Racing Australia Scraper
Budget: $30 – $250 AUD
I want a program that scrapes the https://racingaustralia.horse website.
There will be two Excel files in this project:
• Horse Names List – this file will contain the list of horses I want the program to search on the https://racingaustralia.horse website. Horse names will be listed in Column A of this file starting in Cell A3, A4, A5 and so on. This list could contain hundreds (or even thousands) of horse names. I have included 5 horse names in the example file to test your program (you can use any horse names to test the program).
• Output File – this file contains the data I want on each horse. The example file contains the data I want. Search for Winx on the https://racingaustralia.horse website, click on the All Form tab, and you will see where the data in the example file comes from.
The program you write needs to:
a) Search the next horse in the list in the Search Box on the https://racingaustralia.horse website. When there is one horse name available, the website navigates to the horse page you need. Sometimes when you search the horse name, two or more options will appear (e.g. search Malkovich). In this case, you will need to click on the “Active” horse link.
b) Click on the All Form tab
c) Scrape the data as shown in the Output File
The Output Example File I’ve provided is my preferred output. I have the skills to isolate the data I want once the data is in Excel, so if it is easier to output the data in a different format to the example (or with slight differences), that is ok. The main point is that all the data I want is scraped, mostly importantly all the data in the All Form tab.
Sometimes there will be a line in the All Form data that says “Training information change” (for example, search Malkovich). In this case, just enter that data as a separate line in the output file (see the output file example for Malkovich).
There will be some variation in the data on each line and data often will be missing. For example, trials (T) do not have the same data available as regular races, some races will not have the same data as more recent races, or there might be small variations depending on the track, etc. In these examples where the data is not present, just enter a dash (-) or 0 when it is a number missing.
It does not matter which language is used to write the program – whichever is easiest for you and most reliable. I run a Windows 10 PC and use Chrome as my browser. If the program can be run to work in Windows 7 that would be great but not necessary.
Thanks, Rob
There will be two Excel files in this project:
• Horse Names List – this file will contain the list of horses I want the program to search on the https://racingaustralia.horse website. Horse names will be listed in Column A of this file starting in Cell A3, A4, A5 and so on. This list could contain hundreds (or even thousands) of horse names. I have included 5 horse names in the example file to test your program (you can use any horse names to test the program).
• Output File – this file contains the data I want on each horse. The example file contains the data I want. Search for Winx on the https://racingaustralia.horse website, click on the All Form tab, and you will see where the data in the example file comes from.
The program you write needs to:
a) Search the next horse in the list in the Search Box on the https://racingaustralia.horse website. When there is one horse name available, the website navigates to the horse page you need. Sometimes when you search the horse name, two or more options will appear (e.g. search Malkovich). In this case, you will need to click on the “Active” horse link.
b) Click on the All Form tab
c) Scrape the data as shown in the Output File
The Output Example File I’ve provided is my preferred output. I have the skills to isolate the data I want once the data is in Excel, so if it is easier to output the data in a different format to the example (or with slight differences), that is ok. The main point is that all the data I want is scraped, mostly importantly all the data in the All Form tab.
Sometimes there will be a line in the All Form data that says “Training information change” (for example, search Malkovich). In this case, just enter that data as a separate line in the output file (see the output file example for Malkovich).
There will be some variation in the data on each line and data often will be missing. For example, trials (T) do not have the same data available as regular races, some races will not have the same data as more recent races, or there might be small variations depending on the track, etc. In these examples where the data is not present, just enter a dash (-) or 0 when it is a number missing.
It does not matter which language is used to write the program – whichever is easiest for you and most reliable. I run a Windows 10 PC and use Chrome as my browser. If the program can be run to work in Windows 7 that would be great but not necessary.
Thanks, Rob