Oxylabs Web Scraper API

How do I create my own parser?

The simplest way is to use OxyCopilot, available through our dashboard in the Web Scraper API Playground. Here, you can quickly create, test, and edit parsers by using a visual interface. Follow these step-by-step guides in our documentation: Quick start guide with OxyCopilot, Comprehensive OxyCopilot tutorial, Advanced usage through the API

What does Custom Parser do?

Oxylabs' Custom Parser extracts user-specified data from raw HTML into structured JSON format. Simply describe what you want to parse in plain English, and the built-in AI will analyze the HTML to create parsing logic with element selectors. The parsing engine then applies these instructions to extract the necessary information and convert it into structured JSON. Essentially, Oxylabs saves time and resources by letting you focus on data instead of analyzing web structures and managing parsers.

How hard is it to build a parser?

The difficulty of building parsers ranges from moderate to difficult, especially as data volume increases. Managing tens or hundreds of parsers becomes unsustainable when website structures constantly change and parsers require fixes. Oxylabs simplifies this challenge. You can generate parsers using AI, save them as hosted presets, and enable self-healing so they automatically adapt to website changes.

What is parsing of data?

Parsing is the process of transforming raw data into a readable format. A parser is the tool or software that performs this transformation using predefined logic and rules.