AutoTrader Scraper

Scraper for the online vehicle marketplace, AutoTrader (UK). Built with Node and makes heavy use of Nightmare.js for browser automation.

⚠️ While run headlessly, Nightmare.js uses Electron to automate a browser window. This requires all of Electron's dependencies to be met which includes various UI focused packages. This may be an issue on various server distros.

Features

• Perform flexible searches using all site-available criteria
• Retrieve all significant data from adverts
• Login to an AutoTrader UK account to access saved adverts
• Retrieve Dealer data and their stock
• Supports cars, vans and bikes

❌ Due to recent and ongoing AutoTrader.co.uk changes, account features are currently disabled as of the 3rd of March 2019. These features will be reimplemented when new changes stop being made to the site's account system.

Installation

Install AutoTrader Scraper via npm by doing the following:

npm i autotrader-scraper --save

// yourscript.js
const AutoTraderScraper = require('autotrader-scraper')

Don't have node/npm installed? Get it here

Tests

Perform core functionality tests via the following:

npm test

Usage & Examples

Create an AutoTraderScraper object to begin:

const autotrader = new AutoTraderScraper()

Searching

Perform a search and retrieve the results via the following:

const criteria = {
    // required
    location: {
      radius: 1500,
      postcode: "BH317LE"
    },
    // optional
    make: 'ford',
    condition: ['New', 'Nearly New', 'Used']
}
const results = await autotrader.search('cars').for({ criteria })
    .then(listings => listings.literals)
    // or use .json to return as a JSON string

NOTE: A large amount of other criteria are supported and will be detailed at the end.

Retrieve a number of results

You can specify an amount of results to get by either specifying the number of pages or number of results you wish to retrieve:

const criteria = { /* define criteria */ }
const results = await autotrader.search('cars').for({ criteria, pages: 2 })
    .then(listings => listings.literals)
    // or use .json to return as a JSON string

or

const criteria = { /* define criteria */ }
const results = await autotrader.search('cars').for({ criteria, results: 50 })
    .then(listings => listings.literals)
    // or use .json to return as a JSON string

When giving a number of results, they will be converted to pages when parsed by the search object. Each page contains 13 results so the number of results will not be true to the input but rather rounded up to a number divisible by 13. This means, specifying results: 50 will be converted to pages: 4.

Metadata

You can retrieve data about the search via the returned SearchResult object.

const criteria = { /* define criteria */ }
const results = await autotrader.search('cars').for({ criteria, results: 50 })
const searchURL = results.url // the url used to perform the search
const averagePrice = results.average.price // average price of retrieved results
const averageMileage = results.average.mileage // average mileage of retrieved results
const dateOfSearch = results.date.string // or as an int
const possibleResults = results.searchResultCount // number of results on AutoTrader.co.uk
const retrievedResults = results.retrievedResultCount // number of results retrieved by the scrape
// the above is an alias for .listings.length and can also be retrieved via .count or .length

Retrieving Adverts

Retrieve data from an advert URL. These URLs can be retrieved from search result objects via the url property or provided by yourself.

const advertURL = 'https://autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201810101381913'
const result = await autotrader.get.advert.from(advertURL)
    .then(advert => advert.literal)
    // or use .json to return as a JSON string
/* as this method requires the use of Nightmare to execute on-site Javascript,
 * we must close the Nightmare instance once we're done with it */
await autotrader.exit()

To be efficient, you should retrieve all desired adverts before closing the Nightmare instance to avoid having to initialise a new instance every time.

Retrieving Dealers

Retrieve data from a dealer URL.

const dealerURL = 'https://www.autotrader.co.uk/dealers/hampshire/southampton/southampton-van-centre-10009006'
await autotrader.get.dealer.from(dealerURL)
    .then(dealer => dealer.literals)
    // or use .json to return as a JSON string
/* as this method requires the use of Nightmare to execute on-site Javascript,
 * we must close the Nightmare instance once we're done with it */
await autotrader.exit()

To be efficient, you should retrieve all desired adverts before closing the Nightmare instance to avoid having to initialise a new instance every time.

Account Access

❌ Due to recent and ongoing AutoTrader.co.uk changes, account features are currently disabled as of the 3rd of March 2019. These features will be reimplemented when new changes stop being made to the site's account system.

Login to an AutoTrader UK account to use account related features. Currently, this is just the saving and retrieval of saved adverts.

These methods require a Nightmare instance. Remember to exit this instance when you're done with it via the exit method. Once the instance has been exited, you must login again to use any account related features.

const credentials = {
    email: 'example@example.com',
    password: 'hunter2'
}
await autotrader.login(credentials)

You can easily log back out of this account via the following:

await autotrader.logout()
// then close the Nightmare instance if we're done with it
await autotrader.exit()

Saved Adverts

When logged in to an AutoTrader UK account, you can save adverts to add them to your account's 'Saved Adverts' list.

const advertURL = 'https://autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201810101381913'
await autotrader.save(advertURL)

You can also remove (unsave) an advert from your account's 'Saved Adverts' list.

const advertURL = 'https://autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201810101381913'
await autotrader.unsave(advertURL)

Retrieve your account's saved adverts via the following:

 // get all saved adverts
 const savedAdverts = await autotrader.get.all.saved.adverts()
  .then(results => results.literals)
 // get specific page of saved adverts (e.g. page 1 for most recent)
 const newestSavedAdverts = await autotrader.get.saved.adverts({ page: 1 })
 .then(results => results.literals)

⚠️ Remember to exit the Nightmare instance once we're done with it to avoid memory leaks.

Criteria

Things To Note

Condition

When defining the condition criteria, you can use either a string or array. An array value allows you to search multiple types of conditions in a single search. For example, the following snippet will retrieve cars in new or nearly new condition.

const criteria = {
    location: {
      radius: 1500,
      postcode: "BH317LE"
    },
    condition: ['New', 'Nearly New']
}
const results = await autotrader.search('cars').for({ criteria })
    .then(listings => listings.literals)

Custom Keywords

The custom keywords parameter must be sent in a single string but for improved readability, you can define the customKeywords criteria as a string or an array.

const criteria = {
    location: {
      radius: 1500,
      postcode: "BH317LE"
    },
    condition: ['New', 'Nearly New', 'Used'],
    customKeywords: ['leather seats', 'air conditioning'] // and
    customKeywords: 'leather seats air conditioning'      // are both functionally the same
}
const results = await autotrader.search('cars').for({ criteria })
    .then(listings => listings.literals)