GraphQL is a query language for APIs that allows clients to request only the data they need. It provides a more efficient and flexible alternative to traditional REST APIs, making it increasingly popular in web development.
GraphQL is often encountered in web scraping when dealing with modern web applications that use it to fetch data dynamically. Understanding how to interact with GraphQL APIs is essential for effective web scraping and data extraction.
Scraping graphql endpoints can be more efficient than scraping HTML pages, and sometimes allows you to request specific data structures directly. This can reduce the amount of data transferred and simplify the extraction process.
See below for more on GraphQL in the context web scraping and data programming 👇