What is the process to build parsers and scrapers using Selenium and BeautifulSoup in Python?

Before starting with the code, it's essential to choose the right library or framework.

BeautifulSoup: This library works well with HTML websites that do not rely on JavaScript or API-based data population. It is less effective for websites that load content dynamically using JavaScript.

Selenium: Selenium can scrape almost any website, including those with heavy JavaScript usage. However, it tends to be slower and more memory-intensive compared to BeautifulSoup.

Playwright: Playwright is a good alternative to Selenium, particularly when performance is a concern. It can handle JavaScript-heavy sites and offers potentially faster performance in some cases.

Example: BeautifulSoup cannot scrape websites like BizBuySell (https://www.bizbuysell.com/) because it relies on API calls to load data.

With this overview of when to choose each framework, please refer to the following resources to get started with development:

BeautifulSoup

Documentation:

BeautifulSoup Official Documentation: https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/doc/

BeautifulSoup on PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/beautifulsoup4/

Tutorial Videos:

BeautifulSoup Beginner Tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVv6mJpFOb0

Selenium

Documentation: Selenium Official Documentation: https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/

Tutorial Video:

Selenium Beginner Tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7VZsCCnptM

Comparison of Selenium and Playwright:

Read this article on Selenium vs Playwright by Applitools: https://applitools.com/blog/playwright-vs-selenium/

Let me know if you need any additional information or resources!