Oxylabs Python SDK

This is a Python SDK for the Oxylabs Scraper APIs.

This will help simplify integrating with Oxylabs's APIs, which can help you with retrieving search engine results (SERP), eCommerce data, real estate data, and more.

The Python SDK provides you with several benefits over using the raw APIs directly:

• Simplified Interface: abstracts away complexities, offering a straightforward user interface for interacting with the Oxylabs SERP and Ecommerce API.
• Automated Request Management: streamlines the handling of API requests and responses for enhanced efficiency and reliability.
• Error Handling: provides meaningful error messages and handles common API errors, simplifying troubleshooting.

Requirements

• Python 3.5 or above.

You can check your Python version by running the following command in your preferred terminal:

python --version

Or, for systems with multiple Python versions installed:

python3 --version

If you need to install or update python you can do so by following the steps mentioned here.

Authentication

You will need an Oxylabs API username and password which you can get by signing up at https://oxylabs.io. You can check things out with a free trial at https://oxylabs.io/products/scraper-api/serp.

Installation

pip install oxylabs

Quick Start

from oxylabs import RealtimeClient

# Set your Oxylabs API Credentials.
username = "username"
password = "password"

# Initialize the SERP Realtime client with your credentials.
c = RealtimeClient(username, password)

# Use `bing_search` as a source to scrape Bing with nike as a query.
res = c.serp.bing.scrape_search("nike")

print(res.raw)

Integration Methods

There are three integration method for the Oxylabs SERP API, each exposed via different packages:

• Realtime (Sync) - RealtimeClient(username, password)
• Push-Pull (Async) - AsyncClient(username, password)
• Proxy Endpoint - ProxyClient(username, password)

Learn more about integration methods on the official documentation and how this SDK uses them here.

Sources

The Oxylabs SERP API scrapes according to the source provided via the API.

There are currently four search engines you can scrape with the Oxylabs SERP API, each with different sources.

Search Engine	Sources
Google	google, google_search, google_ads, google_hotels, google_travel_hotels, google_images, google_suggest,google_trends_explore
Bing	bing, bing_search

In the SDK you'll just need to call the relevant function name from the client.

For example if you wish to scrape Bing with bing_search as a source:

c = RealtimeClient(username, password)
result = c.serp.bing.scrape_search("football")

Query Parameters

Each source has different accepted query parameters. For a detailed list of accepted parameters by each source you can head over to https://developers.oxylabs.io/scraper-apis/serp-scraper-api.

By default, scrape functions will use default parameters. If you need to send specific query parameters, here is an example of how to do it:

result = c.serp.bing.scrape_search(
	"football",
    start_page=1,
    pages=3,
    limit=4,
    domain="com",
)

Configurable Options

For consistency and ease of use, this SDK provides a list of pre-defined commonly used parameter values as constants in our library. You can use them by importing the oxylabs type modue.

from oxylabs.utils.types import user_agent_type, render, domain

For the full list you can check the types directory. You can send in these values as strings too.

These can be used as follows:

from oxylabs.utils.types import user_agent_type, render, domain

c = RealtimeClient(username, password)

result = c.serp.google.scrape_search(
    "adidas",
    user_agent_type=user_agent_type.DESKTOP,
    render=render.HTML,
    domain=domain.COM,

)

Context Options for Google sources

You can send in context options relevant to google, amazon and universal sources. Here are the supported context values for google search. Similarly you can find supported context values for other sources in the documentation. Here's an example for Google Search scraping:

c = RealtimeClient(username, password)

c.serp.google.scrape_search(
    "adidas",
    parse=True,
    context=[
        {"key": "results_language", "value": "en"},
        {"key": "filter", "value": 0},
        {"key": "tbm", "value": "isch"},
        {
            "key": "limit_per_page",
            "value": [
                {"page": 1, "limit": 10},
                {"page": 2, "limit": 10},
            ],
        },
    ],
)

Parse instructions

SDK supports custom parsing:

from oxylabs import RealtimeClient

# Set your Oxylabs API Credentials.
username = "username"
password = "password"

# Initialize the Realtime client with your credentials.
c = RealtimeClient(username, password)

# Use `bing_search` as a source to scrape Bing using custom parsing
# instructions.
result = c.serp.bing.scrape_url(
    "https://www.bing.com/search?q=nike",
    parse=True,
    parsing_instructions={
        "number_of_results": {
            "_fns": [
                {
                    "_fn": "xpath_one",
                    "_args": [".//span[@class='sb_count']/text()"],
                }
            ]
        }
    },
)

Integration Methods

Realtime Integration

Realtime is a synchronous integration method. This means that upon sending your job submission request, you will have to keep the connection open until we successfully finish your job or return an error.

The TTL of Realtime connections is 150 seconds. There may be rare cases where your connection times out before you receive a response from us, for example, if our system is under heavier-than-usual load or the job you submitted was extremely hard to complete:

Push-Pull(Polling) Integration

Push-Pull is an asynchronous integration method. This SDK implements this integration with a polling technique to poll the endpoint for results after a set interval of time.

Using it is as straightforward as using the Realtime integration. The only difference is that it will return an asyncio Task that will eventually contain the Response. Below is an example of this integration method:"

import asyncio
from oxylabs import AsyncClient

async def main():
    # Set your Oxylabs API Credentials.
    username = "username"
    password = "password"

    # Initialize the async client with your credentials.
    c = AsyncClient(username, password)

    # 'timeout' specifies the maximum time (in seconds) to wait for the scraping
    #  job to complete.
    # It is applicable for both Realtime and Push-Pull integrations.
    # 'poll_interval' is used only in Push-Pull integrations to set the delay
    # (in seconds)
    # between consecutive status checks of the job.
    tasks = [
        c.serp.bing.scrape_url(
            "https://www.bing.com/search?q=adidas",
            parse=True,
            timeout=35,
            poll_interval=3,
        ),
        c.serp.bing.scrape_url(
            "https://www.bing.com/search?q=puma",
            parse=True,
            timeout=45,
            poll_interval=5,
        ),
    ]

    for future in asyncio.as_completed(tasks):
        result = await future


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Proxy Endpoint

This method is also synchronous (like Realtime), but instead of using our service via a RESTful interface, you can use our endpoint like a proxy. Use Proxy Endpoint if you've used proxies before and would just like to get unblocked content from us.

Since the parameters in this method are sent as headers there are only a few parameters which this integration method accepts. You can find those parameters at https://developers.oxylabs.io/scraper-apis/serp-scraper-api/integration-methods/proxy-endpoint#accepted-parameters.

The Proxy endpoint integration is very open ended allowing many different use cases:

from oxylabs import ProxyClient

# Set your Oxylabs API Credentials.
username = "username"
password = "password"

# Initialize the ProxyClient with your credentials.
proxy = ProxyClient(username, password)

# Customize headers for specific requirements (optional).
proxy.add_user_agent_header("desktop_chrome")
proxy.add_geo_location_header("Germany")
proxy.add_render_header("html")

# Use the proxy to make a request.
result = proxy.get("https://www.example.com")

print(result.text)

Additional Resources

See the official API Documentation for details on each API's actual interface, which is implemented by this SDK.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

Security

See Security Issue Notifications for more information.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

About Oxylabs

Established in 2015, Oxylabs are a market-leading web intelligence collection platform, driven by the highest business, ethics, and compliance standards, enabling companies worldwide to unlock data-driven insights.