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Why we’re planning one Actor per source

Architecture · Sep 18, 2026 · BatScrape Team

Illustration accompanying why we’re planning one actor per source

A search for local businesses and a search for videos ask different questions. They also need different inputs, pagination rules, and output fields. That is why we’re planning source-specific Actors for BatScrape.

This is a design direction for the Actors in development, rather than a report from a mature catalogue.

Start with a clear task

An Actor should explain what it collects before someone starts a run. For a maps scraper, that might mean listings for a query and a location. For a video scraper, the inputs and the meaning of a result will be different.

We want each listing to describe its own supported inputs, example output, and limits. A field that matters for one source should not become an unexplained empty column in every other dataset.

Share conventions where they help

Source-specific does not mean every detail needs a different name. We plan to use consistent conventions for source URLs, collection timestamps, and record identifiers where the underlying data allows it.

The source still determines what can be collected. Shared conventions cannot create fields that a source does not expose.

Make availability explicit

Our website currently links planned scrapers to the

BatScrape Apify profile

. As Actors are released, each scraper will link to its own listing. That listing will be the place to check supported behavior before running a job.

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YOUR NEXT DATA PROJECT STARTS HERE

Explore a source. Imagine what’s next.

From public platforms to structured data. We’re building source-specific Actors for Apify, so you can spend more time on what comes next.

Visit our Apify profile Explore the workflow
Building on Apify JSON / CSV

TikTok Shop, Reddit, Threads, TikTok, Douyin, FollowScores, and Realtor.com are live on Apify. The other sources in the example are planned.

LIVE & PLANNED SOURCES → EXAMPLE DATASET

BAT SCRAPE
Runs on Apify
{ } your-data.json JSON 
{
  "id": "0000000000000000001",
  "description": "Example description #example",
  "createDate": "2026-09-01",
  "searchKeyword": "coffee"
}
✓ Structured & ready to use EXAMPLE DATA

Pick a platform. See what comes out.

your-data.json EXAMPLE 
{
  "id": "0000000000000000001",
  "description": "Example description #example",
  "createDate": "2026-09-01",
  "searchKeyword": "coffee"
}