WrapAPI v2
Dev tools
web scraping api builder
SHOW HN2017
166points
60comments
#222of 2,242 in 2017
Top 10%of 2017 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
4 positive, 17 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 10 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score -0.20.
Execution: 1 for, 5 againstPricing: 0 for, 3 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Easy to use and well designed compared to Kimono
From 2 comments
This tool is really well thought-out and useful! I made a working API in less than 1 hr. This tool has a much better design & implementation than Kimono and easier than using…
webninja on HNI think it's pretty close to perfect. I made a sample WrapAPI for http://etfdailynews.com/etf/{{symbol}}/ where the symbol is a 3-4 character ETF ticker symbol like VYM. It's one…
webninja on HN
Product tour and onboarding wizard are impressive
From 1 comment
By the way your Onboarding step-by-step wizard[1] is really awesome. I've used similar scripts on my sites before but they keep breaking because the users often click on some div…
superasn on HN
Objections
Pricing is not public, which deters trying it
From 3 comments
"Price: Contact us" Why?
randomsofr on HNThis is reallly neat. But I think you guys are losing a lot of potential customers by not having a clear cut pricing on you site. I've used similar services like parsehub.com in…
superasn on HNSuggestion: Please be upfront about pricing. I've been bitten with similar tool dying because they were too shy to ask for money.
captn3m0 on HN
Does not handle JavaScript-heavy sites well
From 1 comment
Doesn't work at all with JS. This is a big thing on many sites now. Also, since that is the case, you could build this in a few hours using something like:…
zackify on HN
Legal risk of scraping under CFAA and copyright
From 2 comments
The software itself probably wouldn't, but the use of it for anything anyone cares about probably would. The CFAA, etc., make unwanted scraping illegal and this has been tested…
cookiecaper on HNAnother court stated that copying data into a ram buffer for under 1.2 seconds was allowed. Depending on how they structure this it might be legally allowed.…
wolco on HN
Buggy UI and CSS selectors can freeze the page
From 2 comments
Glitchy on Chrome 57. When I load a page to build, I'm unable to scroll more than 1/4 of the page then it jumps back to the top.
notwhoyouthink on HNusing the css selector can easily cause the page to be unresponsive.
matz1 on HN
Requests
RSS feed support
From 1 comment
We're quite inspired by Kimono, and aim to be just as easy to use while handling use cases beyond scraping (e.g., fully automated form-filling, POST requests, etc.). One of the…
wrapapi on HN
Clearer sample input guidance for parameterized URLs
From 1 comment
I think it's pretty close to perfect. I made a sample WrapAPI for http://etfdailynews.com/etf/{{symbol}}/ where the symbol is a 3-4 character ETF ticker symbol like VYM. It's one…
webninja on HN
Questions
How does it compare to Kimono and Kantu
From 2 comments
How does this compare to Kimono?
danvoell on HNInteresting... how does this compare to https://a9t9.com/kantu/scraping ? WrapApi seems to tackle the same task (web scraping) from a very different angle. I wonder if anyone has…
RandomBookmarks on HN
Does it support authentication behind login
From 1 comment
What if the content you want to scrape->API is behind a login gate? Is there an option of authentication?
salimmadjd on HN
Alternatives named
Kimono
From 2 comments
How does this compare to Kimono?
danvoell on HNKimono shut down on February 29th, 2016 and the cloud service has been discontinued. It only exists as a desktop app now. Bought by Palantir, they retired in a good way, keeping…
nicoboo on HN
Kantu
From 2 comments
Interesting... how does this compare to https://a9t9.com/kantu/scraping ? WrapApi seems to tackle the same task (web scraping) from a very different angle. I wonder if anyone has…
RandomBookmarks on HNIf JS a problem for you, try Kantu. It works with screenshots and uses OCR for scraping. The beauty is that it works with any kind of site. But clearly, the speed can not match a…
RandomBookmarks on HN
Portia
From 1 comment
Great! It really look like a nice portia fork
MUCHZER on HN
Import.io
From 1 comment
The UI looks more like from import.io
Jayakumark on HN
ParseHub
From 1 comment
This is reallly neat. But I think you guys are losing a lot of potential customers by not having a clear cut pricing on you site. I've used similar services like parsehub.com in…
superasn on HN