SinaSpider: A python scrapping package for the Chinese tweeter platform weibo.com

中文说明

Intro

Weibo.com is the Chinese tweeter platform used by millions of people. This program helps download all published posts and accompanying images from a selected user, along with statistics such as retweet/like numbers for each post.

This program uses Python>3.0, requests and BeautifulSoup packages, and requires that the user has its own weibo account (so that he/she can obtain a working cookie).

Because weibo.com performs unpredictable updates that changes its page HTML structure, this program might not work properly at some point in the future. In that case, try submit an issue.

Requirement

Python>3.0, requests, BeautifulSoup

A weib.com account.

Functions

1. Obtain user's weibo, obtaining posts, user info, images links, and retweet/likes statistics.

2. Decode direct download links for images.

3. Download images from saved link list.

4. Analyze keywords used by the user

5. Make beautiful timeline web page based on saved posts.

How to use

I. Obtain account cookie.

• Open weibo.cn, log into your account (Not .com, use .cn).
• Open browser's web dev tool.
• Go to Network tab, refresh.
• Click on the weibo.cn line; to the right, click Headers.
• Under Requested headers, find Cookie, copy its content.

II. Enter your cookie and target user_id

In file config.py: enter your copied cookie content and the user_id that you want to scrape.

Please don't use the same user for both the cookie and the target user_id

III. Download weibo posts

Use run_read.py.

This file will use your cookie to access weibo.cn (mobile version) by mimicing internet request. The file will read user_id's user profile first, then all posts content by reverse chronological order (newest first).

Output files are: user_id.txt, user_id-compact.txt, imgref_list.txt. They are located at /weibo/user_id/ directory.

• user_id.txt contains user profile info and weibo posts. Each post contains post content and retweet/like statistics and ordered in reverse chronological order.
• user_id-compact.txt contains posts content only, in the same order.
• imgref_list.txt contains each post's image reference url, which is used by weibo.com to locate the actual image url. They are stored in the same order as post. If multiple images are present for one post, a group reference url is used.

IV. Decode image reference urls (OPTIONAL)

The image downloading process is separated into 3 scripts because they all take a long time. It is easier to continue working and debugging with small steps. Because weibo.com saves images at different servers, some image links could not be obtained.

Use run_imgreflist.py.

This script browses through every reference url stored in imgref_list.txt and tries to decode it by making a http post to weibo.com's server. The decoded direct download link is stored in img_list.txt in the same order. If the http post times out, the reference url will be stored anyway to reserve the correct order.

If group reference link is found, the script will try to decode all images under this group link. The program does not check the completion of gorup decoding however.

Output file: img_list.txt

img_list.txt will be stored at \weibo\user_id.

Continue decoding

It is possible to manually continuing decoding process if the script hangs after long execution time.

To do that:

• Edit file run_imgreflist.py.
• Find the line decode_imgreflist(base_dir + os.path.sep + list_path, 1). Change the last number to the last recorded index number in img_list.txt.
• Save and quit.
• Run run_imgreflist.py again.

A new img_list.txt file will be created; the previous file will be renamed with datetime (for example: img_list-20180101.txt).

• After completion of decoding all reference urls, combine all img_list-.txt files in reverse chronological order.

V. Download images (OPTIONAL)

1. Check img_list.txt

Now you have img_list.txt that is supposed to contain all direct download links for each image from all posts. But some of the direct links might still be reference links (a timeout remedy issue). In this case, run run_fix.py, which basically go through all links and re-decode any reference urls.

This operation will create img_list-new.txt. Rename it to img_list.txt. I did not do that automatically because you might want to check the files before starting downloads.

2. Run run_downloadimage.py

This script will download images from direct download links contained in img_list.txt

Images are stored at /weibo/user_id/images/fromlist/. Every post will have its own folder named with its index (used in user_id.txt).

Continue download is supported. Just run this script again. Downloaded images will be skipped automatically.

VI. Generate timeline web page

Run run_timeline.py. This script extracts all posts content and their statistics, and generate a HTML timeline with css. The timeline uses template saved in \timeline_template\. You can change the script to use your own template. For more information, read the script.

Complete list of output files

1. /weibo/user_id/user_id.txt (contains all user info and posts)
2. /weibo/user_iduser_id-compact.txt (contains compacted posts only)
3. /weibo/user_id/imgref_list.txt (contains image reference links)
4. /weibo/user_id/img_list.txt (contains image direct download links)
5. /weibo/user_id/images/fromlist/downloaded images/ (contians image files)

Changelog (2018.06.23)

1. Add pauses after every N page read for polite web scraping
2. Add timeout exception handler
3. Use BeautifulSoup insdead of lxml for better security
4. Bilingual README

Acknowledgement and Reference

weiboSpider

weiboAnalysis

Copyright

The program is licensed under MIT.

The script only provides a tool to obtain open, published internet content on weibo.com. Please obtain any necessary permission to use any weibo user's posts content or images, and comply by any copyrights laws.

The author of this script is not responsible for any act of users or copyright infringement. Please use under your own discretion.