Catscrape

Catscrape is a library with web scraping functions for the popular beginner programming website Scratch.mit.edu. It can extract data from followers, studios, and soon extract hearts, stars, and remix counts for projects.

Functionality

This library is new, so most features are on the to-do list. Here are the supported and planned features:

Data to Extract	Support
User followers	✅Supported
User following	✅Supported
Get user "About Me"	✅Supported
Get user "What I'm Working On"	✅Supported
Get user shared projects	🟨Coming Soon
Studio curators	✅Supported
Auto invite to studio	✅Supported
Project hearts	✅Supported
Project stars	✅Supported
Project remixes	✅Supported
Project viewes	✅Supported
Get project description	🟨Coming Soon
Get project notes	🟨Coming Soon
Get sprite names	🟨Coming Soon
Get comments	🟨Coming Soon

Installation

The library can be installed via pip install:

pip install catscrape

The install might take some time as the dependencies include Selenium

Documentation

Scratcher

The Scratcher class has methods to get the number of followers and the number of users the user is following. They are all listed below. A Scratcher object can be initalized as shown below. In the example code, it is assumed a variable named user is assigned to a Scratcher object.

>>> import catscrape
>>> user = catscrape.Scratcher("CrystalKeeper7")

All of the methods can be passed a verbose argument, which controls various print statements to assure the user of progress.

All of the methods cache their outputs. For example, if Scratcher.follower_count is called, then Scratcher.get_followers will return instantly. Scratcher.follower_count and Scratcher.get_followers all cache their outputs for each other (as well as their following inverses); Scratcher.is_following (and it's is_followed_by inverse) can also cache it's output, if the cache argument is set to True. If you intend to call other methods after the is_following function, make sure the cache parameter is set to True. If you only intend to call is_following once, set the cache parameter to False. The get_about_me and get_working_on methods also cache their outputs.

get_followers

The Scratcher.get_followers method returns a list of the the followers of the user:

>>> followers = user.get_followers()
>>> type(followers)
<class 'list'>
>>> type(followers[0])
<class 'str'>

get_following

The Scratcher.get_following method returns a list of the users that the user is following:

>>> following = user.get_following()
>>> type(followers)
<class 'list'>
>>> type(followers[0])
<class 'str'>

is_following

The Scratcher.is_following method has a parameter username, and returns whether the user is following that username.

>>> is_following_griffpatch = user.is_following("griffpatch")
>>> type(is_following_griffpatch)
<class 'bool'>

is_followed_by

The inverse of the Scratcher.is_following method, returning whether the user is followed by the given username.

>>> is_following_griffpatch = user.is_following("griffpatch")
>>> type(is_following_griffpatch)
<class 'bool'>

follower_count and following_count

Returns the follower or following count for the user.

>>> num_followers = user.follower_count()
>>> type(num_followers)
<class 'int'>
>>> num_followers = user.follower_count()
>>> type(num_followers)
<class 'int'>

get_about_me and get_working_on

Returns the text of the "About Me" or "What I'm Working On" section of the user's page.

>>> about_me = user.get_about_me()
>>> type(about_me)
<class 'str'>
>>> working_on = user.get_working_on()
>>> type(working_on)
<class 'str'>

Providing Login

The Studio.invite_curators method requires an account with manager or host authority to invite curators. The save_login_data function saves the login data of an account. The data is saved in a pickle file in a folder in the appdata folder of the computer. Example usage is shown below:

>>> from catscrape import save_login_data
>>> save_login_data("<username>", "<password>")
Successfully saved the login data.

Studio

The Studio class has methods to get the curators of the studio, and to auto-invite curators. Below is an example of initalizing the studio class. The one parameter is the studio id.

>>> from catscrape import Studio
>>> studio = Studio(45693845)

The Studio.get_curators and Studio.curator_count methods both cache their outputs and use each others cache.

get_curators

The Studio.get_curators method returns all of the curators of the studio. Becuase it has to physically scroll through the curators using selenium (headless, of course), this function tends to take longer. The scroll_wait_time parameter adjusts the amount of time to wait after pressing the "Load More" button to press it again. Changing this too low causes instability in results, possibly leading to incorrect results, with too few curators.

>>> curators = studio.get_curators(
...     scroll_wait_time=0.25 # More reliable, but slower
... )
>>> type(curators)
<class 'list'>
>>> type(curators[0])
<class 'str'>

curator_count

The Studio.curator_count method returns the number of curators in the studio.

>>> num_curators = studio.curator_count()
>>> type(num_curators)
<class 'int'>

invite_curators

The Studio.invite_curators method invites curators to the studio. Login info is required for this. See "Providing Login" above. The usernames to invite should be passed to the method. A physical Chrome window will open, and will be controlled by selenium to login and invite the curators. Warning: I have experienced failure to invite more users after about 100-150 invites in a row. Try to limit the number of usernames to invite in a batch to below this value to avoid partial failure.

>>> invitees = ["griffpatch", "CrystalKeeper7", "DominoKid11", "username4"]
>>> studio.invite_curators(
...     usernames=invitees
... )
<invites curators>

Versions

1.2.3

• Modified the Scratcher.get_about_me and Scratcher.get_working_on to remove a tags and br tags.
• Fixed the Scratcher.get_followers and Scratcher.get_following methods from returning random incorrect usernames at the end of the list, and made them more resilent to future changes.

1.2.2

• Hotfix: Fixed invalid def syntax in project.py

1.2.1

• Removed the Studio.invite_curators method for simplification, and to stay focused on catscrape's objective.

1.2.0

• Added the Project class.
• Revamped caching of data in Scratcher class, and added caching in Studio class.
• Added the Studio.curator_count method.
• Made the Selenium driver run with a disguised agent name, reducing chance of auto-block.
• Added unit tests to the Github repository.

1.1.2

• Hotfix: Incorrect import statements in scratcher.py and web.py.

1.1.1

• Added methods to get user "About Me" and "What I'm Working On" sections.

1.1.0

• Initial release