Web Scraping with PHP – How to Crawl

Web Pages Using Open Source Tools

Note: before you scrape a website, you should carefully read
their Terms of Service to make sure they are OK with being
scraped. Scraping data – even if it's publicly accessible – can
potentially overload a website's servers. (Who knows – if you

😉
ask politely, they may even give you an API key so you don't
have to scrape. )
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To create an advanced web scraping project using PHP, you can combine several tools.
Here are some top tools and their workflow:

1. cURL (PHP cURL extension):

cURL is a PHP extension for transferring data using various protocols, such as HTTP,
HTTPS, FTP, and others. It allows you to send requests and receive responses from
websites.

Workflow:

● Set up the cURL session with the target URL.

● Configure cURL options, such as headers, cookies, or authentication.
● Execute the cURL request.
● Retrieve the response data.

2. PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser (simple_html_dom.php):

Simple HTML DOM Parser is a PHP library for parsing HTML documents and extracting
data. It provides a simple and intuitive interface for navigating and manipulating HTML
elements.

Workflow:

● Load the HTML content from the cURL response.

● Use the library's methods to search, filter, and extract data from the HTML
content.

3. PHP DOMDocument:

PHP DOMDocument is a native PHP library for working with XML and HTML
documents. It provides methods for parsing, manipulating, and saving HTML or XML
data.

Workflow:

● Load the HTML content from the cURL response.

● Use the DOMDocument methods to search, filter, and extract data from the
HTML content.

4. PHP xPath:

PHP xPath is a language for querying XML documents based on their structure. It can
be used with DOMDocument to extract data from HTML documents.

Workflow:

● Load the HTML content using DOMDocument.

● Use the DOMDocument methods to create an xPath object.
● Write xPath expressions to search, filter, and extract data from the HTML
content.
5. Guzzle (PHP HTTP client):

Guzzle is a PHP HTTP client library that simplifies making HTTP requests and handling
responses. It provides a more user-friendly interface than cURL.

Workflow:

● Set up the Guzzle client.

● Configure the request options, such as headers, cookies, or authentication.
● Send the request and receive the response.
● Extract the HTML content from the response.

6. PHP Snoopy:

PHP Snoopy is a PHP library for simulating web browsers and interacting with websites.
It can handle JavaScript, cookies, and other web technologies.

Workflow:

● Set up the Snoopy object.

● Navigate to the target URL.
● Interact with the website, such as filling out forms or clicking buttons.
● Extract the HTML content from the Snoopy object.

7. PHP PhantomJS:

PHP PhantomJS is a PHP library for interacting with PhantomJS, a headless web
browser. It can handle JavaScript and other web technologies.

Workflow:

● Set up the PhantomJS object.

● Navigate to the target URL.
 ● Interact with the website, such as filling out forms or clicking buttons.
● Extract the HTML content from the PhantomJS object.

To create an advanced web scraping project using PHP, you can combine these tools
based on your requirements. For example, you can use cURL or Guzzle to send
requests, PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser or PHP DOMDocument to parse and extract
data, and PHP xPath to write complex queries.

Here's a sample setup for a web scraping project using cURL and PHP Simple HTML
DOM Parser:

1. Download and include the Simple HTML DOM Parser library in your project.
2. Set up the cURL session and configure the request options.
3. Execute the cURL request and retrieve the response data.
4. Use the Simple HTML DOM Parser library to load the HTML content.
5. Search, filter, and extract data from the HTML content using the library's
methods.
6. Save the extracted data to a file or database.

Setting Up Development
Setup for a Web Scraping
Project Using PHP

To create a web scraping project using PHP, you can use a

combination of the latest and proficient tools like Goutte, cURL,
Simple HTML DOM Parser, Symfony DomCrawler, and PHP
PhantomJS. Here's a step-by-step guide to setting up the
development environment:

1. Install Composer

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. It allows you to

install and manage the required libraries for your project.

Download and install Composer from the official website:

https://getcomposer.org/

2. Create a New Project Directory

Create a new directory for your web scraping project:

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1mkdir php-web-scraper

2cd php-web-scraper

3. Initialize Composer

Initialize a new Composer project in the project directory:

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1composer init

4. Install Goutte

Goutte is a PHP web scraping library that provides a simple and

intuitive interface for navigating and extracting data from
websites.

Install Goutte using Composer:

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1composer require fabpot/goutte

5. Install cURL Extension

cURL is a PHP extension for transferring data using various

protocols. It allows you to send requests and receive responses
from websites.
Ensure that the cURL extension is installed and enabled in your
PHP configuration.

6. Install Simple HTML DOM Parser

Simple HTML DOM Parser is a PHP library for parsing HTML

documents and extracting data.

Download the Simple HTML DOM Parser library from the official
website: https://simplehtmldom.sourceforge.io/

Extract the library to the vendor directory of your project:

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1wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/simplehtmldom/files/simple_html_dom.zip

2unzip simple_html_dom.zip -d vendor/

7. Install Symfony DomCrawler

Symfony DomCrawler is a PHP library for navigating and

manipulating HTML documents.
Install Symfony DomCrawler using Composer:

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1composer require symfony/dom-crawler

8. Install PHP PhantomJS

PHP PhantomJS is a PHP library for interacting with

PhantomJS, a headless web browser.

Install PHP PhantomJS using Composer:

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1composer require jonnnnyw/php-phantomjs

9. Set Up the Project Structure

Create a project structure with the following directories:

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1- src/
2 - Scraper/
3 - Scraper.php
4- tests/

5 - ScraperTest.php

10. Write the Scraper Code

Write the scraper code in the Scraper.php file using the installed
libraries.

Here's an example of a simple scraper using Goutte:

php

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1<?php
2
3namespace Scraper;
4
5use Goutte\Client;
6
7class Scraper
8{
9 private $client;
10
11 public function __construct()
12 {
13 $this->client = new Client();
14 }
15
16 public function scrape($url)
17 {
18 $crawler = $this->client->request('GET', $url);
19
20 // Extract data from the HTML content
21 // ...
22
23 return $data;
24 }

25}

11. Write Test Cases

Write test cases for the scraper code in the ScraperTest.php file
using a testing framework like PHPUnit.

12. Run the Scraper

Run the scraper using the command line or a web interface.

13. Store the Scraped Data

Store the scraped data in a database or a file for further

processing.
That's it! You now have a development setup for a web scraping
project using PHP, Goutte, cURL, Simple HTML DOM Parser,
Symfony DomCrawler, and PHP PhantomJS. You can
customize the setup based on your requirements and add or
skip any options to make it perfect for your project.

People Also Ask

How do I confirm if cURL is enabled in my PHP configuration?
What alternative libraries can I use instead of Simple HTML DOM Parser...
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Firstly, you can use the Goutte library, which is a PHP web scraping library built on top
of the Symfony BrowserKit and DomCrawler components. It provides a simple way to
navigate and interact with web pages, and it can be used to extract data from HTML
and XML documents.

Here's an example of how to use Goutte to scrape data from a web page:

1<?php
2require 'vendor/autoload.php';
3use Goutte\Client;
4
5$client = new Client();
6$website = $client->request('GET', 'https://www.example.com');
7$companies = $website->filter('.company')->each(function ($node) {
8 return $node->text();
9});
10
11foreach ($companies as $company) {
12 echo $company . "\n";

13}

You can install Goutte using Composer by running the following command:
composer require fabpot/goutte

Another library you can use is the Symfony DomCrawler component, which provides a
high-level API to navigate and search through HTML and XML documents. It can be
used to extract data from web pages and interact with forms.

Here's an example of how to use DomCrawler to scrape data from a web page:

1<?php
2require 'vendor/autoload.php';
3use Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler;
4
5$html = <<<HTML
6<div class="company">
7 <h2>Company Name</h2>
8 <p>Address: 123 Main St.</p>
9</div>
10HTML;
11
12$crawler = new Crawler($html);
13$companies = $crawler->filter('.company')->each(function ($node) {
14 return $node->filter('h2')->text();
15});
16
17foreach ($companies as $company) {
18 echo $company . "\n";

19}

You can install DomCrawler using Composer by running the following command:

composer require symfony/dom-crawler

You can also use the PHP PhantomJS library, which is a headless webkit scriptable with
a JavaScript API. It can be used to scrape data from web pages that require JavaScript
rendering.

Here's an example of how to use PHP PhantomJS to scrape data from a web page:
1<?php
2require 'vendor/autoload.php';
3use JonnyW\PhantomJs\Client;
4
5$client = Client::getInstance();
6$request = $client->getMessageFactory()->createRequest('https://www.example.com',
'GET');
7$response = $client->getMessageFactory()->createResponse();
8
9$client->send($request, $response);
10
11$html = $response->getContent();
12$crawler = new Crawler($html);
13$companies = $crawler->filter('.company')->each(function ($node) {
14 return $node->text();
15});
16
17foreach ($companies as $company) {
18 echo $company . "\n";

19}

You can install PHP PhantomJS using Composer by running the following command:

composer require jonnyw/php-phantomjs

Finally, you can use the cURL library, which is a PHP library for transferring data using
URL syntax. It can be used to scrape data from web pages using HTTP requests.

Here's an example of how to use cURL to scrape data from a web page:

1<?php
2$ch = curl_init();
3curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://www.example.com');
4curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
5$html = curl_exec($ch);
6curl_close($ch);
7
8$crawler = new Crawler($html);
9$companies = $crawler->filter('.company')->each(function ($node) {
10 return $node->text();
11});
12
13foreach ($companies as $company) {

14 echo $