Scrape facebook page like using Selenium

user_16899906 0
Viewed 1429

I'm trying to scrape facebook pages for analytical purposes using selenium.

http://www.facebook.com/123439757700947

Viewing page source I found the tag I need:

<title>Tzipi Hotovely - ציפי חוטובלי</title>

I used the method:

politician_name = driver.find_element_by_tag_name('title')
politician_name.text

which returned:

''

I would also like to get the number of people who liked the page from the following dictionary item:

"page_likers":{"global_likers_count":92987}

which is under the <script> tag:

I would love for some help...

I was trying the solution proposed:

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

link = 'http://www.facebook.com/123439757700947'
driver.get(link)

title_name = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.ID, "pageTitle")))
print(title_name.text)

likes = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.element_to_be_clickable((By.XPATH, "//div[@id='PagesProfileHomeSecondaryColumnPagelet']//descendant::div[contains(@class,'clearfix')]/div[2]/div")))
print(likes.text)

got TimeoutException enter image description here

enter image description here

web-scraping selenium python
3 Answers

You have to induce explicit waits.

I see this id pageTitle is unique in HTMLDOM.

link = 'http://www.facebook.com/123439757700947'
driver.get(link)

title_name = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a[href='https://www.facebook.com/TzipiHotovely/']>span")))
print(title_name.get_attribute('innerHTML'))

likes = WebDriverWait(driver, 20).until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.XPATH, "//div[@id='PagesProfileHomeSecondaryColumnPagelet']//descendant::div[contains(@class,'clearfix')]/div[2]/div")))
print(likes.text)

Imports:

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
user_94440730

Ok, this code covered most cases

only 14 out of 76 page_ids returned blank

politicains_dict = {}
BASE_LINK = 'http://www.facebook.com/'
# time.sleep(5)
for id in page_ids_list:
    link = BASE_LINK + str(id) + '/'
    driver.get(link)
    time.sleep(10)
    try:
        politician_name = driver.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/h2/span/span")
        likes = driver.find_element_by_xpath('/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[4]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div/div/div/div[2]/div[3]/div[1]/div/div/div[2]/div/div/span/span[1]')
        followers = driver.find_element_by_xpath('/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[4]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div/div/div/div[2]/div[4]/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/span/span')
        politicains_dict[id] = [politician_name.text, likes.text, followers.text] 
    except:
        try:
            politician_name = driver.find_element_by_xpath("/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div/div[1]/div/div/span/h1")
            followers = driver.find_element_by_xpath('/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div/div/div[4]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/ul/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/span/a')
            politicains_dict[id] = [politician_name.text, '', followers.text] 
        except:
            try:
                politician_name = driver.find_element_by_xpath('/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[1]/div[2]/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/h2/span/span')
                likes = driver.find_element_by_xpath('/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[4]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[1]/div/div/div/div[2]/div[3]/div[1]/div/div/div[2]/div/div/span/span[1]')
                followers = driver.find_element_by_xpath('/html/body/div[1]/div/div[1]/div/div[3]/div/div/div[1]/div[1]/div[4]/div[2]/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[1]/div/div/div/div[2]/div[4]/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/span/span')
                politicains_dict[id] = [politician_name.text, likes.text, followers.text]
            except:
                politicains_dict[id] = ["", "", ""]
                continue
user_168999060

Try below xpath to extract title. It might work.

//div[contains(@aria-label,'Send Message')]//parent::div//parent::div//parent::div//parent::div//parent::div//h2/span/span
user_164528400
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