No-Code Scraping with Bardeen | Scribe

    No-Code Scraping with Bardeen

    • Anna Gmaj |
    • 33 steps |
    • 3 minutes
    1
    Install the Bardeen plugin (if you haven't been using it for other automations). It's available here for Chrome: <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bardeen-automate-manual-w/ihhkmalpkhkoedlmcnilbbhhbhnicjga>
    2
    Create a Google Sheet where the scraped data will go. Make it editable for anyone with the link.
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    Tip: You can also ask Bardeen to create a spreadsheet for you within the scraping Playbook. However, I don't recommend this option. In the free version, it's likely you'll need to run the Playbook multiple times, so you'd either have to edit it after the first run, or it would create multiple spreadsheets.
    3
    Navigate to the website you want to scrape. In this case, we are using: <https://www.ymca.ca/locations?type=ymca,camps&amenities>
    4
    Launch the Bardeen extension on the tab.
    5
    Connect Bardeen to Google Sheets in the "More Options" dropdown.
    6
    Go to Settings.
    7
    Search for the app and connect Google Sheets. If successful, it should display like in the screenshot below.
    8
    Open the scraper menu.
    9
    Select Create -&gt; New Scraper Template.
    10
    Select the correct template type depending on what you are scraping. In this example, we are scraping a list.
    11
    Name the template.
    12
    Select the pagination type. In this case, the entire list is on one page, so we are selecting "no pagination."
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    Caution: It seems that in the unpaid version, click pagination and infinite scroll options are a little wonky. It may be that the total number of rows to scrape with multiple pages or infinite scroll is outside the limit (though I didn't find a confirmation). There are no perfect workarounds for this, so, when possible, I scrape each page separately. For infinite scroll, I found that it helps if you load as much as possible. However, this is the worst pagination type for free Bardeen scraping (since you can't split it into multiple scraping actions).
    13
    When you highlight the item in the list you want to scrape, a pop-up window will ask whether you want to get text or link. Check the correct one and click "Get data." (Note: You only need to select one item and it will source all similar items on the list.)
    14
    There will be another popup at the bottom with the first scraped column (see screenshot in Step 18). You should change the name of the column to match the column in the spreadsheet.
    15
    Repeat for the next item you need to source.
    16
    As seen below, the items that are already in the template are highlighted.
    17
    The pop-up in the bottom provides a full list of scraped items in columns.
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    Tip! As noted, remember to name the columns exactly as you named them in the spreadsheet so that Bardeen can recognize where to put data. If you use different names or make a typo, it will create a new column next to yours.