index.rst

Frontera |version| documentation

Frontera is a web crawling tool box, allowing to build crawlers of any scale and purpose.

Frontera provides :ref:`Crawl Frontier <crawl-frontier>` framework by managing when and what to crawl next, and checking for crawling goal accomplishment.

Frontera also provides replication, sharding and isolation of all parts of Frontera-based crawler to scale and distribute it.

Frontera contain components to allow creation of fully-operational web crawler with Scrapy. Even though it was originally designed for Scrapy, it can also be used with any other Crawling framework/system as the framework offers a generic tool box.

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce you to the concepts behind Frontera so that you can get an idea of how it works and decide if it is suited to your needs.

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   topics/overview
   topics/run-modes
   topics/quick-start-single
   topics/quick-start-distributed

:doc:`topics/overview`

Understand what Frontera is and how it can help you.

:doc:`topics/run-modes`

High level architecture and Frontera run modes.

:doc:`topics/quick-start-single`

using Scrapy as a container for running Frontera.

:doc:`topics/quick-start-distributed`

with SQLite and ZeroMQ.

Using Frontera

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   topics/installation
   topics/frontier-objects
   topics/frontier-middlewares
   topics/frontier-canonicalsolvers
   topics/frontier-backends
   topics/message_bus
   topics/own_crawling_strategy
   topics/scrapy-integration
   topics/frontera-settings

:doc:`topics/installation`

HOWTO and Dependencies options.

:doc:`topics/frontier-objects`

Understand the classes used to represent requests and responses.

:doc:`topics/frontier-middlewares`

Filter or alter information for links and documents.

:doc:`topics/frontier-canonicalsolvers`

Identify and make use of canonical url of document.

:doc:`topics/frontier-backends`

Define your own crawling policy and custom storage.

:doc:`topics/message_bus`

Built-in message bus reference.

:doc:`topics/own_crawling_strategy`

Implementing own crawling strategy for distributed backend.

:doc:`topics/scrapy-integration`

Learn how to use Frontera with Scrapy.

:doc:`topics/frontera-settings`

Settings reference.

Advanced usage

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   topics/what-is-cf
   topics/graph-manager
   topics/scrapy-recorder
   topics/production-broad-crawling

:doc:`topics/what-is-cf`

Learn Crawl Frontier theory.

:doc:`topics/graph-manager`

Define fake crawlings for websites to test your frontier.

:doc:`topics/scrapy-recorder`

Create Scrapy crawl recordings and reproduce them later.

:doc:`topics/production-broad-crawling`

Deployment and tuning information.

Developer documentation

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   topics/architecture
   topics/frontier-api
   topics/requests-integration
   topics/examples
   topics/tests
   topics/frontier-tester
   topics/faq
   topics/contributing
   topics/glossary

:doc:`topics/architecture`

See how Frontera works and its different components.

:doc:`topics/frontier-api`

Learn how to use the frontier.

:doc:`topics/requests-integration`

Learn how to use Frontera with Requests.

:doc:`topics/examples`

Some example projects and scripts using Frontera.

:doc:`topics/tests`

How to run and write Frontera tests.

:doc:`topics/frontier-tester`

Test your frontier in an easy way.

:doc:`topics/faq`

Frequently asked questions.

:doc:`topics/contributing`

HOWTO contribute.

:doc:`topics/glossary`

Glossary of terms.