How to pull data from an API?

Solution 1: Pull API data manually on a browser

The most straightforward way of accessing data from an API endpoint is simply viewing it in the browser. As long as you’re connected to the internet, you should be able to preview most API’s data regardless of its format.

Updating the data however requires you manually refresh the URL address and request new data points from the API endpoint. This may work well if you only want to download a few responses. When your API updates more frequently, viewing it on a web browser will not be effective.

Solution 2: Pull API data via Python

Python can be a powerful way to collect data from an API. Though it’s a programming language, it comes with many useful packages that support not only data collection but also data manipulation and storage.

To get started, you’ll need to install Python. Then you can import the required libraries such as “requests” and “JSON”. In the example below, you can print out the status of the API before pulling the data.

After reading the JSON objects, you may now normalize them into a relational table for further analysis.

Solution 3: Save API data automatically into a database

Another way of pulling data from an API is through cloud database management software, such as Acho. Here you can use a pre-build API connector to systematically request an API endpoint and store the data in a database for future applications.

The main advantage of using this method is that you can pull and store the data automatically. The setup can be configured upfront, then there are minimum maintenance efforts needed afterward.

Now, we will use Acho as an example to demonstrate how to connect to your API with no coding.

1. Configure the API endpoint

An API endpoint can be complex. It requires a good understanding of its technical design to parse it into a system effectively. For example, your API looks like this

You can directly paste the URL endpoint into the URL input box. Alternatively, you can enter the parameters respectively. Then, you can click “Test” to see if the request is successful. If all the configurations are correct, you should see the results as shown below.

If you didn’t see any result from your API or a system warning shows up, you should check your API documentation again and make sure all configurations are filled out. Here are some common issues that APIs are failed to be connected:

• Your API requires a specific authorization, such as Basic Auth or Bearer Token.➜ Specify it in the “Authorization” tab
• Your API need to fill out something in headers. ➜ Specify it in the “Headers” tab
• The result of API is a downloadable CSV file. ➜ Go to the “Data Format” tab and select “CSV”
• Your API contains curl brackets, {}.➜ The value within the brackets are dynamic. You have to give a list of values to the system so that it can change the value inside the brackets. We will talk about it later in this article.

2. Create an API resource

After you confirm the API results, click “Create Resource” to build the API connection. The API resource will show up on your resource page.

If you want to make the API connector update automatically, you can go to the “Data Sync” tab in the setting and turn on the scheduler. The update mode allows you to determine how to update the table: append new data to the existing data (Incremental) or replace the existing data with new data (Full refresh).

3. Store data into a database

After data is pulled from the API and the initial sync is complete, it will be stored in a tabular database that will sync with the resource. When the API updates, the resource should update its content and your project table should reflect that update as well.

4. Transform the API data

Within the database, you can freely transform it into your desirable table format. Generally, API data is stored in a nested data format, such as JSON objects or arrays. You can use the “Flatten” action to flatten the data into a tabular format. Also, there’re a number of built-in SQL-based actions you can apply to this data pulled from the API.

5. Export the data to an application

Once your table is built, you can use it to power an application such as a dashboard, spreadsheet, or an embedded table on your website.

Click the “Export in Workflow” button and then it will bring you to Workflow. In Workflow, you can send the API data to any desired destinations.

6. Check and maintain the pipeline

After the connection has been made between your Acho data project and your destination application, you should check and maintain the pipeline to ensure that data is transferred timely with no delays or breakages.

Visit Acho - Instant database software for big CSV files, APIs, SQL/NoSQL databases, and Applications. to try for yourself.

If I were to crawl Quora for data research, I would start by using the Google Chrome browser's "Incognito" mode. This would prevent my search history from being stored on my computer and make it easier to click through the site without generating any cookies or browsing history.

Then, I'd use a tool called "Scrapy" to scrape all of the data that I wanted. Scrapy is an open-source tool that allows users to scrape websites by writing their own code. You can find more information about it here: https://scrapy.org/wiki/start/intro/installation .

Once you have Scrapy installed, you can use its built-in functionality to scrape Quora for any information that you want—for example, if we wanted to find out what questions people ask about marketing analytics, we could go into our profile settings and select "Questions," then search for keywords like "marketing analytics."

You can also use Scrapy's built-in functionality for scraping headlines in order to pull useful information from a site; for example, if we wanted to know what articles on Quora were most popular right now (and therefore most likely relevant).

To understand how data scraping application programming interface or API works, you must first be familiar with API terminologies and web scraping. Data scraping refers to a process of extraction and storage of retrieved data from online websites and repositories. Web scraping services allow the copy of the content from websites and structured data in a specified way. The structured data are quite easy to manage and analyze.

APIs are a set of instructions that is a medium between different software. So, data scraping APIs are programs used for revealing the data and functionality of a specific website to individuals using it.

Ways In Which Data Scraping or Web Scraping API Helps Businesses

With proper utilization, data scraping APIs can work wonders for the business world. Organized and useful information is precious. Scraping API retrieves data online, and the entire process is automated. Hence, enterprises using this easily access what they need without going through millions of web pages. There are many more ways through which scraping API benefits businesses.

1. Comparison of Prices and Products

A web scraping API can be utilized to analyze several stores and listing to get product prices, their imagery, and descriptions. The retrieved data is then used for comparison, analytical purposes, and descriptions. By understanding the competitors’ offers, your business can optimize product prices effectively. It is proven that optimization of product prices has a positive effect on the business profit. With regular use, the data scraping API can allow businesses to provide products at an optimal price, resulting in more profit.

2. Customized Content Creation and Analysis

Content customization and analysis related to the audience is the best aspect provided by web scraping services. New platforms leverage it for content creation. Scraping data through technology from all these platforms can help the creators to understand viewers’ behavior. Customized content is done keeping the viewers in mind. The things that viewers like to watch online provide a specific website with a behavioral pattern. Hence, the channel owners can know exactly what their audience will enjoy. This benefits creator in emphasizing making relevant content.

3. Lead Generation

The major target of businesses is to make more and more leads. The entire process of finding out potential clients can be time-consuming and daunting. Here data scraping APIs comes to the rescue. The automated features of APIs are efficient, and in a short period, innumerable contacts are retrieved.

4. Tracking of Online Presence

Another remarkable feature of the data scraping process is the capability to view and copy all data from profiles of businesses and reviews. When your business use APIs for digital presence, tracking and retrieving every information from consumers and products becomes easy. The performance of sales can be seen from products, and the behavior about the product can be seen from customers. The APIs prove useful for business analytics as they can check millions of user profiles and reviews.

5. Fraudulent Reviews Detection

Customers generally have a habit of going through reviews to make product choices. Positive reviews remain beneficial for businesses, while the negative ones create disinterest in clients. Often the fraudulent reviews put the business image down in front of potential customers. The data scraper APIs solve this problem by blocking fake reviews. Thus, the API ensures that only authentic reviews remain there.

6. Online Reputation

The reputation of your business always matters. The better the reputation, the greater there is chances of success. Data scraping APIs helps to manage online reputation and makes you know your audience more. With the effective use of API, you can analyze the weak areas in your business.

7. Collecting Public Opinion

People always express their satisfaction with the product and their opinion on online platforms. Through data scraper API, one can retrieve comments and understand the audience’s emotion which eventually helps businesses.

If you have query regarding Web/Data Scraping API then our company Rlogical Techsoft will help you. Let’s connect with us at contact@rlogical.com or Custom Web & Mobile Application Development Company | Rlogical

Quora haven't released Official API yet. But there are several unOfficial Quora API and is very limited in what it does. Also they violates Quora Terms of Service. Programmatic scrapping of Quora site without express permission is prohibited.

(vi) access or search or attempt to access or search the Service by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through the currently available, published interfaces that are provided by Quora (and only pursuant to those terms and conditions), unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Quora (crawling the Service is permissible in accordance with these Terms, but scraping the Service without the prior consent of Quora except as permitted by these Terms is expressly prohibited);

Hope Quora will release an official full fledged API soon. :)

If you analyze the traffic the Quora iPhone application sends and receives, you'll notice that the application is using what looks like might be the early stages of an unreleased api.

For example, whenever you click on a user's follower list within the application, the app will fire off a POST request to http://api.quora.com/api/do_action_POST with a body of:

data=[{"uid":472,"action":"get_user_following_list"}].

The response body returns JSON with the count and follower details such as:

[{"count": 2635, "items": [{"userBio": "owner SlowMoneyFarm, agnerd, love critters, country music & life", "imageURL": "ttp://qph.cf.quoracdn.net/main-thumb-1155449-100-2GMJbfPNNP7jDg8kNrdsNOHrMxsJDmQi.jpeg", "uid": 1155449, "isFollowed": false, "name": "Jan Hoadley"}, {"userBio": "Austin, TX", "imageURL": "ttp://qph.cf.quoracdn.net/main-thumb-379-100-3ifZxlAxzQ35bggQeKygDF3eZOPVGKmE.jpeg", "uid": 379, "isFollowed": false, "name": "Sarah Smith"}]}]

Other example request bodies:

data=[{"tid":1624,"action":"get_topic_info"}]

data=[{"action":"sync_fb"},{"action":"sync_twitter"},{"uid":3851,"action":"get_user_info"}]

data=[{"uid":3851,"action":"get_user_notifications"},{"uid":3851,"action":"get_user_info","is_prefetch":true},{"altitude":12.59570407867432,"horizontal_accuracy":65,"action":"set_user_location","latitude":37.43167618687657,"longitude":-122.128758398623,"vertical_accuracy":10.75650962857601,"timestamp":1325868663}]

data=[{"qid":541503,"action":"get_question_info"}]

data=[{"uid":3851,"action":"get_user_answers"}]

data=[{"uid":3851,"action":"get_user_answers","metadata":{"is_refresh":true,"is_last_page":false,"ack_no":0}}]

data=[{"aid":255365,"action":"get_answer_voter_list"}]

There is a lot more fun to be had if you dig in and reverse engineer how the iPhone app is getting the data it uses to run. It's especially fun to format your own requests and receive structured data that doesn't require HTML scraping.

For the enterprising souls out there I am sure you can use this to build some interesting tools on top of. I discovered the above a few months back, but never got around to using it in any of my own Quora projects, largely because not all of the data I am interested in is returned via the iPhone app api at the moment.

The easiest way to analyze the traffic and intercept the requests is to use Paros, a man in the middle proxy. It's a cross-platform Java app that makes the process very simple.

1. Download the app from http://www.parosproxy.org/download.shtml.
2. Build the app: 'cd /Users/stormy/Downloads/paros/build; ant'
3. Open the app jar file, go to the Tools menu, select options, select Local Proxy, and supply it with the network ip address you're on, e.g.
   192.168.0.11, also easily found via ifconfig. Default port is fine.
4. On your iPhone go to Settings, select Wifi, select the Wifi network you're connected to, scroll down to HTTP proxy settings and choose manual. Enter the information you setup in the previous step.
5. Fire up Quora and watch the requests/responses come across as you interact with the app.

Quora de-anonymizer

Given an anon answer or question, come up with guesses for who that anonymous user would be.

I think it would be a fun problem to try to programmatically deanonymize Quora.

Theres been some research done on how to do this on other large datasets like Netflix[1], though in the case of Quora, a persons writing style, topical interests and people who already post on a particular topic ( who if present can be eliminated ) are far stronger clues as to who various anon users are.

There are some frequent anons on some of the topics that I follow where I am almost positive of their identity just by inspection of writing style, but doing so armed with deadly computational power at your disposal would be a lot more interesting.

Quora stalker

Given a Quora users id, build a detailed profile of a person and figure out exactly who they are.

The amount of personality data that your writing style and your topics can emit is orders of magnitude more powerful than your your Google searches brief interactions on Facebook.

This could be a building block for building other services, such as Quora ads, Quora recruiting, Quora dating, Quora activity partners and so on.

Am I Smart or not ?

Develop "smartness" leaderboard of posters across the entire site.

Reduce all the multidimensional variety in thinking style to a simple scalar variable. Wouldn't you be curious to figure out if you were stupid ?

Quora weighted upvotes

Given an answer, display all the answers in a weighted upvote centric manner rather than a flat upvote manner.

Run some kind of PageRank algorithm across users to assign them weights to upvotes, then present answers in a weighted upvote manner rather than a flat "one vote per answer" manner.

Quoreliza

Develop a human powered crowdsourced augmented intelligence bot that feels human.

Take Eliza[2] and hook it up to a Quora backend. As needed, the bot would both consult and post questions to enhance its answers over time.

This over time, as both the Quora community grows and the knowledge database grows, the bot would upgrade itself.

The ultimate goal ? Pass the Turing Test, of course !

[1] http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_oak08netflix.pdf.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

Start reading.

There’s no single answer or best way.

I don’t have any information from this question as to the programming languages you’re familiar with, platforms, desired target to scrape…

Shit, you can use bash to curl or wget then parse the text with grep. If you're creative and have in-depth Linux knowledge you can write a one-line script piping bash commands, pass a single parameter, and boom! Text parse of all the data you want to scrape.

I assume you don't have that level of knowledge (or you wouldn't be asking), but it's possible you have way more, and just forgot about the tools at your disposal.

Web APIs are typically protected from unauthorized access, so you’ll need to be able to authenticate yourself as a registered user. Once you are authorized, you can execute API URLs to retrieve data e.g. using the get() method from the requests module. Of course, you need to know the API endpoints and the arguments they need, and the format in which the data is returned, often JSON. A site like Radar Application allows you to obtain an API key and retrieve weather data.

Then you can use the JSON module to parse the JSON object returned into a Python object:

A2A.

“The service”?

As far as I can tell, Quora is basically a zombie at the moment. Various rumors of pivots and monetization have come and gone, and it seems the interns are often running the show while the inmates police the asylum relative to abuse and moderation.

From a user perspective, an open API would be both a boon and a menace.

On the positive side, smart UX people would undoubtedly race to fill all the gaps that the big Q has stubbornly left unfilled: a great search engine, a better rich-text editor, all kinds of cool skins, visualizations, and vastly improved feed capabilities.

On the other hand there would be a huge jump in nefarious and scam schemes, as even smarter people would find new ways to exploit and leverage the site for purposes both disruptive and (for them) profitable — though it would be ironic if that was how somebody finally makes money from the site.

Each web crawler has a particular ID associated with it. It is generally refereed as the customer Id by the companies whose pages are being crawled. These Id's are made public by genuine crawlers like google, bing, duckduckgo and many more search engines and data fetching online sites. Their is an option of not allowing a crawler to access you data. In case of fake bot crawlers whose Id is faked, it is an important task to prevent the data.

But as were being specific to Google, its bonet ID's are made public so that we can distinguish between crawling and actual human traffic.

I have seen instances when google bot crawls a particular domain at a certain time everyday, for as long as a month or so.

• I would find somebody to build an app for complete and ongoing data export, so I always have a backup of my core content that I can post myself or transfer to another service. Data Portability builds trust.
  
• I'm a stats geek and would love to see raw data I can manipulate to interpret and understand the Quora community's behavior. Make this a team sport.
  
• I would make/find a WordPress plug-in and widgets for showing some/all/selected Quora activity. These could be my recent/popular/active questions, comments, blog posts. These could also allow me to author a question or blog post in WordPress and cross-post to Quora. Same for tumbler. Quora could be a bigger part of my writing and community lives.
  
• I would craft a high-priority version of the Quora Inbox/Dashboard that let me hide activity that wasn't directly related to me. It would show only Asks To Answer, comments on and answers to my questions, comments on my comments, direct messages from other Quorans. This would be a short list focused on higher priority notifications. Sometimes I just want to garden what I've already planted.
  
• I would make a live, realtime Quora chat system, organized around questions and topics. A browser plug-in would send presence notifications so you could see on each Quora page if anyone is around who's engaged with this topic, and join the IRC-style or Google Hangout-style live chat. Bonus points: export recordings to YouTube as video podcasts and audio podcasts to libsyn or podbean. Live talk, on topic, is a whole other way of engaging.
  
• I'd mashup Meetup.com and Quora to make it easier to launch a new local meetup about a topic, invite fellow Quorans to the meetup, and post Quora questions to the meetup session's Q&A board. And vice versa. Quora face-to-face has always been fun; with a topical focus it could be useful.