrs=None):
       """Initialize with custom tag & attribute function checkers"""
       # defaults
       tags = tuple(tags) if tags else ("a", "area")
       attrs = tuple(attrs) if attrs else ("href",)

       tag_func = lambda x: x in tags
       attr_func = lambda x: x in attrs
       BaseSgmlRequestExtractor.__init__(self, tag=tag_func, attr=attr_func)

class XPathRequestExtractor(SgmlRequestExtractor): """SGML Request Extractor with XPath restriction"""

   def __init__(self, restrict_xpaths, tags=None, attrs=None):
       """Initialize XPath restrictions"""
       self.restrict_xpaths = tuple(arg_to_iter(restrict_xpaths))
       SgmlRequestExtractor.__init__(self, tags, attrs)

   def extract_requests(self, response):
       """Restrict to XPath regions"""
       hxs = HtmlXPathSelector(response)
       fragments = (
           "".join(html_frag for html_frag in hxs.select(xpath).extract())
           for xpath in self.restrict_xpaths
       )
       html_slice = "".join(html_frag for html_frag in fragments)
       return self._extract_requests(html_slice, response.url, response.encoding)

Request Processor

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Request Processors

Processors receive list of requests and return list of requests

"""Request Processors"""

class Canonicalize(object): """Canonicalize Request Processor"""

   def __call__(self, requests):
       """Canonicalize all requests' urls"""
       for req in requests:
           # replace in-place
           req.url = canonicalize_url(req.url)
           yield req

class Unique(object): """Filter duplicate Requests"""

   def __init__(self, *attributes):
       """Initialize comparison attributes"""
       self._attributes = attributes or ["url"]

   def _requests_equal(self, req1, req2):
       """Attribute comparison helper"""
       for attr in self._attributes:
           if getattr(req1, attr) != getattr(req2, attr):
               return False
       # all attributes equal
       return True

   def _request_in(self, request, requests_seen):
       """Check if request is in given requests seen list"""
       for seen in requests_seen:
           if self._requests_equal(request, seen):
               return True
       # request not seen
       return False

   def __call__(self, requests):
       """Filter seen requests"""
       # per-call duplicates filter
       requests_seen = set()
       for req in requests:
           if not self._request_in(req, requests_seen):
               yield req
               # registry seen request
               requests_seen.add(req)

class FilterDomain(object): """Filter request's domain"""

   def __init__(self, allow=(), deny=()):
       """Initialize allow/deny attributes"""
       self.allow = tuple(arg_to_iter(allow))
       self.deny = tuple(arg_to_iter(deny))

   def __call__(self, requests):
       """Filter domains"""
       processed = (req for req in requests)

       if self.allow:
           processed = (
               req for req in requests if url_is_from_any_domain(req.url, self.allow)
           )
       if self.deny:
           processed = (
               req
               for req in requests
               if not url_is_from_any_domain(req.url, self.deny)
           )

       return processed

class FilterUrl(object): """Filter request's url"""

   def __init__(self, allow=(), deny=()):
       """Initialize allow/deny attributes"""
       _re_type = type(re.compile("", 0))

       self.allow_res = [
           x if isinstance(x, _re_type) else re.compile(x) for x in arg_to_iter(allow)
       ]
       self.deny_res = [
           x if isinstance(x, _re_type) else re.compile(x) for x in arg_to_iter(deny)
       ]

   def __call__(self, requests):
       """Filter request's url based on allow/deny rules"""
       # TODO: filter valid urls here?
       processed = (req for req in requests)

       if self.allow_res:
           processed = (
               req for req in requests if self._matches(req.url, self.allow_res)
           )
       if self.deny_res:
           processed = (
               req for req in requests if not self._matches(req.url, self.deny_res)
           )

       return processed

   def _matches(self, url, regexs):
       """Returns True if url matches any regex in given list"""
       return any(r.search(url) for r in regexs)

Rule Object

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Dispatch Rules classes

Manage Rules (Matchers + Callbacks)

class Rule(object): """Crawler Rule"""

   def __init__(
       self, matcher, callback=None, cb_args=None, cb_kwargs=None, follow=True
   ):
       """Store attributes"""
       self.matcher = matcher
       self.callback = callback
       self.cb_args = cb_args if cb_args else ()
       self.cb_kwargs = cb_kwargs if cb_kwargs else {}
       self.follow = follow

Rules Manager takes list of Rule objects and normalize matcher and callback

into CompiledRule

class CompiledRule(object): """Compiled version of Rule"""

   def __init__(self, matcher, callback=None, follow=False):
       """Initialize attributes checking type"""
       assert isinstance(matcher, BaseMatcher)
       assert callback is None or callable(callback)
       assert isinstance(follow, bool)

       self.matcher = matcher
       self.callback = callback
       self.follow = follow

Rules Manager

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Handles rules matcher/callbacks

Resolve rule for given response

class RulesManager(object): """Rules Manager"""

   def __init__(self, rules, spider, default_matcher=UrlRegexMatcher):
       """Initialize rules using spider and default matcher"""
       self._rules = tuple()

       # compile absolute/relative-to-spider callbacks"""
       for rule in rules:
           # prepare matcher
           if isinstance(rule.matcher, BaseMatcher):
               matcher = rule.matcher
           else:
               # matcher not BaseMatcher, check for string
               if isinstance(rule.matcher, basestring):
                   # instance default matcher
                   matcher = default_matcher(rule.matcher)
               else:
                   raise ValueError(
                       "Not valid matcher given %r in %r" % (rule.matcher, rule)
                   )

           # prepare callback
           if callable(rule.callback):
               callback = rule.callback
           elif not rule.callback is None:
               # callback from spider
               callback = getattr(spider, rule.callback)

               if not callable(callback):
                   raise AttributeError(
                       "Invalid callback %r can not be resolved" % callback
                   )
           else:
               callback = None

           if rule.cb_args or rule.cb_kwargs:
               # build partial callback
               callback = partial(callback, *rule.cb_args, **rule.cb_kwargs)

           # append compiled rule to rules list
           crule = CompiledRule(matcher, callback, follow=rule.follow)
           self._rules += (crule,)

   def get_rule(self, response):
       """Returns first rule that matches response"""
       for rule in self._rules:
           if rule.matcher.matches_response(response):
               return rule

Request Generator

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Request Generator

Takes response and generate requests using extractors and processors

class RequestGenerator(object): def init(self, req_extractors, req_processors, callback): self._request_extractors = req_extractors self._request_processors = req_processors self.callback = callback

   def generate_requests(self, response):
       """
       Extract and process new requests from response
       """
       requests = []
       for ext in self._request_extractors:
           requests.extend(ext.extract_requests(response))

       for proc in self._request_processors:
           requests = proc(requests)

       for request in requests:
           yield request.replace(callback=self.callback)

CrawlSpider

.. code-block:: python

#!python

Spider

class CrawlSpider(InitSpider): """CrawlSpider v2"""

   request_extractors = []
   request_processors = []
   rules = []

   def __init__(self):
       """Initialize dispatcher"""
       super(CrawlSpider, self).__init__()

       # wrap rules
       self._rulesman = RulesManager(self.rules, spider=self)
       # generates new requests with given callback
       self._reqgen = RequestGenerator(
           self.request_extractors, self.request_processors, self.parse
       )

   def parse(self, response):
       """Dispatch callback and generate requests"""
       # get rule for response
       rule = self._rulesman.get_rule(response)
       if rule:
           # dispatch callback if set
           if rule.callback:
               output = iterate_spider_output(rule.callback(response))
               for req_or_item in output:
                   yield req_or_item

           if rule.follow:
               for req in self._reqgen.generate_requests(response):
                   yield req