How do I make multiple form requests in the same Python spider with Scrapy

Question

So as you are about to see, I am just starting with Python/Scrapy/programming in general. I am trying to figure out how to do multiple form requests in the same spider. I am trying to scrape data from a clerk and recorder’s webpage, but for two (or more) different names. Here is what gets me the first pages of desired results (for the name “Cruz”):

Import scrapy
class LoginSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = "CRSpider5"
    login_url = 'http://recordingsearch.car.elpasoco.com/rsui/opr/search.aspx'
    start_urls = [login_url]

    def parse(self, response):
            validation = response.css('input[name="__EVENTVALIDATION"]::attr(value)').extract_first()
            state = response.css('input[name="__VIEWSTATE"]::attr(value)').extract_first()
            generator = response.css('input[name="__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR"]::attr(value)').extract_first()
            data = {
                    '__EVENTVALIDATION' : validation,
                    '__VIEWSTATE' : state,
                    '__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR' : generator,
                    '__LASTFOCUS' : '',
                    '__EVENTTARGET' : '',
                    '__EVENTARGUMENT' : '',
                    'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$btnSubmit' : 'Submit+Search',
                    'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$lbxDocumentTypes' : 'TRANS',
                    'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$txtGrantorGranteeName' : 'cruz',
                    }
            yield scrapy.FormRequest(url=self.login_url, formdata=data, callback=self.parse_quotes)


    def parse_quotes(self, response):       
            for test in response.css('table#ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_gvSearchResults tr')[1:-2]:
            yield {
                    'Debtor': test.css("span::text").extract_first(),
                    'Creditor': test.css("span::text")[1].extract(),
                    'Date Recorded': test.css('font::text')[3].extract(),
                    'Instrument Number': test.css('font::text').extract_first(),
                    'County': 'El Paso'
                       }

I would like to do the same thing above but with multiple names (changing the 'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$txtGrantorGranteeName' field to a different name like “smith” or “Jones”). How would I do this in the same spider? Thanks!

Answer 1

if you want to use a random name to start a Formrequest, you can:

import scrapy
import random
class LoginSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = "CRSpider5"
    login_url = 'http://recordingsearch.car.elpasoco.com/rsui/opr/search.aspx'
    start_urls = [login_url]
    **name = ['smith','Jones']**

    def parse(self, response):
            validation = response.css('input[name="__EVENTVALIDATION"]::attr(value)').extract_first()
            state = response.css('input[name="__VIEWSTATE"]::attr(value)').extract_first()
            generator = response.css('input[name="__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR"]::attr(value)').extract_first()
            data = {
                    '__EVENTVALIDATION' : validation,
                    '__VIEWSTATE' : state,
                    '__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR' : generator,
                    '__LASTFOCUS' : '',
                    '__EVENTTARGET' : '',
                    '__EVENTARGUMENT' : '',
                    'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$btnSubmit' : 'Submit+Search',
                    'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$lbxDocumentTypes' : 'TRANS',
                    'ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$txtGrantorGranteeName' : **random.choice(name)**,
                  }
            yield scrapy.FormRequest(url=self.login_url, formdata=data, callback=self.parse_quotes)

if you want to use different name to start many request,you can loop the 'name' list and yield more request