Instagram Scraping using R

C

Chris B

Newbie

Jun 29, 2017

26

2

• Aug 25, 2017

• #1

*If this is the wrong forum for this question, I apologize. Please point me to the correct one*

Hello all,

I am trying to scrape Instagram with R (I also know some Python but definitely prefer R) and I am finding it very difficult.

Does anyone have a good resource for this? The resources i have found online are all directions made years ago, but since then instagram has changed its API policy. I am not trying to do anything too crazy, just save the details for my posts in a tabular format (time posted, amount of likes, amount of comments, etc)

If anyone has any good resources, please let me know.

Thanks

 

blackh4t

Power Member

Jan 30, 2009

735

251

• Aug 25, 2017

• #2

All you need is here: https://www.instagram.com/developer/

 

J

JustChillin

Elite Member

Apr 14, 2015

1,824

1,187

• Aug 25, 2017

• #3

The easiest way is by using the private API. There are many documentations of it on github, especially in Python.

 

J

Javardo69

Junior Member

Jul 19, 2014

117

9

• Aug 25, 2017

• #4

you just need to scrape the json data, instagram its relatively easy to scrape. You have to explore more the developer tools on your browser, its not a question if R or python its better.

 

C

Chris B

Newbie

Jun 29, 2017

26

2

• Aug 25, 2017
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #5

Javardo69 said:

you just need to scrape the json data, instagram its relatively easy to scrape. You have to explore more the developer tools on your browser, its not a question if R or python its better.

Click to expand...

Thanks
Do you know of any websites or anything that go into more detail?

 

Google Prince

Regular Member

Dec 24, 2015

209

182

• Aug 25, 2017

• #6

I never used R but after doing a quick search, here's the IG api: github
&
If your looking to not use an api, then use this http library called httr: github
Also a helpful guide using httr

 

blackh4t

Power Member

Jan 30, 2009

735

251

• Aug 28, 2017

• #7

Yes there is many examples, just use Google

 

C

Chris B

Newbie

Jun 29, 2017

26

2

• Aug 28, 2017
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #8

Thanks for all of the help.

Actually doing the data mining in R is not the problem. It is connecting to Instagram via R is what I'm struggling with. I keep receiving errors when I try to connect.

 

mnunes532

Elite Member

Jan 21, 2014

2,131

826

• Aug 28, 2017

• #9

What kind of errors? You simply need to send raw http requests, get the json data back and do stuff with it.

 

cryptons

Supreme Member

Jun 12, 2013

1,408

494

• Aug 28, 2017

• #10

You can use scraper package to extract data in json through python a easy one!

 

C

Chris B

Newbie

Jun 29, 2017

26

2

• Aug 28, 2017
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #11

mnunes532 said:

What kind of errors? You simply need to send raw http requests, get the json data back and do stuff with it.

Click to expand...

Can I PM you?

 

mnunes532

Elite Member

Jan 21, 2014

2,131

826

• Aug 28, 2017

• #12

Chris B said:

Can I PM you?

Click to expand...

sure, but I don't know R and I only know a bit of python.

 

J

Javardo69

Junior Member

Jul 19, 2014

117

9

• Sep 3, 2017

• #13

learn how to do a get/post requests, apply headers, read json data, thats all you need to learn to scrape instagram, also of course know how to work with network tab of developer tools on chrome.