VbulletinScraper

VbulletinScraper is a Ruby gem designed to parse compatible vBulletin forums, threads, and posts. Currently only vBulletin forums v4.x are supported.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'vbulletin_scraper'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install vbulletin_scraper

Available Functions

Forums

is_valid_vbulletin
get_vbulletin_version
get_forum_url
get_forum_title

Threads (Topics)

is_valid_vbulletin
get_vbulletin_version
get_current_page_number
get_total_page_count
get_vbulletin_topic_id
get_topic_url
get_topic_title
get_posts

Posts

get_vbulletin_post_id
get_post_author
get_post_content_raw
get_post_content
get_post_submit_datetime
get_quotes
get_post_permalink

Quotes

get_quote_author
get_quote_content

Usage

At the top of your Ruby file:

require 'vbulletin_scraper'

Example usage:

forumScraper = VbulletinScraper::V4::ForumScraper.new('http://someforum.com')
isVbulletinForum = forumScraper.is_valid_vbulletin
vbulletinVersion = forumScraper.get_vbulletin_version
forumTitle = forumScraper.get_forum_title
forumUrl = forumScraper.get_forum_url

topicScraper = VbulletinScraper::V4::TopicScraper.new('http://someforum.com/forum/some-thread-section/1234-a-sample-thread')
topicTitle = topicScraper.get_topic_title
topicUrl = topicScraper.get_topic_url
posts = topicScraper.get_posts

posts.each do |post|
    postScraper = VbulletinScraper::V4::PostScraper.new(post.to_s)
    vbulletinPostId = postScraper.get_vbulletin_post_id
    postAuthor = postScraper.get_post_author
    postContent = postScraper.get_post_content
    postSubmitDate = postScraper.get_post_submit_datetime
    postPermalink = postScraper.get_post_permalink
    quotes = postScraper.get_quotes
    
    quotes.each do |quote|
        quoteScraper = VbulletinScraper::V4::QuoteScraper.new(quote.to_s)
        quoteAuthor = quoteScraper.get_quote_author
        quoteContent = quoteScraper.get_quote_content
    end
end

To grab multiple pages of posts (starting with latest):

url = 'http://someforum.com/forum/some-thread-section/1234-a-sample-thread'
currPage = 9999
postCounter = 0
maxPosts = 10
stop = false

until stop do
    currPageUrl = url + '?page=' + currPage.to_s
    currPageScraper = VbulletinScraper::V4::TopicScraper.new(currPageUrl)
    currPagePosts = currPageScraper.get_posts
    
    currPagePosts.each do |post|
        postScraper = VbulletinScraper::V4::PostScraper.new(post.to_s)    
        
        # etc...
        
        postCounter += 1
        
        if postCounter >= maxPosts
            stop = true
        end
    end
    
    if currPage > 1
        currPage -= 1
    else
        stop = true
    end
end

Contributing

Fork it ( https://github.com/bendrick92/vbulletin_scraper/fork )
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create a new Pull Request

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

vbulletin_scraper

Development

Runtime