Use ScraperAPI Endpoint in Java

Learn to use ScraperAPI's endpoint for web scraping in Java. Configure parameters and send GET requests with API keys, enable JS rendering, and set geotargeting.

ScraperAPI exposes a single API endpoint for you to send GET requests. Simply send a GET request to http://api.scraperapi.com with two query string parameters and the API will return the HTML response for that URL:

• api_key which contains your API key, and

• url which contains the url you would like to scrape

You should format your requests to the API endpoint as follows:

try {
String apiKey = "APIKEY";
String url = "https://api.scraperapi.com?api_key=" + apiKey + "&url=http://httpbin.org/ip";
URL urlForGetRequest = new URL(url);
String readLine = null;
HttpURLConnection conection = (HttpURLConnection) urlForGetRequest.openConnection();
conection.setRequestMethod("GET");
int responseCode = conection.getResponseCode();
if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conection.getInputStream()));
StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
while ((readLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
response.append(readLine);
}
in.close();
System.out.println(response.toString());
} else {
throw new Exception("Error in API Call");
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}

To enable other API functionality when sending a request to the API endpoint simply add the appropriate query parameters to the end of the ScraperAPI URL.

For example, if you want to enable Javascript rendering with a request, then add render=true to the request:

try {
String apiKey = "APIKEY";
String url = "https://api.scraperapi.com?api_key=" + apiKey + "&url=http://httpbin.org/ip&render=true";
URL urlForGetRequest = new URL(url);
String readLine = null;
HttpURLConnection conection = (HttpURLConnection) urlForGetRequest.openConnection();
conection.setRequestMethod("GET");
int responseCode = conection.getResponseCode();
if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conection.getInputStream()));
StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
while ((readLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
response.append(readLine);
}
in.close();
System.out.println(response.toString());
} else {
throw new Exception("Error in API Call");
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}

To use two or more parameters, simply separate them with the “&” sign.

try {
String apiKey = "APIKEY";
String url = "https://api.scraperapi.com?api_key=" + apiKey + "&url=http://httpbin.org/ip&render=true&country_code=us";
URL urlForGetRequest = new URL(url);
String readLine = null;
HttpURLConnection conection = (HttpURLConnection) urlForGetRequest.openConnection();
conection.setRequestMethod("GET");
int responseCode = conection.getResponseCode();
if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(conection.getInputStream()));
StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();
while ((readLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
response.append(readLine);
}
in.close();
System.out.println(response.toString());
} else {
throw new Exception("Error in API Call");
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}