1. IronWebScraper
  2. How To
  3. Scrape an Online Movie Website

Scraping an Online Movie Website using C# and IronWebScraper

Darrius Serrant
Darrius Serrant
Updated:

IronWebScraper extracts movie data from websites by parsing HTML elements, creating typed objects for structured data storage, and navigating between pages using metadata to build comprehensive movie information datasets. This C# Web Scraper library simplifies converting unstructured web content into organized, analyzable data.

Quickstart: Scrape Movies in C#

  1. Install IronWebScraper via NuGet Package Manager
  2. Create a class that inherits from WebScraper
  3. Override Init() to set license and request the target URL
  4. Override Parse() to extract movie data using CSS selectors
  5. Use Scrape() method to save data in JSON format

Nuget IconGet started making PDFs with NuGet now:

  1. Install IronWebScraper with NuGet Package Manager

    PM > Install-Package IronWebScraper

  2. Copy and run this code snippet.

    using IronWebScraper;
using System;

public class QuickstartMovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Set your license key
        License.LicenseKey = "YOUR-LICENSE-KEY";

        // Configure scraper settings
        this.LoggingLevel = LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\MovieData\Output\";

        // Start scraping from the homepage
        this.Request("https://example-movie-site.com", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Extract movie titles using CSS selectors
        foreach (var movieDiv in response.Css(".movie-item"))
        {
            var title = movieDiv.Css("h2")[0].TextContentClean;
            var url = movieDiv.Css("a")[0].Attributes["href"];

            // Save the scraped data
            Scrape(new { Title = title, Url = url }, "movies.json");
        }
    }
}

// Run the scraper
var scraper = new QuickstartMovieScraper();
scraper.Start();

  3. Deploy to test on your live environment

    Start using IronWebScraper in your project today with a free trial
    arrow pointer

How Do I Set Up a Movie Scraper Class?

Begin with a real-world website example. We'll scrape a movie website using the techniques outlined in our Webscraping in C# tutorial.

Add a new class and name it MovieScraper:

Visual Studio Add New Item dialog showing Visual C# template options for IronScraperSample project

Creating a dedicated scraper class helps organize your code and makes it reusable. This approach follows object-oriented principles and allows you to easily extend functionality later.

What Does the Target Website Structure Look Like?

Examine the site structure for scraping. Understanding the website's structure is crucial for effective web scraping. Similar to our guide on Scraping from an Online Movie Website, analyze the HTML structure first:

Movie streaming website interface showing grid of film posters with navigation tabs and quality indicators

Which HTML Elements Contain Movie Data?

This is part of the homepage HTML we see on the website. Examining the HTML structure helps identify the correct CSS selectors to use:

<div id="movie-featured" class="movies-list movies-list-full tab-pane in fade active">
    <div data-movie-id="20746" class="ml-item">
        <a href="https://website.com/film/king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword-20746/">
            <span class="mli-quality">CAM</span>
            <img data-original="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/2116d6719c710eabe83b377463230fbe-king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword.jpg" 
                 class="lazy thumb mli-thumb" alt="King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"
                 src="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/2116d6719c710eabe83b377463230fbe-king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword.jpg" 
                 style="display: inline-block;">
            <span class="mli-info"><h2>King Arthur: Legend of the Sword</h2></span>
        </a>
    </div>
    <div data-movie-id="20724" class="ml-item">
        <a href="https://website.com/film/snatched-20724/">
            <span class="mli-quality">CAM</span>
            <img data-original="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/5ef66403dc331009bdb5aa37cfe819ba-snatched.jpg" 
                 class="lazy thumb mli-thumb" alt="Snatched" 
                 src="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/5ef66403dc331009bdb5aa37cfe819ba-snatched.jpg" 
                 style="display: inline-block;">
            <span class="mli-info"><h2>Snatched</h2></span>
        </a>
    </div>
</div>
<div id="movie-featured" class="movies-list movies-list-full tab-pane in fade active">
    <div data-movie-id="20746" class="ml-item">
        <a href="https://website.com/film/king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword-20746/">
            <span class="mli-quality">CAM</span>
            <img data-original="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/2116d6719c710eabe83b377463230fbe-king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword.jpg" 
                 class="lazy thumb mli-thumb" alt="King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"
                 src="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/2116d6719c710eabe83b377463230fbe-king-arthur-legend-of-the-sword.jpg" 
                 style="display: inline-block;">
            <span class="mli-info"><h2>King Arthur: Legend of the Sword</h2></span>
        </a>
    </div>
    <div data-movie-id="20724" class="ml-item">
        <a href="https://website.com/film/snatched-20724/">
            <span class="mli-quality">CAM</span>
            <img data-original="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/5ef66403dc331009bdb5aa37cfe819ba-snatched.jpg" 
                 class="lazy thumb mli-thumb" alt="Snatched" 
                 src="https://img.gocdn.online/2017/05/16/poster/5ef66403dc331009bdb5aa37cfe819ba-snatched.jpg" 
                 style="display: inline-block;">
            <span class="mli-info"><h2>Snatched</h2></span>
        </a>
    </div>
</div>
HTML

We have a movie ID, title, and link to a detailed page. Each movie is contained within a div element with the class ml-item and includes a unique data-movie-id attribute for identification.

How Do I Implement Basic Movie Scraping?

Begin scraping this data set. Before running any scraper, ensure you have properly configured your license key as shown below:

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Initialize scraper settings
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";

        // Request homepage content for scraping
        this.Request("www.website.com", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.Attributes["class"] != "clearfix")
            {
                var movieId = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"));
                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                var movieTitle = link.TextContentClean;

                // Scrape and store movie data as key-value pairs
                Scrape(new ScrapedData() 
                { 
                    { "MovieId", movieId },
                    { "MovieTitle", movieTitle }
                }, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }           
    }
}
public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Initialize scraper settings
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";

        // Request homepage content for scraping
        this.Request("www.website.com", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.Attributes["class"] != "clearfix")
            {
                var movieId = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"));
                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                var movieTitle = link.TextContentClean;

                // Scrape and store movie data as key-value pairs
                Scrape(new ScrapedData() 
                { 
                    { "MovieId", movieId },
                    { "MovieTitle", movieTitle }
                }, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }           
    }
}
Public Class MovieScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		' Initialize scraper settings
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\MovieSample\Output\"

		' Request homepage content for scraping
		Me.Request("www.website.com", AddressOf Parse)
	End Sub

	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		' Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
		For Each div In response.Css("#movie-featured > div")
			If div.Attributes("class") <> "clearfix" Then
				Dim movieId = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))
				Dim link = div.Css("a")(0)
				Dim movieTitle = link.TextContentClean

				' Scrape and store movie data as key-value pairs
				Scrape(New ScrapedData() From {
					{ "MovieId", movieId },
					{ "MovieTitle", movieTitle }
				},
				"Movie.Jsonl")
			End If
		Next div
	End Sub
End Class
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

What Is the Working Directory Property For?

What's new in this code?

The Working Directory property sets the main working directory for all scraped data and related files. This ensures all output files are organized in a single location, making it easier to manage large-scale scraping projects. The directory will be created automatically if it doesn't exist.

When Should I Use CSS Selectors vs Attributes?

Additional considerations:

CSS selectors are ideal when targeting elements by their structural position or class names, while direct attribute access is better for extracting specific values like IDs or custom data attributes. In our example, we use CSS selectors (#movie-featured > div) to navigate the DOM structure and attributes (data-movie-id) to extract specific values.

How Do I Create Typed Objects for Scraped Data?

Build typed objects to hold scraped data in formatted objects. Using strongly-typed objects provides better code organization, IntelliSense support, and compile-time type checking.

Implement a Movie class that will hold formatted data:

public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string URL { get; set; }
}
public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string URL { get; set; }
}
IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

How Does Using Typed Objects Improve Data Organization?

Update the code to use the typed Movie class instead of the generic ScrapedData dictionary:

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Initialize scraper settings
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";

        // Request homepage content for scraping
        this.Request("https://website.com/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.Attributes["class"] != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))
                };

                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                movie.Title = link.TextContentClean;
                movie.URL = link.Attributes["href"];

                // Scrape and store movie object
                Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }
    }
}
public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Initialize scraper settings
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";

        // Request homepage content for scraping
        this.Request("https://website.com/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.Attributes["class"] != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))
                };

                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                movie.Title = link.TextContentClean;
                movie.URL = link.Attributes["href"];

                // Scrape and store movie object
                Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }
    }
}
Public Class MovieScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		' Initialize scraper settings
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\MovieSample\Output\"

		' Request homepage content for scraping
		Me.Request("https://website.com/", AddressOf Parse)
	End Sub

	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		' Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
		For Each div In response.Css("#movie-featured > div")
			If div.Attributes("class") <> "clearfix" Then
				Dim movie As New Movie With {.Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))}

				Dim link = div.Css("a")(0)
				movie.Title = link.TextContentClean
				movie.URL = link.Attributes("href")

				' Scrape and store movie object
				Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl")
			End If
		Next div
	End Sub
End Class
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

What Format Does the Scrape Method Use for Typed Objects?

What's new?

  1. We implemented a Movie class to hold scraped data, providing type safety and better code organization.
  2. We pass movie objects to the Scrape method which understands our format and saves it in a defined manner as shown below:

Notepad window showing JSON movie database with structured film data including titles, URLs, and metadata fields

The output is automatically serialized to JSON format, making it easy to import into databases or other applications.

How Do I Scrape Detailed Movie Pages?

Begin scraping more detailed pages. Multi-page scraping is a common requirement, and IronWebScraper makes it straightforward through its request chaining mechanism.

What Additional Data Can I Extract from Detail Pages?

The Movie Page looks like this, containing rich metadata about each film:

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 movie info page with poster and film details including cast and ratings

<div class="mvi-content">
    <div class="thumb mvic-thumb" 
         style="background-image: url(https://img.gocdn.online/2017/04/28/poster/5a08e94ba02118f22dc30f298c603210-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2.jpg);"></div>
    <div class="mvic-desc">
        <h3>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</h3>        
        <div class="desc">
            Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team's adventures as they travel throughout the cosmos to help Peter Quill learn more about his true parentage.
        </div>
        <div class="mvic-info">
            <div class="mvici-left">
                <p>
                    <strong>Genre: </strong>
                    <a href="https://Domain/genre/action/" title="Action">Action</a>,
                    <a href="https://Domain/genre/adventure/" title="Adventure">Adventure</a>,
                    <a href="https://Domain/genre/sci-fi/" title="Sci-Fi">Sci-Fi</a>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <strong>Actor: </strong>
                    <a target="_blank" href="https://Domain/actor/chris-pratt" title="Chris Pratt">Chris Pratt</a>,
                    <a target="_blank" href="https://Domain/actor/-zoe-saldana" title="Zoe Saldana">Zoe Saldana</a>,
                    <a target="_blank" href="https://Domain/actor/-dave-bautista-" title="Dave Bautista">Dave Bautista</a>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <strong>Director: </strong>
                    <a href="#" title="James Gunn">James Gunn</a>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <strong>Country: </strong>
                    <a href="https://Domain/country/us" title="United States">United States</a>
                </p>
            </div>
            <div class="mvici-right">
                <p><strong>Duration:</strong> 136 min</p>
                <p><strong>Quality:</strong> <span class="quality">CAM</span></p>
                <p><strong>Release:</strong> 2017</p>
                <p><strong>IMDb:</strong> 8.3</p>
            </div>
            <div class="clearfix"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="clearfix"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
<div class="mvi-content">
    <div class="thumb mvic-thumb" 
         style="background-image: url(https://img.gocdn.online/2017/04/28/poster/5a08e94ba02118f22dc30f298c603210-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2.jpg);"></div>
    <div class="mvic-desc">
        <h3>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</h3>        
        <div class="desc">
            Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team's adventures as they travel throughout the cosmos to help Peter Quill learn more about his true parentage.
        </div>
        <div class="mvic-info">
            <div class="mvici-left">
                <p>
                    <strong>Genre: </strong>
                    <a href="https://Domain/genre/action/" title="Action">Action</a>,
                    <a href="https://Domain/genre/adventure/" title="Adventure">Adventure</a>,
                    <a href="https://Domain/genre/sci-fi/" title="Sci-Fi">Sci-Fi</a>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <strong>Actor: </strong>
                    <a target="_blank" href="https://Domain/actor/chris-pratt" title="Chris Pratt">Chris Pratt</a>,
                    <a target="_blank" href="https://Domain/actor/-zoe-saldana" title="Zoe Saldana">Zoe Saldana</a>,
                    <a target="_blank" href="https://Domain/actor/-dave-bautista-" title="Dave Bautista">Dave Bautista</a>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <strong>Director: </strong>
                    <a href="#" title="James Gunn">James Gunn</a>
                </p>
                <p>
                    <strong>Country: </strong>
                    <a href="https://Domain/country/us" title="United States">United States</a>
                </p>
            </div>
            <div class="mvici-right">
                <p><strong>Duration:</strong> 136 min</p>
                <p><strong>Quality:</strong> <span class="quality">CAM</span></p>
                <p><strong>Release:</strong> 2017</p>
                <p><strong>IMDb:</strong> 8.3</p>
            </div>
            <div class="clearfix"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="clearfix"></div>
    </div>
    <div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
HTML

How Should I Extend My Movie Class for Additional Properties?

Extend the Movie class with new properties (Description, Genre, Actor, Director, Country, Duration, IMDb Score) but use only Description, Genre, and Actor for this sample. Using List<string> for genres and actors allows handling multiple values elegantly:

using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string URL { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public List<string> Genre { get; set; }
    public List<string> Actor { get; set; }
}
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Movie
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string URL { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public List<string> Genre { get; set; }
    public List<string> Actor { get; set; }
}
Imports System.Collections.Generic

Public Class Movie
	Public Property Id() As Integer
	Public Property Title() As String
	Public Property URL() As String
	Public Property Description() As String
	Public Property Genre() As List(Of String)
	Public Property Actor() As List(Of String)
End Class
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

How Do I Navigate Between Pages While Scraping?

Navigate to the detailed page to scrape it. IronWebScraper handles thread safety automatically, allowing multiple pages to be processed concurrently.

Why Use Multiple Parse Functions for Different Page Types?

IronWebScraper enables adding multiple scrape functions to handle different page formats. This separation of concerns makes your code more maintainable and allows appropriate handling of different page structures. Each parse function can focus on extracting data from a specific page type.

How Does MetaData Help Pass Objects Between Parse Functions?

The MetaData feature is crucial for maintaining state between requests. For more advanced webscraping features, check our detailed guide:

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Initialize scraper settings
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";

        // Request homepage content for scraping
        this.Request("https://domain/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.Attributes["class"] != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))
                };

                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                movie.Title = link.TextContentClean;
                movie.URL = link.Attributes["href"];

                // Request detailed page
                this.Request(movie.URL, ParseDetails, new MetaData() { { "movie", movie } });
            }
        }           
    }

    public void ParseDetails(Response response)
    {
        // Retrieve movie object from metadata
        var movie = response.MetaData.Get<Movie>("movie");
        var div = response.Css("div.mvic-desc")[0];

        // Extract description
        movie.Description = div.Css("div.desc")[0].TextContentClean;

        // Extract genres
        movie.Genre = new List<string>(); // Initialize genre list
        foreach(var genre in div.Css("div > p > a"))
        {
            movie.Genre.Add(genre.TextContentClean);
        }

        // Extract actors
        movie.Actor = new List<string>(); // Initialize actor list
        foreach (var actor in div.Css("div > p:nth-child(2) > a"))
        {
            movie.Actor.Add(actor.TextContentClean);
        }

        // Scrape and store detailed movie data
        Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
    }
}
public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        // Initialize scraper settings
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";

        // Request homepage content for scraping
        this.Request("https://domain/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.Attributes["class"] != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))
                };

                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                movie.Title = link.TextContentClean;
                movie.URL = link.Attributes["href"];

                // Request detailed page
                this.Request(movie.URL, ParseDetails, new MetaData() { { "movie", movie } });
            }
        }           
    }

    public void ParseDetails(Response response)
    {
        // Retrieve movie object from metadata
        var movie = response.MetaData.Get<Movie>("movie");
        var div = response.Css("div.mvic-desc")[0];

        // Extract description
        movie.Description = div.Css("div.desc")[0].TextContentClean;

        // Extract genres
        movie.Genre = new List<string>(); // Initialize genre list
        foreach(var genre in div.Css("div > p > a"))
        {
            movie.Genre.Add(genre.TextContentClean);
        }

        // Extract actors
        movie.Actor = new List<string>(); // Initialize actor list
        foreach (var actor in div.Css("div > p:nth-child(2) > a"))
        {
            movie.Actor.Add(actor.TextContentClean);
        }

        // Scrape and store detailed movie data
        Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
    }
}
Public Class MovieScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		' Initialize scraper settings
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\MovieSample\Output\"

		' Request homepage content for scraping
		Me.Request("https://domain/", AddressOf Parse)
	End Sub

	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		' Iterate over each movie div within the featured movie section
		For Each div In response.Css("#movie-featured > div")
			If div.Attributes("class") <> "clearfix" Then
				Dim movie As New Movie With {.Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id"))}

				Dim link = div.Css("a")(0)
				movie.Title = link.TextContentClean
				movie.URL = link.Attributes("href")

				' Request detailed page
				Me.Request(movie.URL, AddressOf ParseDetails, New MetaData() From {
					{ "movie", movie }
				})
			End If
		Next div
	End Sub

	Public Sub ParseDetails(ByVal response As Response)
		' Retrieve movie object from metadata
		Dim movie = response.MetaData.Get(Of Movie)("movie")
		Dim div = response.Css("div.mvic-desc")(0)

		' Extract description
		movie.Description = div.Css("div.desc")(0).TextContentClean

		' Extract genres
		movie.Genre = New List(Of String)() ' Initialize genre list
		For Each genre In div.Css("div > p > a")
			movie.Genre.Add(genre.TextContentClean)
		Next genre

		' Extract actors
		movie.Actor = New List(Of String)() ' Initialize actor list
		For Each actor In div.Css("div > p:nth-child(2) > a")
			movie.Actor.Add(actor.TextContentClean)
		Next actor

		' Scrape and store detailed movie data
		Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl")
	End Sub
End Class
$vbLabelText   $csharpLabel

What Are the Key Features of This Multi-Page Scraping Approach?

What's new?

  1. Add scrape functions (e.g., ParseDetails) to scrape detailed pages, similar to techniques used when scraping from a shopping website.
  2. Move the Scrape function that generates files to the new function, ensuring data is saved only after all details are collected.
  3. Use the IronWebScraper feature (MetaData) to pass movie objects to new scrape functions, maintaining object state across requests.
  4. Scrape pages and save movie object data to files with complete information.

Notepad window showing JSON movie database with film titles, descriptions, URLs, and genre metadata

For more information on available methods and properties, consult the API Reference. IronWebScraper provides a robust framework for extracting structured data from websites, making it an essential tool for data collection and analysis projects.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I extract movie titles from HTML using C#?

IronWebScraper provides CSS selector methods to extract movie titles from HTML. Use the response.Css() method with appropriate selectors like '.movie-item h2' to target title elements, then access the TextContentClean property to get the clean text value.

What is the best way to navigate between multiple movie pages?

IronWebScraper handles page navigation through the Request() method. You can extract pagination links using CSS selectors and then call Request() with each URL to scrape data from multiple pages, building comprehensive movie datasets automatically.

How can I save scraped movie data in a structured format?

Use IronWebScraper's Scrape() method to save data in JSON format. Create anonymous objects or typed classes containing movie properties like title, URL, and rating, then pass them to Scrape() along with a filename to automatically serialize and save the data.

What CSS selectors should I use to extract movie information?

IronWebScraper supports standard CSS selectors. For movie websites, use selectors like '.movie-item' for containers, 'h2' for titles, 'a[href]' for links, and specific class names for ratings or genres. The Css() method returns collections you can iterate through.

How do I handle movie quality indicators like 'CAM' in scraped data?

IronWebScraper allows you to extract and process quality indicators by targeting their specific HTML elements. Use CSS selectors to locate quality badges or text, then include them as properties in your scraped data objects for comprehensive movie information.

Can I set up logging for my movie scraping operations?

Yes, IronWebScraper includes built-in logging functionality. Set the LoggingLevel property to LogLevel.All in your Init() method to track all scraping activities, errors, and progress, which helps debug and monitor your movie data extraction.

What's the proper way to configure working directories for scraped data?

IronWebScraper lets you set a WorkingDirectory property in the Init() method. Specify a path like 'C:\MovieData\Output\' where scraped movie data files will be saved. This centralizes output management and keeps your data organized.

How do I inherit from the WebScraper class correctly?

Create a new class that inherits from IronWebScraper's WebScraper base class. Override the Init() method for configuration and the Parse() method for data extraction logic. This object-oriented approach makes your movie scraper reusable and maintainable.

Darrius Serrant
Darrius Serrant
  Chat with engineering team now
Full Stack Software Engineer (WebOps)

Darrius Serrant holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Miami and works as a Full Stack WebOps Marketing Engineer at Iron Software. Drawn to coding from a young age, he saw computing as both mysterious and accessible, making it the perfect medium for creativity ...

Read More
Ready to Get Started?
Nuget Downloads 126,948 | Version: 2025.12 just released