crulvsmechanize
crul is a R library for sending HTTP requests and web scraping. It is designed to be simple and easy to use, while still providing powerful functionality for working with HTTP requests and scraping web pages.
One of the main features of crul is its intuitive and easy-to-use syntax for sending HTTP requests. It allows you to easily specify the HTTP method, headers, and body of a request, and also provides a simple way to handle the response.
crul also has the ability to handle different types of requests and responses, including GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and PATCH. It also support for handling redirects, cookies, and authentication.
Another feature of crul is its support for web scraping. The library provides a simple and efficient way to extract data from web pages, using a syntax similar to that of the XML and httr libraries. It also allows to easily filter the extracted data based on a specific criteria.
crul also supports parallel scraping, which allows to make multiple requests at the same time, thus speeding up the scraping process.
In addition to these features, crul has a good compatibility with other R packages such as tidyverse and purrr which facilitates the manipulation of the data obtained after scraping.
Mechanize is a Ruby library for automating interaction with websites. It automatically stores and sends cookies, follows redirects, and can submit forms — making it behave like a web browser without needing an actual browser engine.
Key features include:
- Automatic cookie management Stores cookies received from servers and sends them back on subsequent requests, maintaining session state across multiple pages.
- Form handling Can find, fill in, and submit HTML forms programmatically. Supports text inputs, selects, checkboxes, radio buttons, and file uploads.
- Link following Navigate through pages by clicking links using their text content, CSS selectors, or href patterns.
- History and back/forward Maintains a browsing history, allowing you to go back and forward through visited pages.
- HTTP authentication Supports basic and digest HTTP authentication.
- Proxy support Can route requests through HTTP proxies.
- Redirect handling Automatically follows HTTP redirects (configurable).
Mechanize is one of the oldest and most established web interaction libraries in Ruby. It is best suited for scraping traditional server-rendered websites with forms and multi-page workflows. For JavaScript-heavy sites, a browser automation tool like Selenium or Playwright is recommended instead.