Skip to content

Planning a scraper around the data you need

Practice · Sep 22, 2026 · BatScrape Team

Illustration accompanying planning a scraper around the data you need

A useful scraping task starts with a question about the output. What does one record represent, and which fields will make that record useful?

Before choosing selectors or writing a request loop, make a small example of the dataset you want. A business listing might need a name, a source URL, and a location. A video dataset might need a video identifier and a publication date.

Inspect a small sample

Look at several records, including incomplete ones. Check which fields are present consistently and which are optional. Note whether a displayed number is rounded or whether a timestamp includes a timezone.

When inspecting a page’s network requests, work with data you are authorized to access. A structured response can help explain the page, but its presence does not by itself establish a stable, supported API.

Write down the assumptions

Keep a short list beside the proposed output:

  • What identifies a record?
  • Which fields can be missing?
  • What stops a run?
  • How will duplicate records be recognized?
  • When was each record collected?

These questions are easier to settle with ten examples than after a large run.

Check the result before scaling

Compare the first output against your examples. Investigate missing fields and unexpected duplicates before increasing the result limit. For BatScrape’s upcoming Actors, the published listing and sample output will describe the supported task; planned coverage alone is not a field-level guarantee.

BatScrape Team

Building BatScrape

Back to blog

More reading

More blogs

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"
}