Using TypeScript

Using TypeScript facilitates development by providing automatic highlighting of methods and properties, as well as type checking:

We recommend using the Visual Studio Code editor to create and edit scrapers

Install the A-Parser type library:

cd files/
npm install a-parser-types

A-Parser automatically creates a basic TypeScript configuration file if it is missing:

files/tsconfig.json

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "esnext",
        "moduleResolution": "node",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "sourceMap": true,
        "baseUrl": ".",
        "paths": {
            "*": ["node_modules/*", "../dist/nodejs/node_modules/*"]
        }
    },
    "include": ["**/*.ts"]
}

Create a scraper file:

mkdir files/parsers/Awesome-Parser/
touch files/parsers/Awesome-Parser/Awesome-Parser.ts

Use this template to start development:

files/parsers/Awesome-Parser/Awesome-Parser.ts

import { BaseParser } from 'a-parser-types';

export class JS_Awesome_Parser extends BaseParser {
    static defaultConf: typeof BaseParser.defaultConf = {
        version: '0.0.1',
        results: {
            flat: [
                ['title', 'Title'],
            ],
            arrays: {
            }
        },
        results_format: "Title: $title\n",
    };

    static editableConf: typeof BaseParser.editableConf = [
    ];

    async parse(set, results) {
        ...

        return results;
    }
}

note

A-Parser will automatically compile .ts files into .js before running the scraper

Differences from API v1

• Generators have been replaced with async/await
• The fields defaultConf and editableConf have become static
• The scraper class must be inherited from BaseParser
• TypeScript can be used optionally, but we recommend using it by default for highlighting available methods and parameters