We live in a data age where data is an important asset in our life and business as well. In the business area, data can be used to collect insights, analyze and make data-driven decisions to solve particular business problems or challenges.
Most of the data is collected from websites, apps, social media platforms, and other online platforms. You can use web scraping tools to collect data that you want from the web instead of copying and pasting data manually.
The more advanced way is to use software tools, such as Octoparse, which can help you collect data from any website without coding skills within an hour, not in days.
What is Octoparse?
Octoparse is a visual software tool for anyone who wants to extract different types of data from websites without coding skills. If you don't have coding skills, then Octoparse is the right software tool for you.
Octoparse has a lot of features that make it easier and faster for you to get data from the website(s) within a short period.
It has a cloud service feature that allows you to run scrapers and access data on the Octoparse Cloud Platform. This is a good service if you plan to collect a large amount of data from the web.
Who can use Octoparse?
Octoparse can be used by anyone who works on a project where you need to scrape data from the web. Don't worry about having programming skills, you don't have to come from a programming background to use the Octoparse software tool.
New Features in Octoparse 8.4
Octoparse 8.4 comes with new features that you don't want to miss. With the brand new version, it gets faster, easier, and more robust to scrape data from the web.
1. New layout
The workflow in Octoparse 8.4 is switched from the left to the right side. You can also choose the layout you want (horizontal or vertical).
The horizontal view will allow you to view the data row by row whereas, in the vertical view, you can view a specific line and view all data fields vertically. This view is very useful when you want to add a batch of data at the same time.
2. Integration
Zapier is now available in Octoparse 8.4, it allows you to integrate Octoparse with the most popular apps like Slack, Google Drive, and many more. With Zapier, you can automate your work and have more time for what matters most.
Note: you can learn more and try it here.
3. Backup local data to the Cloud
You can now backup the local data you have scrapped to the Octoparse cloud platform. You just need to install the new version of Octoparse 8.4 and start using the new feature.
Note: This feature is available for enterprise users only. It is open to users with professional plans as well.
How to download and Install Octoparse 8.4
Here are the three steps you need to follow to make sure you have Octoparse 8.4 in your machine.
(a) Download the installer
Go to website: https://www.octoparse.com/download and download Octoparse 8.4 or click this link here.
Note: If you are a Mac user, click here and follow the same instruction.
(b) Install Octoparse 8.4 on your machine.
Follow the installation instructions to install Octoparse 8.4. Make sure your machine has all requirements necessary to run octoparse 8.4.
(c) Log in with your account.
After completing installing octoparse 8.4, you can now log in with your account. Sign up here if you don't have an account yet.
Use Case: Step by Step on How to Scrap Smartphone Data
In this use case, you will learn how to scrap phone data from the website and save them into a CSV file.
Let's get started.
Step 1: Launch Octoparse
The first step is to launch Octoparse in your machine and then log in with your account.
Step 2: Enter URL
After login, you need to enter the following URL (https://www.tanzaniatech.one/bei/) in the main field and click the start button.
The octoparse will load the page and start detecting the data available on the web page.
Step 3: Specify Data to Extract
When detection is completed, you will see a tip panel that will show you the instruction to follow. Also, you will be able to see data on the preview section
We will collect the following details for each phone or laptop listed on the website.
- Name of the phone/laptop
- CPU Details
- RAM details
- Storage details
- Display details
- Camera details
- OS name
- URL of the phone
- Price of the phone
- Rating
Note: Octoparse has already automatically detected all the data attributes we want to collect. You can see the list on the preview panel.
Since the phone/laptop details are listed on more than one page, we need to specify the pagination loop to scrape data from the rest of the pages.
On the Tips panel, click the edit button as shown below.
Here we need to confirm the "Next" button on the page so that octoparse can click on the "Next" button automatically and scrap the data we have specified.
If you don't want to extract data from all pages available, you can also specify the number of pages you want to extract data by selecting them on the Tip panel.
Note: The "Next" button is detected automatically and highlighted on the web page.
Step 4: Run the Task
Our next step is to run the task we have specified. You need to click the "Create workflow" button on the Tip panel to save the settings and auto-generate the workflow.
Finally, you need to click "Run task now" to start running the task and scrape data from the web pages.
Note: You can choose where to run the task either on your device or on the Octoparse cloud (if you are a premium user).
Step 5: Export the Data
After scraping the data, click the "Export Data" button to save the data on your device.
You also have some options to choose the format to save your data.The available options are Excel, CSV,HTML,JSON or export to database.
Finally, you can write the name of your file and Octoparse will save the file on your device with the name and file format you have specified. For this example, we can choose to save the file in .xlsx format.
Here is the sample of data we have scraped from the website.
Now you can analyze and explore the data you have extracted the way you.
Conclusion
In this article, you have learned how to use Octoparse to scrape data from any website you want and save data on your device. Octoparse is a powerful data extraction tool and it is very easy to use to extract data from complex websites such as amazon.com and others.
You can also choose different task templates to extract data from popular websites such as eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube e.t.c
If you learned something new or enjoyed reading this article, please share it so that others can see it. Until then, see you in the next article!