What will be scraped

image

Ebay Search Engine Results API

Alternatively, you can use the Ebay Search Engine Results API from SerpApi. SerpApi is a free API with 100 searches per month. If you need more searches, there are paid plans.

The difference is that you don't have to use browser control solutions (like Puppeteer) which is much more time-consuming, you also don't have to look for the right selectors that can change over time, bypass blocking from robots and maintain a solution written from scratch. Instead, you will get ready-made structured JSON. Check out the playground.

First we need to install google-search-results-nodejs. To do this you need to enter in your command line: npm i google-search-results-nodejs

const SerpApi = require("google-search-results-nodejs");
const search = new SerpApi.GoogleSearch(process.env.API_KEY);     //your api key from serpapi.com

const searchString = "playstation";                                       // what we want to search
const pagesLimit = 10;                                                    // limit of pages for getting info
let currentPage = 1;                                                      // current page of the search

const params = {
  engine: "ebay",                                                         // search engine
  _nkw: searchString,                                                     // search query
  ebay_domain: "ebay.com",                                                // ebay domain of the search
  _pgn: currentPage,                                                      // page of the search
};

const getOrganicResults = ({ organic_results }) => {
  return organic_results.map((element) => {
    const { link, title, condition = "No condition data", price = "No price data", shipping = "No shipping data", thumbnail = "No image" } = element;
    return {
      link,
      title,
      condition,
      price: price && price.raw ? price.raw : `${price.from?.raw} - ${price.to?.raw}`,
      shipping,
      thumbnail,
    };
  });
};

const getJson = (params) => {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    search.json(params, resolve);
  });
};

const getResults = async () => {
  const organicResults = [];
  while (true) {
    if (currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    const json = await getJson(params);
    if (json.search_information?.organic_results_state === "Fully empty") break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getOrganicResults(json)));
    currentPage++;
  }
  return organicResults;
};

getResults().then(console.log)

Code explanation

Declare constants from required libraries:

const SerpApi = require("google-search-results-nodejs");
const search = new SerpApi.GoogleSearch(API_KEY);
Code Explanation
SerpApi SerpApi Node.js library
search new instance of GoogleSearch class
API_KEY your API key from SerpApi

Next, we write down what we want to search and the necessary parameters for making a request:

const searchString = "playstation";
const pagesLimit = 10;
let currentPage = 1;

const params = {
  engine: "ebay",
  _nkw: searchString,
  ebay_domain: "ebay.com",
  _pgn: currentPage,
};
Code Explanation
searchString what we want to search
pagesLimit limit of pages for getting info
currentPage current page of the search
engine search engine
_nkw search query
ebay_domain ebay domain: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk
_pgn current page

Next, we write a callback function in which we describe what data we need from the result of our request:

const getOrganicResults = ({ organic_results }) => {
  return organic_results.map((element) => {
    const { link, title, condition = "No condition data", price = "No price data", shipping = "No shipping data", thumbnail = "No image" } = element;
    return {
      link,
      title,
      condition,
      price: price && price.raw ? price.raw : `${price.from?.raw} - ${price.to?.raw}`,
      shipping,
      thumbnail,
    };
  });
};
Code Explanation
organic_results an array that we destructured from response
link, title, condition, price, shipping, thumbnail other data that we destructured from element of news_results array
thumbnail = "No image" we set default value No image if thumbnail is undefined
price: price && price.raw ? price.raw : '${price.from?.raw} - ${price.to?.raw}' in this line we use ternary operator to set vailid price. If we can get price and data with raw key we set it to our price, otherwise in price we set price.from and price.to

Next, we wrap the search method from the SerpApi library in a promise to further work with the search results:

const getJson = (params) => {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    search.json(params, resolve);
  })
}

getJson(params).then(getKnowledgeGraph).then(console.log)

And finally, we declare and run the function getResult that gets info from all pages between currentPage and pagesLimit and return it.

const getResults = async () => {
  const organicResults = [];
  while (true) {
    if (currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    const json = await getJson(params);
    if (json.search_information?.organic_results_state === "Fully empty") break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getOrganicResults(json)));
    currentPage++;
  }
  return organicResults;
};

getResults().then(console.log)
Code Explanation
organicResults.push(...(await getOrganicResults(json))) in this code, we use spread syntax to split the array from result that was returned from getOrganicResults function into elements and add them in the end of organicResults array

Output

[
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/324950767168?hash=item4ba8933640:g:yQsAAOSwU8phwB9l",
      "title":"Sony PlayStation PS Vita OLED (PCH-1001) Firmware FW 3.60, 128GB - Ship in 1-DAY",
      "condition":"Open Box",
      "price":"$179.95",
      "shipping":"Free shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/yQsAAOSwU8phwB9l/s-l225.jpg"
   },
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/393419045168?hash=item5b999a3930:g:NzYAAOSwBPNiBoAk",
      "title":"PS4 PlayStation 4 Sony Original Slim Pro 500GB 1TB 2TB Console Used Ship first",
      "condition":"Pre-Owned",
      "price":"$259.80 - $484.99",
      "shipping":"Free shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/NzYAAOSwBPNiBoAk/s-l225.jpg"
   },
   ...and other results
]

DIY Preparation

First, we need to create a Node.js* project and add npm packages puppeteer, puppeteer-extra and puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth to control Chromium (or Chrome, or Firefox, but now we work only with Chromium which is used by default) over the DevTools Protocol in headless or non-headless mode.

To do this, in the directory with our project, open the command line and enter npm init -y, and then npm i puppeteer puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth.

*If you don't have Node.js installed, you can download it from nodejs.org and follow the installation documentation.

📌Note: Also, you can use puppeteer without any extensions, but I strongly recommend using it with puppeteer-extra with puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth to prevent website detection that you are using headless Chromium or that you are using web driver. You can check it on Chrome headless tests website. The screenshot below shows you the difference.

stealth

Process

SelectorGadget Chrome extension was used to grab CSS selectors by clicking on the desired element in the browser. If you have any struggles understanding this, we have a dedicated Web Scraping with CSS Selectors blog post at SerpApi.
The Gif below illustrates the approach of selecting different parts of the results.

how2

DIY Code

const puppeteer = require("puppeteer-extra");
const StealthPlugin = require("puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth");

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

const searchString = "playstation";                   // what we want to search
const pagesLimit = 10;                                // limit of pages for getting info
let currentPage = 1;                                  // current page of the search

const URL = "https://www.ebay.com";

async function getPageResults(page) {
  const pageResults = await page.evaluate(function () {
    return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("ul .s-item__wrapper")).map((el) => ({
      link: el.querySelector(".s-item__link").getAttribute("href"),
      title: el.querySelector(".s-item__title").textContent.trim(),
      condition: el.querySelector(".SECONDARY_INFO")?.textContent.trim() || "No condition data",
      price: el.querySelector(".s-item__price")?.textContent.trim() || "No price data",
      shipping: el.querySelector(".s-item__shipping")?.textContent.trim() || "No shipping data",
      thumbnail: el.querySelector(".s-item__image-img")?.getAttribute("src") || "No image",
    }));
  });
  return pageResults;
}

async function getOrganicResults() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: false,
    args: ["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"],
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(60000);
  await page.goto(URL);
  await page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac");
  await page.focus("#gh-ac");
  await page.keyboard.type(searchString);
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
  await page.click("#gh-btn");

  const organicResults = [];

  while (true) {
    await page.waitForSelector(".srp-results");
    const isNextPage = await page.$(".pagination__next");
    if (!isNextPage || currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getPageResults(page)));
    await page.click(".pagination__next");
    currentPage++;
  }

  await browser.close();

  return organicResults;
}

getOrganicResults().then(console.log);

Code explanation

Declare constants from required libraries:

const puppeteer = require("puppeteer-extra");
const StealthPlugin = require("puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth");
Code Explanation
puppeteer Chromium control library
StealthPlugin library for prevent website detection that you are using web driver

Next, we "saying" to puppeteer use StealthPlugin:

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

Next, we write variables with our search parameters:

const searchString = "playstation";
const pagesLimit = 10;
let currentPage = 1;

const URL = "https://www.ebay.com";
Code Explanation
searchString what we want to search
pagesLimit limit of pages for getting info
currentPage current page of the search

Next, we write down a function for getting information from page:

async function getPageResults(page) {
  const pageResults = await page.evaluate(function () {
    return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("ul .s-item__wrapper")).map((el) => ({
      link: el.querySelector(".s-item__link").getAttribute("href"),
      title: el.querySelector(".s-item__title").textContent.trim(),
      condition: el.querySelector(".SECONDARY_INFO")?.textContent.trim() || "No condition data",
      price: el.querySelector(".s-item__price")?.textContent.trim() || "No price data",
      shipping: el.querySelector(".s-item__shipping")?.textContent.trim() || "No shipping data",
      thumbnail: el.querySelector(".s-item__image-img")?.getAttribute("src") || "No image",
    }));
  });
  return pageResults;
}
Code Explanation
pageResults an array with information about all goods from page
page.evaluate(function () { is the Puppeteer method for injecting function in the page context and allows to return data directly from the browser
document.querySelectorAll("ul .s-item__wrapper") returns a static NodeList representing a list of the document's elements that match the css selectors with class name s-item__wrapper which is any child of ul html element
el.querySelector(".s-item__link") returns the first html element with class name s-item__link which is any child of the el html element
.getAttribute("href") gets the href attribute value of the html element
.trim() removes whitespace from both ends of a string

And finally, a function to control the browser, change pages, and run getPageResults from each page:

async function getOrganicResults() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: false,
    args: ["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"],
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(60000);
  await page.goto(URL);
  await page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac");
  await page.focus("#gh-ac");
  await page.keyboard.type(searchString);
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
  await page.click("#gh-btn");

  const organicResults = [];

  while (true) {
    await page.waitForSelector(".srp-results");
    const isNextPage = await page.$(".pagination__next");
    if (!isNextPage || currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getPageResults(page)));
    await page.click(".pagination__next");
    currentPage++;
  }

  await browser.close();

  return organicResults;
}
Code Explanation
puppeteer.launch({options}) this method launches a new instance of the Chromium browser with current options
headless defines which mode to use: headless (by default) or non-headless
args an array with arguments which is used with Chromium
["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"] these arguments we use to allow the launch of the browser process in the online IDE
browser.newPage() this method launches a new page
page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(60000) changing default (30 sec) time for waiting for selectors to 60000 ms (1 min) for slow internet connection
page.goto(URL) navigation to URL which is defined above
page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac") stops the script and waits for the html element with the #gh-ac selector to load
page.focus("#gh-ac") focus on the html element with the #gh-ac selector
page.keyboard.type(searchString) this method emulates keyboard input stored in searchString text
page.waitForTimeout(1000) waiting 1000 ms before continue
page.click("#gh-btn") this method emulates mouse click on the html element with the #gh-btn selector
const isNextPage = await page.$(".pagination__next") in this line of code, we find the html element with the .pagination__next selector and save it in isNextPage constant
if (!isNextPage ┃┃ currentPage > pagesLimit) break in this line of code, we check that isNextPage is not equal to true (! character) and currentPage is greater than pagesLimit. And if the expression in brackets is true we run break which ends the while loop
organicResults.push(...(await getPageResults(page))) in this code, we use spread syntax to split the array from result that was returned from getPageResults function into elements and add them in the end of organicResults array
browser.close() after all we close the browser instance

📌Note: In this case, we can skip

await page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac");
await page.focus("#gh-ac");
await page.keyboard.type(searchString);
await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
await page.click("#gh-btn");

and we can add search query directly in URL so there's no need to open the main page and then make the extra request to display product results. I write it because I wanted to show some helpful methods of puppeteer. But you can remove this code, change the URL constant to https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=${searchString} and write searchString constant in URI encoding like const searchString = encodeURI("playstation");.

Now we can launch our parser. To do this enter node YOUR_FILE_NAME in your command line. Where YOUR_FILE_NAME is the name of your .js file.

Output

[
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/324843125086?epid=4039276585&hash=item4ba228b95e:g:iygAAOSwJfFdty6D&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4BFods1e0MuxITheGVrICxhRAyEmOAtx6%2BT28euOBHuShbOsuqcQpMnhGTsxgz2hVdsgoUlbIYGe5nghV6CFsQVPDoRG%2FKhoBe2ilQMTPM%2BmcyGm8Qx%2B2DL%2BOg3UZAGCbXM0jikrzbg0zKp1PCYgcINmwxFqy7MaNP%2BnO2TMJEIK45mGxj6Ymsx2lDyuT84SMvBClalDYs9rJMZmrzQqIgyo0Kerk6Wk6F1l%2BBDyJ%2Blpe%2BmwoYqzu2FzQxAX3gAyRF0XSTyrDRu2IYXb0Kh89kbvtuq0KNyNG%2B2lZdO78M0R%7Ctkp%3ABFBMjMe8n6Vg",
      "title":"Dusk Diver Day One Edition PlayStation 4, PS4 Brand New Factory Sealed",
      "condition":"Brand New",
      "price":"$37.49",
      "shipping":"Free shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/iygAAOSwJfFdty6D/s-l225.webp"
   },
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/265719188920?epid=110660824&hash=item3dde190db8:g:-oEAAOSwztpimIB~",
      "title":"Sony PlayStation with xStation installed (PS1, NTSC SCPH-5501)",
      "condition":"Pre-Owned",
      "price":"$289.99",
      "shipping":"+$13.15 shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/-oEAAOSwztpimIB~/s-l225.webp"
   },
   ...and other results
]

If you want to see some projects made with SerpApi, please write me a message.

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