DOM Parsing
Web ScrapingDefinition
DOM parsing is the process of converting raw HTML into a structured Document Object Model tree. This tree representation allows programs to navigate and extract specific elements from a web page.
How It Relates to CrawlForge
When CrawlForge fetches a web page, it parses the DOM to understand the page structure before extracting content. This is what enables tools like extract_structured to pull specific data fields based on CSS selectors or schema definitions.
DOM parsing is particularly important for dynamic content where the initial HTML differs from what you see in a browser. CrawlForge handles this by rendering pages in headless browsers when needed, ensuring the parsed DOM matches what a real user would see.
Related CrawlForge Tools
Related Terms
CSS Selector
A CSS selector is a pattern used to select and target specific HTML elements on a web page. In web scraping, selectors identify exactly which data to extract from a page's structure.
XPath
XPath (XML Path Language) is a query language for selecting nodes from an XML or HTML document. It provides a more powerful and flexible way to navigate document trees than CSS selectors alone.
HTML Parsing
HTML parsing is the process of analyzing HTML markup to extract its structure and content. Parsers convert raw HTML strings into navigable tree structures that programs can query and manipulate.
Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is web content that is loaded or generated by JavaScript after the initial page load. This includes single-page applications, AJAX-loaded data, and client-side rendered content.
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