How to try it:

The recommended way to install dependencies is to use virtualenv and then do:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the server using:

twistd -n slyd

and point your browser to: http://localhost:9001/static/index.html

Chrome and Firefox are supported, but it works better with chrome.

Slyd API Notes

This will be moved to separate docs - it's currently some notes for developers

All resources are either under /dist/ or /projects/.

project listing/creation/deletion/renaming

To get list all existing projects, just GET http://localhost:9001/projects:

$ curl http://localhost:9001/projects -> ["project1", "project2"]

New projects can be created by posting to /projects, for example:

$ curl -d '{"cmd": "create", "args": ["project_X"]}' http://localhost:9001/projects

To delete a project:

$ curl -d '{"cmd": "rm", "args": ["project_X"]}' http://localhost:9001/projects

To rename a project:

$ curl -d '{"cmd": "mv", "args": ["oldname", "newname"]}' http://localhost:9001/projects

Please note that projects will not be overwritten when renaming or creating new ones (if a project with the given name already exists an error from the 400 family will be returned).

spec

The project specification is available under /projects/PROJECT_ID/spec. The path format mirrors the slybot format documented here: http://slybot.readthedocs.org/en/latest/project.html

Currently, this is read only, but it will soon support PUT/POST.

The entire spec is returned for a GET request to the root:

$ curl http://localhost:9001/projects/78/spec
{"project": {
"version": "1308771278",
"name": "demo"
..
}

A list of available spiders can be retrieved:

$ curl http://localhost:9001/projects/78/spec/spiders ["accommodationforstudents.com", "food.com", "pinterest.com", "pin", "mhvillage"]

and specific resources can be requested:

$ curl http://localhost:9001/projects/78/spec/spiders/accommodationforstudents.com
{
	"templates":
...
    "respect_nofollow": true
}

The spec can be updating by POSTing:

$ curl --data @newlinkedin.js http://localhost:9001/projects/78/spec/spiders/linkedin

An HTTP 400 will be returned if the uploaded spec does not validate.

Basic commands are available for manipulating spider files. For example:

$ curl -d '{"cmd": "rm", "args": ["spidername"]}' http://localhost:9001/projects/78/spec/spiders

Available commands are:

• mv - move spider from first arg to second. If the second exists it is overwritten.
• rm - delete spider

bot/fetch

Accepts json object with the following fields:

• request - same as scrapy requst object. At least needs a url
• spider - spider name within in the project
• page_id - unique ID for this page, must match the id used in templates (not yet implemented)

Returns a json object containing (so far):

• page - page content, not yet annotated but will be
• response - object containing the response data: http code and headers
• items - array of items extracted
• fp - request fingerprint
• error - error message, present if there was an error
• links - array of links followed

Coming soon in the response:

• template_id - id of template that matched
• trace - textual trace of the matching process - for debugging

If you want to work on an existing project, put it in data/projects/PROJECTID, these can be downloaded from dash or by:

$ bin/sh2sly data/projects -p 78 -k YOURAPIKEY

Then you can extract data:

$ curl -d '{"request": {"url": "http://www.pinterest.com/pin/339740365610932893/"}, "spider": "pinterest.com"}' http://localhost:9001/projects/78/bot/fetch { "fp": "0f2686acdc6a71eeddc49045b7cea0b6f81e6b61", "items": [ { "url": "http://www.pinterest.com/pin/339740365610932893/", "_template": "527387aa4d6c7133c6551481", "image": [ "http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6c/c5/35/6cc5352046df0f8d8852cbdfb31542bb.jpg" ], "_type": "pin", "name": [ "Career Driven" ] } ], "page": "\n ...." }

Testing

slyd can be tested using twisted:

trial tests