PHP: How to scrape content of the website based on Javascript

Question

I'm trying to get content of this website using PHP simplehtmldom library.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/workingholiday/czechwhs.htm"

It is not working, so i tried using CURL:

function curl_get_file_contents($URL)
{
    $c = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_URL, $URL);
    $contents = curl_exec($c);
    curl_close($c);

    if ($contents) return $contents;
    else return FALSE;
}

But always get only respose with some JS code and content:

<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the page content.</noscript>

Is any possibility to solve this using PHP? I must use PHP in this case so i need to simulate JS based browser.

Many thanks for any advice.

Answer 1

I must use PHP in this case so i need to simulate JS based browser.

I'd recommend you two ways:

1. Leverage v8js php plugin to deal with site's js when scraping. See here an usage example.
2. Simulate JS based browser thru using Selenium, iMacros or webRobots.io Chrome ext. But in this case you are off the PHP scripting.