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via Udemy |
Go to Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/web-scraping-in-python-using-scrapy-and-splash/
Certainly! Here's a comprehensive review, description, and recommendation for the Coursera course on web scraping: --- **Course Review and Recommendation: Mastering Web Scraping with Scrapy, Splash, and Selenium** In today's data-driven world, web scraping has emerged as one of the most sought-after skills, allowing users to extract valuable information from complex websites. This Coursera course stands out as a comprehensive and up-to-date guide that transforms you from a mere consumer of paid scraping tools into a proficient developer capable of building your own web scraping spiders. **Course Overview:** This course covers a wide array of essential topics, starting with the fundamentals of web scraping, including how to locate content using XPath and CSS selectors, and progressing to advanced techniques like scraping JavaScript-heavy sites with Splash and Selenium. You will learn how to build complete spiders using Scrapy, store data in various formats such as JSON, CSV, and databases like MongoDB and SQLite3, and implement custom pipelines. Additionally, the course dives into critical scraping strategies like avoiding bans, handling infinite scroll pages, login automation, and deploying spiders on cloud platforms like Heroku. You'll also explore best practices, API scraping, request cookies, proxy integration, and setting up scheduled scraping with custom scripts. The inclusion of practical skills such as downloading files, images, and dealing with dynamic content makes this course highly valuable. **What Makes This Course Stand Out?** - **Up-to-date Content:** Utilizes Python 3.7, Scrapy 1.6, and Splash 3.0, ensuring learners work with the latest tools. - **Hands-On Approach:** Step-by-step instructions on creating real-world scrapers, including JavaScript rendering with Splash and Selenium. - **Hosting & Automation:** Shows how to host spiders and Splash on Heroku and automate their periodic execution. - **Comprehensive Coverage:** From handling APIs and cookies to deploying scrapers and avoiding bans, the course offers a well-rounded curriculum. - **Expert Instruction:** Ahmed Rafik, the instructor, is known for clear explanations, responsiveness, and updated content, making complex topics accessible even to beginners. **Student Feedback:** Participants consistently praise the course for its clarity, practical insights, and expert guidance. Many mention that it covers 90-100% of their web scraping needs, and appreciate the instructor’s support and recent updates to the material. **Who Should Enroll?** Whether you're a data analyst, developer, researcher, or anyone interested in unlocking unstructured web data, this course provides the skills necessary to create your own scraping tools. No prior Python experience is required for beginners, and even experienced programmers will find advanced topics like Splash and Selenium enlightening. **Final Recommendation:** I highly recommend this course for anyone serious about mastering web scraping. It offers a perfect blend of theory and practice, current tools, and step-by-step guidance. With Udemy’s 30-day money-back guarantee, there's little to lose and much to gain. **Pros:** - Updated for current tools and technologies - Deep dive into JavaScript-heavy site scraping - Practical skills for deployment and automation - Supportive instructor and student community **Cons:** - Requires some patience with complex topics, but thoroughly rewarding --- **In summary**, if you want to build your own robust, scalable, and efficient web scrapers and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving field of data extraction, this Coursera course is an excellent investment. Enroll now to elevate your data scraping skills to a professional level! --- Let me know if you'd like a shorter version or a specific focus!
Web Scraping nowadays has become one of the hottest topics, there are plenty of paid tools out there in the market that don't show you anything how things are done as you will be always limited to their functionalities as a consumer.In this course you won't be a consumer anymore, i'll teach you how you can build your own scraping tool ( spider ) using Scrapy.You will learn: The fundamentals of Web ScrapingHow to build a complete spiderThe fundamentals of XPath & CSS SelectorsHow to locate content/nodes from the DOM using XPath & CSSHow to store the data in JSON, CSV.and even to an external database(MongoDb & SQLite3)How to write your own custom PipelineFundamentals of SplashHow to scrape Javascript websites using Scrapy Splash & SeleniumThe Crawling behaviorHow to build a CrawlSpiderHow to avoid getting banned while scraping websitesHow to build a custom MiddlewareWeb Scraping best practicesHow to scrape APIsHow to use Request CookiesHow to scrape infinite scroll websitesHost spiders in Heroku for freeRun spiders periodically with a custom scriptPrevent storing duplicated dataDeploy Splash to Heroku Write data to Excel files Login to websites using ScrapyDownload Files & Images using ScrapyUse Proxies with Scrapy SpiderUse Crawlera with Scrapy & SplashUse Proxies with CrawlSpiderWhat makes this course different from the others, and why you should enroll ?First, this is the most updated course. You will be using Python 3.7, Scrapy 1.6 and Splash 3.0You will have an in-depth step by step guide on how to become a professional web scraper. You will learn how to use Splash & Selenium to scrape JavaScript websites and I can assure you, you won't find any tutorials out there that teaches how to really use Splash like I'll be doing in this course.You will learn how to host spiders in Heroku as well as Splash(Exclusive).You will learn how to create a custom script so spiders can run periodically without any intervention from you.30 days money back guarantee by Udemy So whether you are a data analyst who wants to add web scraping to his tool set or someone else who wants to learn how to extract unstructured data from unstructured HTML web pages and then store back that data in a structured way to apply some data analysis on it then you are welcome to join this course.**STUDENTS THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS COURSE **"I was particularly looking for web scraping using XPATHs and this course is addressing that. It also covers dynamic paging. A proper mix of theory and practical. A must-have for those who wants to do web scraping. GREAT learning experience!!! ". By Hiran Kumar"90% of what I was searching for!!! Great job!! Clear explanations and great communication with Ahmed". By Raylyson Estanista "Admed's Web scraping course is awesome. His approach using Python with scrapy and splash works well with all websites especially those that make heavy use of JavaScript. Ahmed is a gifted educator: expert communicator, passionate, conscientious and accessible to his students. I highly recommend this course and any of Ahmed Rafik's Udemy courses. ". By Richard Blackmon"Great course, and a nice introduction to Scrapy (I'm someone with no Python experience whatsoever).". By I S"Excellent course. Quick and thorough at the same time. Ahmed is incredibly responsive to the students and often replies to questions within minutes! Highest recommendation." By Robert Nolte"That course is very good and explanation is crystal clear! The instructor is very supportive in case of questions. Highly recommended." By Shubina Ekaterina "I like the course. Clear explanations and good comunication with Ahmed. All topics is interesting and full of information. I improved my skils in Scrapy. Author update course content by new videos. It's a big bonus) Explained more advance topics I never see in other courses. Thank you, Ahmed. Waiting for new videos)". By Ruslan Romanenko