How to Scrape Data from Websites in C#

ByDarrius Serrant

October 28, 2018

Updated June 1, 2025

IronWebscraper is a .NET Library for web scraping, web data extraction, and web content parsing. It is an easy-to-use library that can be added to Microsoft Visual Studio projects for use in development and production.

IronWebscraper has lots of unique features and capabilities such as controlling allowed and prohibited pages, objects, media, etc. It also allows for the management of multiple identities, web cache, and lots of other features that we will cover in this tutorial.

Get started with IronWebscraper

Start using IronWebScraper in your project today with a free trial.

First Step:

Target Audience

This tutorial targets software developers with basic or advanced programming skills, who wish to build and implement solutions for advanced scraping capabilities (websites scraping, website data gathering and extraction, websites contents parsing, web harvesting).

Skills required

Basic fundamentals of programming with skills using one of Microsoft Programming languages such as C# or VB.NET
Basic understanding of Web Technologies (HTML, JavaScript, JQuery, CSS, etc.) and how they work
Basic knowledge of DOM, XPath, HTML, and CSS Selectors

Tools

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 or above
Web developer extensions for browsers such as web inspector for Chrome or Firebug for Firefox

Why Scrape? (Reasons and Concepts)

If you want to build a product or solution that has the capabilities to:

Extract website data
Compare contents, prices, features, etc. from multiple websites
Scanning and caching website content

If you have one or more reasons from the above, then IronWebscraper is a great library to fit your needs

How to Install IronWebScraper?

After you Create a New Project (See Appendix A) you can add IronWebScraper library to your project by automatically inserting the library using NuGet or manually installing the DLL.

Install using NuGet

To add IronWebScraper library to our project using NuGet, we can do it using the visual interface (NuGet Package Manager) or by command using the Package Manager Console.

Using NuGet Package Manager

Using mouse -> right click on project name -> Select manage NuGet Package
From browse tab -> search for IronWebScraper -> Install
Click Ok
And we are Done

Using NuGet Package Console

From tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Console
Choose Class Library Project as Default Project
Run command -> Install-Package IronWebScraper

Install Manually

Go to https://ironsoftware.com
Click IronWebScraper or visit its page directly using URL https://ironsoftware.com/csharp/webscraper/
Click Download DLL.
Extract the downloaded compressed file
In Visual Studio right-click on project -> add -> reference -> browse
Go to the extracted folder -> netstandard2.0 -> and select all .dll files
And it’s done!

HelloScraper - Our First IronWebScraper Sample

As usual, we will start by implementing the Hello Scraper App to make our first step using IronWebScraper.

We have Created a New Console Application with the name “IronWebScraperSample”

Steps to Create IronWebScraper Sample

Create a Folder and name it “HelloScraperSample”
Then add a new class and name it “HelloScraper”

Add this Code snippet to HelloScraper

public class HelloScraper : WebScraper
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Override this method to initialize your web scraper.
    /// Important tasks will be to request at least one start URL and set allowed/banned domain or URL patterns.
    /// </summary>
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"; // Write License Key
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All; // Log all events
        this.Request("https://blog.scrapinghub.com", Parse); // Initialize a web request to the given URL
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Override this method to create the default Response handler for your web scraper.
    /// If you have multiple page types, you can add additional similar methods.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="response">The HTTP Response object to parse</param>
    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Set working directory for the project
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\HelloScraperSample\Output\";
        // Loop on all links
        foreach (var titleLink in response.Css("h2.entry-title a"))
        {
            // Read link text
            string title = titleLink.TextContentClean;
            // Save result to file
            Scrape(new ScrapedData() { { "Title", title } }, "HelloScraper.json");
        }

        // Loop on all links for pagination
        if (response.CssExists("div.prev-post > a[href]"))
        {
            // Get next page URL
            var nextPage = response.Css("div.prev-post > a[href]")[0].Attributes["href"];
            // Scrape next URL
            this.Request(nextPage, Parse);
        }
    }
}

public class HelloScraper : WebScraper
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Override this method to initialize your web scraper.
    /// Important tasks will be to request at least one start URL and set allowed/banned domain or URL patterns.
    /// </summary>
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"; // Write License Key
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All; // Log all events
        this.Request("https://blog.scrapinghub.com", Parse); // Initialize a web request to the given URL
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Override this method to create the default Response handler for your web scraper.
    /// If you have multiple page types, you can add additional similar methods.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="response">The HTTP Response object to parse</param>
    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        // Set working directory for the project
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\HelloScraperSample\Output\";
        // Loop on all links
        foreach (var titleLink in response.Css("h2.entry-title a"))
        {
            // Read link text
            string title = titleLink.TextContentClean;
            // Save result to file
            Scrape(new ScrapedData() { { "Title", title } }, "HelloScraper.json");
        }

        // Loop on all links for pagination
        if (response.CssExists("div.prev-post > a[href]"))
        {
            // Get next page URL
            var nextPage = response.Css("div.prev-post > a[href]")[0].Attributes["href"];
            // Scrape next URL
            this.Request(nextPage, Parse);
        }
    }
}

Public Class HelloScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	''' <summary>
	''' Override this method to initialize your web scraper.
	''' Important tasks will be to request at least one start URL and set allowed/banned domain or URL patterns.
	''' </summary>
	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey" ' Write License Key
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All ' Log all events
		Me.Request("https://blog.scrapinghub.com", AddressOf Parse) ' Initialize a web request to the given URL
	End Sub

	''' <summary>
	''' Override this method to create the default Response handler for your web scraper.
	''' If you have multiple page types, you can add additional similar methods.
	''' </summary>
	''' <param name="response">The HTTP Response object to parse</param>
	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		' Set working directory for the project
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\HelloScraperSample\Output\"
		' Loop on all links
		For Each titleLink In response.Css("h2.entry-title a")
			' Read link text
			Dim title As String = titleLink.TextContentClean
			' Save result to file
			Scrape(New ScrapedData() From {
				{ "Title", title }
			},
			"HelloScraper.json")
		Next titleLink

		' Loop on all links for pagination
		If response.CssExists("div.prev-post > a[href]") Then
			' Get next page URL
			Dim nextPage = response.Css("div.prev-post > a[href]")(0).Attributes("href")
			' Scrape next URL
			Me.Request(nextPage, AddressOf Parse)
		End If
	End Sub
End Class

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Now to start Scrape, add this code snippet to Main

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Create Object From Hello Scrape class
    HelloScraperSample.HelloScraper scrape = new HelloScraperSample.HelloScraper();
    // Start Scraping
    scrape.Start();
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Create Object From Hello Scrape class
    HelloScraperSample.HelloScraper scrape = new HelloScraperSample.HelloScraper();
    // Start Scraping
    scrape.Start();
}

Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
	' Create Object From Hello Scrape class
	Dim scrape As New HelloScraperSample.HelloScraper()
	' Start Scraping
	scrape.Start()
End Sub

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The result will be saved in a file with the format WebScraper.WorkingDirectory/classname.Json

Code Overview

Scrape.Start() triggers the scraping logic as follows:

Calls the Init() method to initiate variables, scrape properties, and behavior attributes.
Sets the starting page request in Init() with Request("https://blog.scrapinghub.com", Parse).
Handles multiple HTTP requests and threads in parallel, keeping code synchronous and easier to debug.
The Parse() method is triggered after Init() to handle the response, extracting data using CSS selectors and saving it in JSON format.

IronWebScraper Library Functions and Options

Updated documentation can be found inside the zip file downloaded with the manual installation method (IronWebScraper Documentation.chm File), or you can check the online documentation for the library's latest update at https://ironsoftware.com/csharp/webscraper/object-reference/.

To start using IronWebScraper in your project you must inherit from the IronWebScraper.WebScraper class, which extends your class library and adds scraping functionality to it. Also, you must implement the Init() and Parse(Response response) methods.

namespace IronWebScraperEngine
{
    public class NewsScraper : IronWebScraper.WebScraper
    {
        public override void Init()
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        public override void Parse(Response response)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
    }
}

namespace IronWebScraperEngine
{
    public class NewsScraper : IronWebScraper.WebScraper
    {
        public override void Init()
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        public override void Parse(Response response)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
    }
}

Namespace IronWebScraperEngine
	Public Class NewsScraper
		Inherits IronWebScraper.WebScraper

		Public Overrides Sub Init()
			Throw New NotImplementedException()
		End Sub

		Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
			Throw New NotImplementedException()
		End Sub
	End Class
End Namespace

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Properties \ functions	Type	Description
`Init ()`	Method	Used to set up the scraper
`Parse (Response response)`	Method	Used to implement the logic that the scraper will use and how it will process it. Can implement multiple methods for different page behaviors or structures.
`BannedUrls`, `AllowedUrls`, `BannedDomains`	Collections	Used to ban/allow URLs and/or domains. Ex: `BannedUrls.Add(".zip", ".exe", ".gz", ".pdf");` Supports wildcards and regular expressions.
`ObeyRobotsDotTxt`	Boolean	Used to enable or disable reading and following the directives in `robots.txt`.
`ObeyRobotsDotTxtForHost (string Host)`	Method	Used to enable or disable reading and following the directives in `robots.txt` for a certain domain.
`Scrape`, `ScrapeUnique`	Method
`ThrottleMode`	Enumeration	Enum Options: `ByIpAddress`, `ByDomainHostName`. Enables intelligent request throttling, respectful of host IP addresses or domain hostnames.
`EnableWebCache`, `EnableWebCache (TimeSpan cacheDuration)`	Method	Enables caching for web requests.
`MaxHttpConnectionLimit`	Int	Sets the total number of allowed open HTTP requests (threads).
`RateLimitPerHost`	TimeSpan	Sets the minimum polite delay (pause) between requests to a given domain or IP address.
`OpenConnectionLimitPerHost`	Int	Sets the allowed number of concurrent HTTP requests (threads) per hostname or IP address.
`WorkingDirectory`	string	Sets a working directory path for storing data.

Real World Samples and Practice

Scraping an Online Movie Website

Let's build an example where we scrape a movie website.

Add a new class and name it MovieScraper:

Add MovieScraper Class

HTML Structure

This is a part of the homepage HTML we see on the website:

<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

As we can see, we have a movie ID, Title, and Link to a Detailed Page. Let's start to scrape this data:

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";
        this.Request("www.website.com", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.GetAttribute("class") != "clearfix")
            {
                var movieId = div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id");
                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                var movieTitle = link.TextContentClean;
                Scrape(new ScrapedData() { { "MovieId", movieId }, { "MovieTitle", movieTitle } }, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }           
    }
}

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";
        this.Request("www.website.com", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.GetAttribute("class") != "clearfix")
            {
                var movieId = div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id");
                var link = div.Css("a")[0];
                var movieTitle = link.TextContentClean;
                Scrape(new ScrapedData() { { "MovieId", movieId }, { "MovieTitle", movieTitle } }, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }           
    }
}

Public Class MovieScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\MovieSample\Output\"
		Me.Request("www.website.com", AddressOf Parse)
	End Sub

	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		For Each div In response.Css("#movie-featured > div")
			If div.GetAttribute("class") <> "clearfix" Then
				Dim movieId = div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")
				Dim link = div.Css("a")(0)
				Dim movieTitle = link.TextContentClean
				Scrape(New ScrapedData() From {
					{ "MovieId", movieId },
					{ "MovieTitle", movieTitle }
				},
				"Movie.Jsonl")
			End If
		Next div
	End Sub
End Class

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Structured Movie Class

To hold our formatted data, let’s implement a movie class:

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

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Now update our code to use the Movie class:

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";
        this.Request("https://website.com/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.GetAttribute("class") != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")),
                    Title = div.Css("a")[0].TextContentClean,
                    URL = div.Css("a")[0].Attributes["href"]
                };
                Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }
    }
}

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";
        this.Request("https://website.com/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.GetAttribute("class") != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")),
                    Title = div.Css("a")[0].TextContentClean,
                    URL = div.Css("a")[0].Attributes["href"]
                };
                Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
            }
        }
    }
}

Public Class MovieScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\MovieSample\Output\"
		Me.Request("https://website.com/", AddressOf Parse)
	End Sub

	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		For Each div In response.Css("#movie-featured > div")
			If div.GetAttribute("class") <> "clearfix" Then
				Dim movie As New Movie With {
					.Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")),
					.Title = div.Css("a")(0).TextContentClean,
					.URL = div.Css("a")(0).Attributes("href")
				}
				Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl")
			End If
		Next div
	End Sub
End Class

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Detailed Page Scraping

Let's extend our Movie class to have new properties for the detailed information:

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; }
}

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; }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

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Then navigate to the Detailed page to scrape it, using extended IronWebScraper capabilities:

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";
        this.Request("https://domain/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.GetAttribute("class") != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")),
                    Title = div.Css("a")[0].TextContentClean,
                    URL = div.Css("a")[0].Attributes["href"]
                };
                this.Request(movie.URL, ParseDetails, new MetaData() { { "movie", movie } });
            }
        }           
    }

    public void ParseDetails(Response response)
    {
        var movie = response.MetaData.Get<Movie>("movie");
        var div = response.Css("div.mvic-desc")[0];
        movie.Description = div.Css("div.desc")[0].TextContentClean;
        movie.Genre = div.Css("div > p > a").Select(element => element.TextContentClean).ToList();
        movie.Actor = div.Css("div > p:nth-child(2) > a").Select(element => element.TextContentClean).ToList();

        Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
    }
}

public class MovieScraper : WebScraper
{
    public override void Init()
    {
        License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
        this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
        this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\MovieSample\Output\";
        this.Request("https://domain/", Parse);
    }

    public override void Parse(Response response)
    {
        foreach (var div in response.Css("#movie-featured > div"))
        {
            if (div.GetAttribute("class") != "clearfix")
            {
                var movie = new Movie
                {
                    Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")),
                    Title = div.Css("a")[0].TextContentClean,
                    URL = div.Css("a")[0].Attributes["href"]
                };
                this.Request(movie.URL, ParseDetails, new MetaData() { { "movie", movie } });
            }
        }           
    }

    public void ParseDetails(Response response)
    {
        var movie = response.MetaData.Get<Movie>("movie");
        var div = response.Css("div.mvic-desc")[0];
        movie.Description = div.Css("div.desc")[0].TextContentClean;
        movie.Genre = div.Css("div > p > a").Select(element => element.TextContentClean).ToList();
        movie.Actor = div.Css("div > p:nth-child(2) > a").Select(element => element.TextContentClean).ToList();

        Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl");
    }
}

Public Class MovieScraper
	Inherits WebScraper

	Public Overrides Sub Init()
		License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
		Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
		Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\MovieSample\Output\"
		Me.Request("https://domain/", AddressOf Parse)
	End Sub

	Public Overrides Sub Parse(ByVal response As Response)
		For Each div In response.Css("#movie-featured > div")
			If div.GetAttribute("class") <> "clearfix" Then
				Dim movie As New Movie With {
					.Id = Convert.ToInt32(div.GetAttribute("data-movie-id")),
					.Title = div.Css("a")(0).TextContentClean,
					.URL = div.Css("a")(0).Attributes("href")
				}
				Me.Request(movie.URL, AddressOf ParseDetails, New MetaData() From {
					{ "movie", movie }
				})
			End If
		Next div
	End Sub

	Public Sub ParseDetails(ByVal response As Response)
		Dim movie = response.MetaData.Get(Of Movie)("movie")
		Dim div = response.Css("div.mvic-desc")(0)
		movie.Description = div.Css("div.desc")(0).TextContentClean
		movie.Genre = div.Css("div > p > a").Select(Function(element) element.TextContentClean).ToList()
		movie.Actor = div.Css("div > p:nth-child(2) > a").Select(Function(element) element.TextContentClean).ToList()

		Scrape(movie, "Movie.Jsonl")
	End Sub
End Class

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IronWebScraper Library Features

HttpIdentity Feature

Some systems require the user to be logged in to view content; use HttpIdentity for credentials:

HttpIdentity id = new HttpIdentity
{
    NetworkUsername = "username",
    NetworkPassword = "pwd"
};
Identities.Add(id);

HttpIdentity id = new HttpIdentity
{
    NetworkUsername = "username",
    NetworkPassword = "pwd"
};
Identities.Add(id);

Dim id As New HttpIdentity With {
	.NetworkUsername = "username",
	.NetworkPassword = "pwd"
}
Identities.Add(id)

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Enable Web Cache

Cache requested pages for reuse during development:

public override void Init()
{
    License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
    this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
    this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\ShoppingSiteSample\Output\";
    EnableWebCache();
    this.Request("http://www.WebSite.com", Parse);
}

public override void Init()
{
    License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
    this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
    this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\ShoppingSiteSample\Output\";
    EnableWebCache();
    this.Request("http://www.WebSite.com", Parse);
}

Public Overrides Sub Init()
	License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
	Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
	Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\ShoppingSiteSample\Output\"
	EnableWebCache()
	Me.Request("http://www.WebSite.com", Parse)
End Sub

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Throttling

Control connection numbers and speed:

public override void Init()
{
    License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
    this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
    this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\ShoppingSiteSample\Output\";
    this.MaxHttpConnectionLimit = 80;
    this.RateLimitPerHost = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(50);
    this.OpenConnectionLimitPerHost = 25;
    this.ObeyRobotsDotTxt = false;
    this.ThrottleMode = Throttle.ByDomainHostName;
    this.Request("https://www.Website.com", Parse);
}

public override void Init()
{
    License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey";
    this.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All;
    this.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() + @"\ShoppingSiteSample\Output\";
    this.MaxHttpConnectionLimit = 80;
    this.RateLimitPerHost = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(50);
    this.OpenConnectionLimitPerHost = 25;
    this.ObeyRobotsDotTxt = false;
    this.ThrottleMode = Throttle.ByDomainHostName;
    this.Request("https://www.Website.com", Parse);
}

Public Overrides Sub Init()
	License.LicenseKey = "LicenseKey"
	Me.LoggingLevel = WebScraper.LogLevel.All
	Me.WorkingDirectory = AppSetting.GetAppRoot() & "\ShoppingSiteSample\Output\"
	Me.MaxHttpConnectionLimit = 80
	Me.RateLimitPerHost = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(50)
	Me.OpenConnectionLimitPerHost = 25
	Me.ObeyRobotsDotTxt = False
	Me.ThrottleMode = Throttle.ByDomainHostName
	Me.Request("https://www.Website.com", Parse)
End Sub

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Throttling properties

MaxHttpConnectionLimit
total number of allowed open HTTP requests (threads)
RateLimitPerHost
minimum polite delay or pause (in milliseconds) between request to a given domain or IP address
OpenConnectionLimitPerHost
allowed number of concurrent HTTP requests (threads)
ThrottleMode
Makes the WebSraper intelligently throttle requests not only by hostname, but also by host servers' IP addresses. This is polite in-case multiple scraped domains are hosted on the same machine.

Appendix

How to Create a Windows Form Application?

Use Visual Studio 2013 or higher.

Open Visual Studio.
File -> New -> Project
Choose Visual C# or VB -> Windows -> Windows Forms Application.

Project Name: IronScraperSample Location: Select a location on your disk.

How to Create an ASP.NET Web Form Application?

Open Visual Studio.
File -> New -> Project
Choose Visual C# or VB -> Web -> ASP.NET Web Application (.NET Framework).

Project Name: IronScraperSample Location: Select a location on your disk.

From your ASP.NET templates, select an empty template and check Web Forms.
Your basic ASP.NET Web Form Project is created.

Download the full tutorial sample project code project here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is IronWebScraper?

IronWebScraper is a .NET Library used for web scraping, web data extraction, and web content parsing, which can be easily integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio projects.

Who is the target audience for this C# Web Scraping tutorial?

The tutorial is aimed at software developers with basic to advanced programming skills, interested in building solutions for web scraping, data gathering, and content parsing.

What skills are required to follow this C# Web Scraping tutorial?

Basic programming skills in C# or VB.NET, understanding of web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and knowledge of DOM, XPath, and CSS selectors are required.

How can I install IronWebScraper using NuGet?

You can install IronWebScraper via NuGet by using the package manager console with the command 'Install-Package IronWebScraper' or through the NuGet Package Manager interface in Visual Studio.

What is the 'HelloScraper' sample in the tutorial?

The 'HelloScraper' sample is an introductory example provided in the tutorial to demonstrate how to create a simple web scraper using IronWebScraper, including setting up requests and parsing responses.

What are some features of the IronWebScraper library?

Features include controlling allowed/prohibited pages, managing multiple identities, web cache, request throttling, and obeying robots.txt directives.

Can IronWebScraper handle multiple page structures?

Yes, IronWebScraper can handle multiple page structures by implementing different methods for different page types in the Parse method.

How can I enable web cache in IronWebScraper?

Web cache can be enabled by calling the EnableWebCache method in the Init method of your scraper class.

What are the benefits of using the HttpIdentity feature in IronWebScraper?

HttpIdentity allows you to authenticate with systems that require login credentials to access content, enabling scraping of protected resources.

How does the IronWebScraper handle request throttling?

IronWebScraper supports intelligent request throttling through settings like MaxHttpConnectionLimit, RateLimitPerHost, and OpenConnectionLimitPerHost, ensuring respectful interaction with target websites.

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 and problem-solving.

At Iron Software, Darrius enjoys creating new things and simplifying complex concepts to make them more understandable. As one of our resident developers, he has also volunteered to teach students, sharing his expertise with the next generation.

For Darrius, his work is fulfilling because it is valued and has a real impact.