Queryable Web Series – Introduction

The web is an ocean of information, yet efficiently extracting structured data from it remains a challenge. Traditional approaches like web scraping often rely on brittle, ad-hoc scripts or centralized APIs with limited flexibility. In this new blog series, Queryable Web, I will explore an alternative approach: a structured, queryable interface for web data extraction that extends beyond the limitations of existing tools.

From OXPath to a Modern Solution

This series builds on my PhD research, where I explored scalable web scraping architectures using OXPath, an extension of XPath designed to query and scrape web content effectively. While OXPath provided a structured mechanism for extracting web data, I encountered significant roadblocks due to its reliance on legacy libraries and its rigidity in terms of extensibility.

To overcome these limitations, I developed dr-web-engine, a lightweight implementation of OXPath that replaces XPath-based querying with a JSON-based approach, making it more flexible and developer-friendly. While dr-web-engine proved useful in my research, it was never fully developed into a sustainable open-source project.

This series aims to change that.

What to Expect in This Series

Over the coming posts, I will document the journey of rewriting and extending dr-web-engine into a modern, community-driven open-source project. Topics will include:

1. The Challenges of Web Scraping Today – A look at the limitations of traditional scraping techniques and why a queryable web matters.
2. Understanding OXPath – How OXPath works, its strengths, and why it struggled to gain traction.
3. Introducing dr-web-engine – A deep dive into its architecture, key features, and why JSON-based queries offer an advantage over XPath.
4. Rewriting dr-web-engine for Sustainability – Modernizing the codebase, improving performance, and making it extensible.
5. Handling JavaScript-Heavy Websites – Strategies for integrating headless browsers and dealing with dynamic content.
6. Building a Queryable Web API – Turning dr-web-engine into a web-accessible service with a RESTful or GraphQL API.
7. Scaling Web Scraping – Distributed scraping, concurrency management, and avoiding common pitfalls.
8. Security and Ethics in Web Scraping – Respecting terms of service, handling CAPTCHAs, and ethical considerations.
9. Getting Community Involvement – Strategies for fostering an open-source community around the project.

By the end of this series, I hope to establish dr-web-engine as a practical and sustainable tool that empowers developers and researchers to extract web data in a more structured and scalable way. If you’re interested in contributing, stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll break down the challenges of web scraping today and why we need a more robust solution.