excel – Web Scraping by TagName

XHR:

All the info is available via XMLHTTP (XHR) request – much faster than opening a browser.

I first retrieve the row count with a css selector of .main li[class].
The "." is a class selector, the li is a type selector and the [class] is an attribute selector. The space, " ", in between is a descendant combinator. That specifies I want to retrieve all li tag/type elements, with a class attribute, having a parent whose classname is main.

This matches as follows:

As you can see, this gives me the row count; the number of parent li elements to retrieve info from for the result set.

This collection of li elements is returned as a nodeList by querySelectorAll. I cannot loop over this list applying getElementsByClassName / querySelector to individual nodes, as li elements expose no methods I can use.

Now, as I am not using a browser, I am forced to rely on the methods available to HTMLDocument object. Unlike with a browser, I do not have access to the limited pseudo class selectors that they support, when automated via VBA, which would allow me to use selector syntax such as :nth-of-type to access individual rows. This is an annoying limitation of web-scraping with VBA.

So, what can we do? Well, in this instance I can dump the innerHTML of each node into another HTMLDocument variable, html2, so that I can access the querySelector/querySelectorAll methods of that object. The HTML will then only be limited to the current li.

If we look at the HTML in question:

We can see that the li elements are general siblings. They sit next to each other at the same level. As I loop my nodeList listings, I am transferring the innerHTML from the current node into html2; my second HTMLDocument variable.

It’s worth noting I could probably have descended each listing using children for example:

listings.item(i).Children(2)......

I could then have split on newLines etc so access all info. I think my given method is faster and more robust though.

VBA:

Option Explicit  
Public Sub GetInfo()
    Dim ws As Worksheet, html As HTMLDocument, s As String
    Const URL As String = "https://www.neighborhoodselfstorage.net/self-storage-delmar-md-f1426"

    Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")
    Set html = New HTMLDocument
    With CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
        .Open "GET", URL, False
        .setRequestHeader "User-Agent", "Mozilla/5.0"
        .send
        s = .responseText
        html.body.innerHTML = s

        Dim headers(), results(), listings As Object, amenities As String

        headers = Array("Size", "Description", "Amenities", "Offer1", "Offer2", "RateType", "Price")
        Set listings = html.querySelectorAll(".main li[class]")

        Dim rowCount As Long, numColumns As Long, r As Long, c As Long
        Dim icons As Object, icon As Long, amenitiesInfo(), i As Long, item As Long

        rowCount = listings.Length
        numColumns = UBound(headers) + 1

        ReDim results(1 To rowCount, 1 To numColumns)
        Dim html2 As HTMLDocument
        Set html2 = New HTMLDocument
        For item = 0 To listings.Length - 1
            r = r + 1
            html2.body.innerHTML = listings.item(item).innerHTML
            'size,description, amenities,specials offer1 offer2, rate type, price

            results(r, 1) = Trim$(html2.querySelector(".size").innerText)
            results(r, 2) = Trim$(html2.querySelector(".description").innerText)
            Set icons = html2.querySelectorAll("i[title]")

            ReDim amenitiesInfo(0 To icons.Length - 1)

            For icon = 0 To icons.Length - 1
                amenitiesInfo(icon) = icons.item(icon).getAttribute("title")
            Next

            amenities = Join$(amenitiesInfo, ", ")

            results(r, 3) = amenities
            results(r, 4) = html2.querySelector(".offer1").innerText
            results(r, 5) = html2.querySelector(".offer2").innerText
            results(r, 6) = html2.querySelector(".rate-label").innerText
            results(r, 7) = html2.querySelector(".price").innerText
        Next

        ws.Cells(1, 1).Resize(1, UBound(headers) + 1) = headers
        ws.Cells(2, 1).Resize(UBound(results, 1), UBound(results, 2)) = results
    End With
End Sub

Internet Explorer:

Assuming not re-directed from given url. Here I am using :nth-of-type pseudo class selector to target each row of the listings. Those rows are the li (list) elements holding the info for each box listing. I build up a css selector string that specifies the row and then the element within the row I am after. I pass that string to querySelector, or querySelectorAll which returns matched element/s.

Option Explicit

Public Sub UseIE()
    Dim ie As New InternetExplorerm, ws As Worksheet
    Const Url As String = "https://www.neighborhoodselfstorage.net/self-storage-delmar-md-f142"

    Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("Sheet1")

    With ie
        .Visible = True
        .Navigate2 Url

        While .Busy Or .readyState < 4: DoEvents: Wend

        Dim headers(), results(), listings As Object, listing As Object, amenities As String

        headers = Array("Size", "Description", "Amenities", "Offer1", "Offer2", "RateType", "Price")

        Set listings = .document.querySelectorAll(".main li[class]")

        Dim rowCount As Long, numColumns As Long, r As Long, c As Long
        Dim icons As Object, icon As Long, amenitiesInfo(), i As Long

        rowCount = listings.Length
        numColumns = UBound(headers) + 1
        ReDim results(1 To rowCount, 1 To numColumns)
        For Each listing In listings
            r = r + 1
            'size,description, amenities,specials offer1 offer2, rate type, price
            With .document

                results(r, 1) = Trim$(.querySelector(".main li:nth-of-type(" & r & ") .size").innerText)
                results(r, 2) = Trim$(.querySelector(".main li:nth-of-type(" & r & ") .description").innerText)

                Set icons = .querySelectorAll("." & Join$(Split(listing.className, Chr$(32)), ".") & ":nth-of-type(" & r & ") i[title]")

                ReDim amenitiesInfo(0 To icons.Length - 1)

                For icon = 0 To icons.Length - 1
                    amenitiesInfo(icon) = icons.item(icon).getAttribute("title")
                Next

                amenities = Join$(amenitiesInfo, ",")
                results(r, 3) = amenities
                results(r, 4) = .querySelector(".main li:nth-of-type(" & r & ") .offer1").innerText
                results(r, 5) = .querySelector(".main li:nth-of-type(" & r & ") .offer2").innerText
                results(r, 6) = .querySelector(".main li:nth-of-type(" & r & ") .rate-label").innerText
                results(r, 7) = .querySelector(".main li:nth-of-type(" & r & ") .price").innerText
            End With
        Next
        .Quit
        ws.Cells(1, 1).Resize(1, UBound(headers) + 1) = headers
        ws.Cells(2, 1).Resize(UBound(results, 1), UBound(results, 2)) = results
    End With
End Sub

References (VBE > Tools > References):

1. Microsoft HTML Object Library
2. Microsoft Internet Controls