Unlocking Treasures: Seamless web Scrapping from Websites with Single Sign-On

 

As a data analyst, a key task you’ll frequently undertake is collecting the necessary data for conducting analyses aimed at addressing business challenges. This step follows the comprehension of stakeholder expectations and the definition of the problem during the “Ask” stage within the Data Analysis Process.

Data can originate from various origins and exist in diverse formats, including structured, unstructured, or semi-structured forms. Sometimes, you might find the necessity to engage in web data scraping, which is the central focus of this article.

Web scraping refers to the process of extracting data from websites. While there are multiple methods to accomplish this task, using Python stands out as a preferred choice due to its user-friendly nature and the availability of numerous dedicated library packages that simplify the process. These qualities make Python a prominent option for effective web scraping.

BeautifulSoup serves as a Python package employed for web scraping. Nonetheless, certain websites present challenges in scraping, such as those demanding a login before granting access to the desired information. In these scenarios, Selenium proves highly advantageous, enabling automated sign-ins that would otherwise be unattainable. Moreover, the presence of single sign-on mechanisms on certain web pages adds another layer of complexity to the attempt.

Let’s examine a code snippet that accomplishes logging in to a website with a single sign-on requirement. The first step is installing the Selenium library.

Then the code below does the actual login

The provided code enables Selenium to utilize your existing or specified Google Chrome profile for website login. This process automatically furnishes all essential details for single sign-on, mimicking a manual login experience. Subsequently, you can employ BeautifulSoup or other Python libraries to execute the web scraping task once the login is completed.

Note: To get your user_data and profile_name information, type chrome://version into the address bar, the detail is under the Profile Path

Conclusion

This article has provided insights into automating the login process for web pages or applications that utilize single sign-on, a task that might have been challenging otherwise. With this login automation accomplished, we can subsequently employ Python libraries like BeautifulSoup to extract the specific data needed for our analysis.

Thank you for reading.