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How do I identify hidden APIs that might be easier to scrape?
I start by opening the network tab in dev tools and navigating through the site. Often, you’ll find JSON or AJAX requests that fetch the data directly.
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5 Replies
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Many sites use GraphQL APIs, so I look for POST requests with query bodies in the network tab.
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GraphQL can be easier to scrape because you can specify exactly what data you want.
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If the site is built with React or Vue, there’s a good chance data is loaded via API calls. I look for these in the page’s JavaScript code or in the dev tools.
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I also inspect any XHR or Fetch requests in the dev tools. They often lead to JSON endpoints, which are much simpler to parse than HTML.
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Sometimes, the API endpoint is hinted at in the page’s HTML source. A quick search for URLs or ‘endpoint’ keywords can reveal hidden paths.
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