PlaywrightCrawler

A web crawler that leverages the Playwright browser automation library.

The PlaywrightCrawler builds on top of the BasicCrawler, which means it inherits all of its features. On top of that it provides a high level web crawling interface on top of the Playwright library. To be more specific, it uses the Crawlee's BrowserPool to manage the Playwright's browser instances and the pages they open. You can create your own BrowserPool instance and pass it to the PlaywrightCrawler constructor, or let the crawler create a new instance with the default settings.

This crawler is ideal for crawling websites that require JavaScript execution, as it uses real browsers to download web pages and extract data. For websites that do not require JavaScript, consider using one of the HTTP client-based crawlers, such as the HttpCrawler, ParselCrawler, or BeautifulSoupCrawler. They use raw HTTP requests, which means they are much faster.

Usage

from crawlee.playwright_crawler import PlaywrightCrawler, PlaywrightCrawlingContext

crawler = PlaywrightCrawler()

# Define the default request handler, which will be called for every request.
@crawler.router.default_handler
async def request_handler(context: PlaywrightCrawlingContext) -> None:
    context.log.info(f'Processing {context.request.url} ...')

    # Extract data from the page.
    data = {
        'url': context.request.url,
        'title': await context.page.title(),
        'response': (await context.response.text())[:100],
    }

    # Push the extracted data to the default dataset.
    await context.push_data(data)

await crawler.run(['https://crawlee.dev/'])

Hierarchy

BasicCrawler
- PlaywrightCrawler

Index

Properties

log
router
statistics

Methods

init

__init__(*, browser_pool, browser_type, browser_launch_options, browser_new_context_options, headless, kwargs): None

A default constructor.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_pool: BrowserPool | None = None
  A BrowserPool instance to be used for launching the browsers and getting pages.
- optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_type: BrowserType | None = None
  The type of browser to launch ('chromium', 'firefox', or 'webkit'). This option should not be used if browser_pool is provided.
- optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_launch_options: Mapping[str, Any] | None = None
  Keyword arguments to pass to the browser launch method. These options are provided directly to Playwright's browser_type.launch method. For more details, refer to the Playwright
- optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_new_context_options: Mapping[str, Any] | None = None
  Keyword arguments to pass to the browser new context method. These options are provided directly to Playwright's browser.new_context method. For more details, refer to the Playwright documentation: https://playwright.dev/python/docs/api/class-browser#browser-new-context. This option should not be used if browser_pool is provided.
- optionalkeyword-onlyheadless: bool | None = None
  Whether to run the browser in headless mode. This option should not be used if browser_pool is provided.
- keyword-onlyconfiguration: Configuration
  The configuration object. Some of its properties are used as defaults for the crawler.
- keyword-onlyevent_manager: EventManager
  The event manager for managing events for the crawler and all its components.
- keyword-onlystorage_client: BaseStorageClient
  The storage client for managing storages for the crawler and all its components.
- keyword-onlyrequest_manager: RequestManager
  Manager of requests that should be processed by the crawler.
- keyword-onlysession_pool: SessionPool
  A custom SessionPool instance, allowing the use of non-default configuration.
- keyword-onlyproxy_configuration: ProxyConfiguration
  HTTP proxy configuration used when making requests.
- keyword-onlyhttp_client: BaseHttpClient
  HTTP client used by BasicCrawlingContext.send_request method.
- keyword-onlyrequest_handler: Callable[[TCrawlingContext], Awaitable[None]]
  A callable responsible for handling requests.
- keyword-onlymax_request_retries: int
  Maximum number of attempts to process a single request.
- keyword-onlymax_requests_per_crawl: int | None
  Maximum number of pages to open during a crawl. The crawl stops upon reaching this limit. Setting this value can help avoid infinite loops in misconfigured crawlers. None means no limit. Due to concurrency settings, the actual number of pages visited may slightly exceed this value.
- keyword-onlymax_session_rotations: int
  Maximum number of session rotations per request. The crawler rotates the session if a proxy error occurs or if the website blocks the request.
- keyword-onlymax_crawl_depth: int | None
  Specifies the maximum crawl depth. If set, the crawler will stop processing links beyond this depth. The crawl depth starts at 0 for initial requests and increases with each subsequent level of links. Requests at the maximum depth will still be processed, but no new links will be enqueued from those requests. If not set, crawling continues without depth restrictions.
- keyword-onlyuse_session_pool: bool
  Enable the use of a session pool for managing sessions during crawling.
- keyword-onlyretry_on_blocked: bool
  If True, the crawler attempts to bypass bot protections automatically.
- keyword-onlyconcurrency_settings: ConcurrencySettings
  Settings to fine-tune concurrency levels.
- keyword-onlyrequest_handler_timeout: timedelta
  Maximum duration allowed for a single request handler to run.
- keyword-onlystatistics: Statistics[StatisticsState]
  A custom Statistics instance, allowing the use of non-default configuration.
- keyword-onlyabort_on_error: bool
  If True, the crawler stops immediately when any request handler error occurs.
- keyword-onlyconfigure_logging: bool
  If True, the crawler will set up logging infrastructure automatically.
Returns None

add_requests

async add_requests(*, requests, batch_size, wait_time_between_batches, wait_for_all_requests_to_be_added, wait_for_all_requests_to_be_added_timeout): None

Add requests to the underlying request provider in batches.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyrequests: Sequence[str | Request]
  A list of requests to add to the queue.
- optionalkeyword-onlybatch_size: int = 1000
  The number of requests to add in one batch.
- optionalkeyword-onlywait_time_between_batches: timedelta = timedelta(0)
  Time to wait between adding batches.
- optionalkeyword-onlywait_for_all_requests_to_be_added: bool = False
  If True, wait for all requests to be added before returning.
- optionalkeyword-onlywait_for_all_requests_to_be_added_timeout: timedelta | None = None
  Timeout for waiting for all requests to be added.
Returns None

error_handler

error_handler(*, handler): ErrorHandler[TCrawlingContext]

Decorator for configuring an error handler (called after a request handler error and before retrying).
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyhandler: ErrorHandler[TCrawlingContext | BasicCrawlingContext]
Returns ErrorHandler[TCrawlingContext]

export_data

async export_data(*, path, dataset_id, dataset_name): None

Export data from a dataset.

This helper method simplifies the process of exporting data from a dataset. It opens the specified dataset and then exports the data based on the provided parameters. If you need to pass options specific to the output format, use the export_data_csv or export_data_json method instead.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlypath: str | Path
  The destination path.
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None
  The ID of the dataset.
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None
  The name of the dataset.
Returns None

export_data_csv

async export_data_csv(*, path, dataset_id, dataset_name, dialect, delimiter, doublequote, escapechar, lineterminator, quotechar, quoting, skipinitialspace, strict): None

Export data from a dataset to a CSV file.

This helper method simplifies the process of exporting data from a dataset in csv format. It opens the specified dataset and then exports the data based on the provided parameters.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlypath: str | Path
  The destination path.
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None
  The ID of the dataset.
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None
  The name of the dataset.
- keyword-onlydialect: str
  Specifies a dialect to be used in CSV parsing and writing.
- keyword-onlydelimiter: str
  A one-character string used to separate fields. Defaults to ','.
- keyword-onlydoublequote: bool
  Controls how instances of quotechar inside a field should be quoted. When True, the character is doubled; when False, the escapechar is used as a prefix. Defaults to True.
- keyword-onlyescapechar: str
  A one-character string used to escape the delimiter if quoting is set to QUOTE_NONE and the quotechar if doublequote is False. Defaults to None, disabling escaping.
- keyword-onlylineterminator: str
  The string used to terminate lines produced by the writer. Defaults to '\r\n'.
- keyword-onlyquotechar: str
  A one-character string used to quote fields containing special characters, like the delimiter or quotechar, or fields containing new-line characters. Defaults to '"'.
- keyword-onlyquoting: int
  Controls when quotes should be generated by the writer and recognized by the reader. Can take any of the QUOTE_* constants, with a default of QUOTE_MINIMAL.
- keyword-onlyskipinitialspace: bool
  When True, spaces immediately following the delimiter are ignored. Defaults to False.
- keyword-onlystrict: bool
  When True, raises an exception on bad CSV input. Defaults to False.
Returns None

export_data_json

async export_data_json(*, path, dataset_id, dataset_name, skipkeys, ensure_ascii, check_circular, allow_nan, cls, indent, separators, default, sort_keys): None

Export data from a dataset to a JSON file.

This helper method simplifies the process of exporting data from a dataset in json format. It opens the specified dataset and then exports the data based on the provided parameters.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlypath: str | Path
  The destination path
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None
  The ID of the dataset.
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None
  The name of the dataset.
- keyword-onlyskipkeys: bool
  If True (default: False), dict keys that are not of a basic type (str, int, float, bool, None) will be skipped instead of raising a TypeError.
- keyword-onlyensure_ascii: bool
  Determines if non-ASCII characters should be escaped in the output JSON string.
- keyword-onlycheck_circular: bool
  If False (default: True), skips the circular reference check for container types. A circular reference will result in a RecursionError or worse if unchecked.
- keyword-onlyallow_nan: bool
  If False (default: True), raises a ValueError for out-of-range float values (nan, inf, -inf) to strictly comply with the JSON specification. If True, uses their JavaScript equivalents (NaN, Infinity, -Infinity).
- keyword-onlycls: type[json.JSONEncoder]
  Allows specifying a custom JSON encoder.
- keyword-onlyindent: int
  Specifies the number of spaces for indentation in the pretty-printed JSON output.
- keyword-onlyseparators: tuple[str, str]
  A tuple of (item_separator, key_separator). The default is (', ', ': ') if indent is None and (',', ': ') otherwise.
- keyword-onlydefault: Callable
  A function called for objects that can't be serialized otherwise. It should return a JSON-encodable version of the object or raise a TypeError.
- keyword-onlysort_keys: bool
  Specifies whether the output JSON object should have keys sorted alphabetically.
Returns None

failed_request_handler

failed_request_handler(*, handler): FailedRequestHandler[TCrawlingContext]

Decorator for configuring a failed request handler (called after max retries are reached).
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyhandler: FailedRequestHandler[TCrawlingContext | BasicCrawlingContext]
Returns FailedRequestHandler[TCrawlingContext]

get_data

async get_data(*, dataset_id, dataset_name, offset, limit, clean, desc, fields, omit, unwind, skip_empty, skip_hidden, flatten, view): DatasetItemsListPage

Retrieve data from a dataset.

This helper method simplifies the process of retrieving data from a dataset. It opens the specified dataset and then retrieves the data based on the provided parameters.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None
  The ID of the dataset.
- optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None
  The name of the dataset.
- keyword-onlyoffset: int
  Skips the specified number of items at the start.
- keyword-onlylimit: int
  The maximum number of items to retrieve. Unlimited if None.
- keyword-onlyclean: bool
  Returns only non-empty items and excludes hidden fields. Shortcut for skip_hidden and skip_empty.
- keyword-onlydesc: bool
  Set to True to sort results in descending order.
- keyword-onlyfields: list[str]
  Fields to include in each item. Sorts fields as specified if provided.
- keyword-onlyomit: list[str]
  Fields to exclude from each item.
- keyword-onlyunwind: str
  Unwinds items by a specified array field, turning each element into a separate item.
- keyword-onlyskip_empty: bool
  Excludes empty items from the results if True.
- keyword-onlyskip_hidden: bool
  Excludes fields starting with '#' if True.
- keyword-onlyflatten: list[str]
  Fields to be flattened in returned items.
- keyword-onlyview: str
  Specifies the dataset view to be used.
Returns DatasetItemsListPage

get_dataset

async get_dataset(*, id, name): Dataset

Return the dataset with the given ID or name. If none is provided, return the default dataset.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyid: str | None = None
- optionalkeyword-onlyname: str | None = None
Returns Dataset

get_key_value_store

async get_key_value_store(*, id, name): KeyValueStore

Return the key-value store with the given ID or name. If none is provided, return the default KVS.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyid: str | None = None
- optionalkeyword-onlyname: str | None = None
Returns KeyValueStore

get_request_manager

async get_request_manager(): RequestManager

Return the configured request provider. If none is configured, open and return the default request queue.
Returns RequestManager

pre_navigation_hook

pre_navigation_hook(*, hook): None

Register a hook to be called before each navigation.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyhook: Callable[[PlaywrightPreNavCrawlingContext], Awaitable[None]]
  A coroutine function to be called before each navigation.
Returns None

run

async run(*, requests, purge_request_queue): FinalStatistics

Run the crawler until all requests are processed.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyrequests: Sequence[str | Request] | None = None
  The requests to be enqueued before the crawler starts.
- optionalkeyword-onlypurge_request_queue: bool = True
  If this is True and the crawler is not being run for the first time, the default request queue will be purged.
Returns FinalStatistics

stop

stop(*, reason): None

Set flag to stop crawler.

This stops current crawler run regardless of whether all requests were finished.
Parameters
- optionalkeyword-onlyreason: str = 'Stop was called externally.'
  Reason for stopping that will be used in logs.
Returns None

Properties

log

log: logging.Logger

The logger used by the crawler.

router

router: Router[TCrawlingContext]

The router used to handle each individual crawling request.

statistics

statistics: Statistics[StatisticsState]

Statistics about the current (or last) crawler run.

Usage

Hierarchy

Index

Methods

Properties

Methods

__init__

Parameters

optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_pool: BrowserPool | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_type: BrowserType | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_launch_options: Mapping[str, Any] | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlybrowser_new_context_options: Mapping[str, Any] | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlyheadless: bool | None = None

keyword-onlyconfiguration: Configuration

keyword-onlyevent_manager: EventManager

keyword-onlystorage_client: BaseStorageClient

keyword-onlyrequest_manager: RequestManager

keyword-onlysession_pool: SessionPool

keyword-onlyproxy_configuration: ProxyConfiguration

keyword-onlyhttp_client: BaseHttpClient

keyword-onlyrequest_handler: Callable[[TCrawlingContext], Awaitable[None]]

keyword-onlymax_request_retries: int

keyword-onlymax_requests_per_crawl: int | None

keyword-onlymax_session_rotations: int

keyword-onlymax_crawl_depth: int | None

keyword-onlyuse_session_pool: bool

keyword-onlyretry_on_blocked: bool

keyword-onlyconcurrency_settings: ConcurrencySettings

keyword-onlyrequest_handler_timeout: timedelta

keyword-onlystatistics: Statistics[StatisticsState]

keyword-onlyabort_on_error: bool

keyword-onlyconfigure_logging: bool

Returns None

add_requests

Parameters

optionalkeyword-onlyrequests: Sequence[str | Request]

optionalkeyword-onlybatch_size: int = 1000

optionalkeyword-onlywait_time_between_batches: timedelta = timedelta(0)

optionalkeyword-onlywait_for_all_requests_to_be_added: bool = False

optionalkeyword-onlywait_for_all_requests_to_be_added_timeout: timedelta | None = None

Returns None

error_handler

Parameters

optionalkeyword-onlyhandler: ErrorHandler[TCrawlingContext | BasicCrawlingContext]

Returns ErrorHandler[TCrawlingContext]

export_data

Parameters

optionalkeyword-onlypath: str | Path

optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None

Returns None

export_data_csv

Parameters

optionalkeyword-onlypath: str | Path

optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None

keyword-onlydialect: str

keyword-onlydelimiter: str

keyword-onlydoublequote: bool

keyword-onlyescapechar: str

keyword-onlylineterminator: str

keyword-onlyquotechar: str

keyword-onlyquoting: int

keyword-onlyskipinitialspace: bool

keyword-onlystrict: bool

Returns None

export_data_json

Parameters

optionalkeyword-onlypath: str | Path

optionalkeyword-onlydataset_id: str | None = None

optionalkeyword-onlydataset_name: str | None = None

keyword-onlyskipkeys: bool

keyword-onlyensure_ascii: bool

keyword-onlycheck_circular: bool

keyword-onlyallow_nan: bool

keyword-onlycls: type[json.JSONEncoder]

keyword-onlyindent: int

keyword-onlyseparators: tuple[str, str]

keyword-onlydefault: Callable

keyword-onlysort_keys: bool

init