webscrapper cURL ran out of memory

[kangkingkong]

Hi guys,

 

Im trying to make a webscrapper and im having a huge problem when retrieving huge amount of data. I have tried to increase the memory through PHP.ini but its still doesnt solve the problem.

 

The webscrapper I want to make is to retrieve data from database journal and put it into an excel file. While it is working with small datasets, it will run out of memory when retrieving large datasets.

 

Here is the code :

x

<?php
function fetchRawData($url,$search,$currentpagenumber,$numpage,$numrecordtotalsofar) {
	if($currentpagenumber<$numpage) {
		//initialise curl
		$url = "http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?queryText%3D".$search."&rowsPerPage=100&pageNumber=".$currentpagenumber."&resultAction=ROWS_PER_PAGE";
		echo "<br>new url = ".$url."<br>";

		$ch = curl_init();
		curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
		curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,true);
		curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_FAILONERROR,true);
		curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,true);
	//	curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,50000);
		curl_setopt($ch,156,500000000);
		curl_setopt($ch,155,500000000);
		curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER,false);
		curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST,false);
		
		$data=curl_exec($ch);
		if(!$data) {
			var_dump(curl_getinfo($ch));
			die();
		}

		
		

		//parsing data
		$parsedData = array();
		phpQuery::newDocumentHTML($data);
		$arrtitle = array();
		
		$posttitle=1;
		if($currentpagenumber<2) {
			$numrecordsofar=1;
		} else
		{
			$numrecordsofar=$numrecordtotalsofar;
		}


		//get the title, author and year of publication
		foreach(pq("a") as $link) {
			$title = pq($link)->text();
			if($title) {
				//use regular expression to get the relevant information
				if (preg_match("*articleDetails.jsp*", pq($link)->attr('href'))&&$gettitle<1) {
					if(!(preg_match("*View full abstract*", $title)))
					{
						$dummyvar=$numrecordsofar+$posttitle;
						array_push($arrtitle,$title);
						$countrecord++;
						$gettitle=1;
					}
				}
			}
		}
		
		//get the number of data
		foreach(pq("span") as $link) {
			$title = pq($link)->text();
			if($title) {
				if (preg_match("*display-status results-returned*", pq($link)->attr('class'))) {
					$countnumberonly = preg_replace("*Results returned*", "", $title);
					$totalpageint = intval($countnumberonly);
					//calculate how many pages needed and record the current page
					$totalpageint = intval($totalpageint / 100)+2;
				}
			}


		}

		//initialise write to excel
		$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
		$objPHPExcel->getProperties()->setCreator("Maarten Balliauw")
									 ->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
									 ->setTitle("PHPExcel Test Document")
									 ->setSubject("PHPExcel Test Document")
									 ->setDescription("Test document for PHPExcel, generated using PHP classes.")
									 ->setKeywords("office PHPExcel php")
									 ->setCategory("Test result file");
		
		// Set active sheet index to the first sheet, so Excel opens this as the first sheet
		$objPHPExcel = PHPExcel_IOFactory::load("IEEE_Scrap.xlsx");
		$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
		$objPHPExcel->createSheet();
		$row = $objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getHighestRow()+1;

		//get data from arrays	
		for($j=0;$j<count($arrtitle);$j++) {
			if(isset($arrtitle[$j])) {
				$dummyvar=$numrecordsofar+$j;
				$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->SetCellValue('A'.$dummyvar,$arrtitle[$j]);
			} else {
				$dummyvar=$numrecordsofar+$j;
				$globalIEEE[$tempcount+$j][0]="No Data";
				$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->SetCellValue('A'.$dummyvar,"No Data");
			}
		}
		$objWriter = new PHPExcel_Writer_Excel2007($objPHPExcel);
		$objWriter->save('IEEE_Scrap.xlsx');
		
		//close curl and phpexcel
		curl_close($ch);
		unset($ch);
		unset($objPHPExcel);
		unset($objWriter);
		$currentpagenumber++;
		$numrecordtotalsofar=$numrecordtotalsofar+$countrecord;
		set_time_limit(0);
		sleep(5);

		$rawHTML = fetchRawData($url,$search,$currentpagenumber,$totalpageint,$numrecordtotalsofar);
		return $data;
	}
}

?>

The logic is first I retrieve the data on a page then putting it into an array after parsing it then initalise phpexcel to write the data from the array into excel then unset cURL and phpexcel and then move on to next page.

 

Sorry the code is a bit messy as I have tried so many modifications but still cant get it work. Please help me !

[QuickOldCar]

Try adding these to the top of your script

 

 

ini_set('memory_limit', '-1');
set_time_limit(0);

 

Maybe you can handle how many you get different, like fetch the first array and save that into lists or files.

Then systematically fetch the title data later,whether by pulling the top one from a text file, or even from a database marking is as fetched when you do.

Can try unsetting any arrays you make when are not needed any longer.