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How can I handle pagination when scraping JavaScript-heavy sites?
Selenium is my go-to here. I set it to click the “Next” button and wait for content to load before moving to the next page. It’s slower but reliable.
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7 Replies
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Tools like Playwright work better than Selenium for JavaScript-heavy pages, as they can handle complex interactions faster and with fewer errors.
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Inspecting network requests can reveal the underlying AJAX calls. Directly calling these APIs is much faster than navigating through each page.
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I set up error handling to catch infinite loops, especially on sites where “Next” may lead to repeating the last page if data isn’t fully loaded.
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Adding timeouts between page loads helps reduce detection and gives the page time to load all content, preventing skipped data.
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For sites with “Load More” buttons, I simulate clicks on the button until all items are loaded. This works well for e-commerce and content sites.
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In cases where JavaScript pagination isn’t feasible, I often look for URL parameters that can be manipulated to skip between pages.
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Logging each URL as I progress through pages ensures I don’t revisit pages accidentally. This is crucial for scraping sites with complex pagination structures.
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