Allows a terminal user to input a single URL or a list of URLs from an Excel spreadsheet or text file.
Prior to running the script, the following python packages or modules should (already) be installed on the system:
- os
- re
- pandas
Use the following terminal command to install above packages:
python -m pip install package_name
Note: if you plan to use Excel files, one must install an Excel (python) package like, openpyxl
.
Import the "url-intake-module" into an existing python (web-scraping) script and then create a constructor function from the module by assigning it to a variable as noted below:
import intake_mod
example_variable = intake_mod.accept_input()
Note: to enter a file path, please copy and paste full file path into terminal. E.g., in the Windows OS (right-click) context menu, choose "Copy as path".
- Accepts .csv, .xlsx, and .txt files.
- Outputs a URL(s) entered as a "list" object.
- Ignores whitespace and duplicate URL entries while validating the syntax of each URL string entered; i.e. if link has "http://" or "https://" prepended, etc.
- If a file path is entered, the script validates the file directory.
- If three unsuccesful attempts are captured in the terminal, the script will exit without outputting a list object.
Script has been validated to work in Python 3.10