HTTrack Website Scraper - Apify Actor

Download complete websites using HTTrack and get them as ZIP archives. Perfect for creating offline backups, archiving websites, or downloading entire sites with all assets (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, videos).

Features

✅ Complete Website Downloads - Downloads entire websites with all assets
✅ ZIP Archive Output - Automatically creates compressed ZIP files
✅ Configurable Depth - Control how deep to follow links (1-10 levels)
✅ Rate Limiting - Respect servers with configurable download rates
✅ Domain Filtering - Stay on same domain or follow external links
✅ Content Selection - Choose to download images, videos, or just HTML/CSS/JS
✅ Robots.txt Support - Optionally respect website's robots.txt
✅ Progress Tracking - Real-time logging of scraping progress
✅ Statistics - File counts, sizes, and compression ratios

Input Configuration

Required

• Website URL - The URL to scrape (must include http:// or https://)

Optional

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
depth	Integer	2	How many links deep to follow (1-10)
stayOnDomain	Boolean	true	Only download from the same domain
externalDepth	Integer	0	How deep to follow external links
connections	Integer	4	Number of simultaneous downloads
maxRate	Integer	0	Max download rate in KB/s (0 = unlimited)
maxSize	Integer	0	Max total size in MB (0 = unlimited)
maxTime	Integer	0	Max scraping time in seconds (0 = unlimited)
retries	Integer	2	Number of retry attempts on error
timeout	Integer	30	Connection timeout in seconds
getImages	Boolean	true	Download image files
getVideos	Boolean	true	Download video files
followRobots	Boolean	true	Respect robots.txt
outputName	String	null	Custom output name (auto-generated if empty)
cleanup	Boolean	true	Remove source files after creating ZIP

Output

The Actor provides two types of output:

1. Dataset

Statistics and metadata for each scrape:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "outputName": "example.com_20241205_130000",
  "zipFile": "example.com_20241205_130000.zip",
  "fileCount": 156,
  "totalSize": 5242880,
  "zipSize": 2621440,
  "compressionRatio": 50.0,
  "timestamp": "2024-12-05T13:00:00.000Z",
  "config": { ... },
  "status": "success"
}

2. Key-Value Store

The complete website as a ZIP archive. Access it via:

• Apify Console: Storage → Key-Value Store → [filename].zip
• API: https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/{storeId}/keys/{filename}.zip

Usage Examples

Example 1: Basic Website Backup

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "depth": 2,
  "stayOnDomain": true
}

Downloads the website up to 2 levels deep, staying on the same domain.

Example 2: Deep Archive with External Links

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "depth": 5,
  "externalDepth": 1,
  "stayOnDomain": false
}

Downloads 5 levels deep and follows external links 1 level.

Example 3: Fast Scrape (HTML/CSS/JS Only)

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "depth": 3,
  "getImages": false,
  "getVideos": false,
  "connections": 8
}

Fast scraping without images or videos, using 8 parallel connections.

Example 4: Rate-Limited Polite Scrape

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "depth": 2,
  "maxRate": 500,
  "connections": 2,
  "followRobots": true
}

Polite scraping with rate limiting and respecting robots.txt.

Example 5: Time-Limited Scrape

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "depth": 10,
  "maxTime": 300,
  "maxSize": 100
}

Stops after 5 minutes or 100 MB, whichever comes first.

How It Works

1. Input Validation - Validates the URL and configuration
2. HTTrack Execution - Runs HTTrack with configured parameters
3. Progress Monitoring - Logs progress in real-time
4. ZIP Creation - Creates a compressed archive of all files
5. Storage - Saves ZIP to Key-Value Store and stats to Dataset
6. Cleanup - Optionally removes temporary files

Technical Details

Based On

• HTTrack 3.49+ - Industry-standard website copier
• Python 3.13 - Modern async Python runtime
• Apify SDK 2.0 - For Actor integration and storage

Limitations

• Some JavaScript-heavy SPAs may not download completely
• Websites with aggressive bot protection may block scraping
• Dynamic content loaded after page load may be missed
• Maximum recommended depth is 5-6 for most websites

Performance

• Small websites (< 100 pages): 1-5 minutes
• Medium websites (100-1000 pages): 5-30 minutes
• Large websites (1000+ pages): 30+ minutes

Performance depends on:

• Website size and structure
• Number of connections
• Network speed
• Rate limiting settings

Legal and Ethical Considerations

⚠️ Important: Always ensure you have permission to scrape websites.

• ✅ Respect robots.txt files (enabled by default)
• ✅ Don't overload servers (use rate limiting)
• ✅ Check website Terms of Service
• ✅ Don't scrape copyrighted content without permission
• ✅ Use reasonable connection limits (2-8)

Troubleshooting

Scraping Takes Too Long

• Reduce depth to 1 or 2
• Disable getVideos and getImages
• Increase connections (but be respectful)
• Set maxTime or maxSize limits

ZIP File Too Large

• Reduce depth
• Disable getVideos
• Set maxSize limit
• Use maxTime to stop early

Website Blocks Scraping

• Enable followRobots
• Reduce connections to 2-4
• Add rate limiting with maxRate
• Increase timeout if connections are slow

Missing Content

• Increase depth
• Enable externalDepth if content is on other domains
• Check if website uses heavy JavaScript (may not work)
• Enable getImages and getVideos if needed

Development

Local Testing

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run locally
apify run

Building

# Build Docker image
docker build -t httrack-scraper .

# Run container
docker run httrack-scraper

Support

For issues or questions:

• Check Actor logs for detailed error messages
• Review HTTrack documentation: https://www.httrack.com/
• Contact Apify support through the platform

License

This Actor uses HTTrack, which is licensed under GPL v3.

Version History

• 1.0.0 - Initial release with full HTTrack integration