Spider C Reference Documentation

Spider

Current Version: 9.5.0.97

Chilkat Spider web crawler object.

Create/Dispose

HCkSpider instance = CkSpider_Create();
// ...
CkSpider_Dispose(instance);
HCkSpider CkSpider_Create(void);

Creates an instance of the HCkSpider object and returns a handle ("void *" pointer). The handle is passed in the 1st argument for the functions listed on this page.

void CkSpider_Dispose(HCkSpider handle);

Objects created by calling CkSpider_Create must be freed by calling this method. A memory leak occurs if a handle is not disposed by calling this function. Also, any handle returned by a Chilkat "C" function must also be freed by the application by calling the appropriate Dispose method, such as CkSpider_Dispose.

Callback Functions

Callback Functions introduced in Chilkat v9.5.0.56
void CkSpider_setAbortCheck(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL (*fnAbortCheck)(void));

Provides the opportunity for a method call to be aborted. If TRUE is returned, the operation in progress is aborted. Return FALSE to allow the current method call to continue. This callback function is called periodically based on the value of the HeartbeatMs property. (If HeartbeatMs is 0, then no callbacks are made.) As an example, to make 5 AbortCheck callbacks per second, set the HeartbeatMs property equal to 200.

void CkSpider_setPercentDone(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL (*fnPercentDone)(int pctDone));

Provides the percentage completed for any method that involves network communications or time-consuming processing (assuming it is a method where a percentage completion can be measured). This callback is only called when it is possible to know a percentage completion, and when it makes sense to express the operation as a percentage completed. The pctDone argument will have a value from 1 to 100. For methods that complete very quickly, the number of PercentDone callbacks will vary, but the final callback should have a value of 100. For long running operations, no more than one callback per percentage point will occur (for example: 1, 2, 3, ... 98, 99, 100).

This callback counts as an AbortCheck callback, and takes the place of the AbortCheck event when it fires.

The return value indicates whether the method call should be aborted, or whether it should proceed. Return TRUE to abort, and FALSE to proceed.

void CkSpider_setProgressInfo(HCkSpider cHandle, void (*fnProgressInfo)(const char *name, const char *value));

This is a general callback that provides name/value information about what is happening at certain points during a method call. To see the information provided in ProgressInfo callbacks, if any, write code to handle this event and log the name/value pairs. Most are self-explanatory.

void CkSpider_setTaskCompleted(HCkSpider cHandle, void (*fnTaskCompleted)(HCkTask hTask));

Called in the background thread when an asynchronous task completes. (Note: When an async method is running, all callbacks are in the background thread.)

Properties

AbortCurrent
BOOL CkSpider_getAbortCurrent(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putAbortCurrent(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

When set to TRUE, causes the currently running method to abort. Methods that always finish quickly (i.e.have no length file operations or network communications) are not affected. If no method is running, then this property is automatically reset to FALSE when the next method is called. When the abort occurs, this property is reset to FALSE. Both synchronous and asynchronous method calls can be aborted. (A synchronous method call could be aborted by setting this property from a separate thread.)

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AvoidHttps
BOOL CkSpider_getAvoidHttps(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putAvoidHttps(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If set the 1 (true) the spider will avoid all HTTPS URLs. The default is 0 (false).

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CacheDir
void CkSpider_getCacheDir(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkSpider_putCacheDir(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkSpider_cacheDir(HCkSpider cHandle);

Specifies a cache directory to use for spidering. If either of the FetchFromCache or UpdateCache properties are true, this is the location of the cache to be used. Note: the Internet Explorer, Netscape, and FireFox caches are completely separate from the Chilkat Spider cache directory. You should specify a new and empty directory.

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ChopAtQuery
BOOL CkSpider_getChopAtQuery(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putChopAtQuery(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If equal to 1 (true), then the query portion of all URLs are automatically removed when adding to the unspidered list. The default value is 0 (false).

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ConnectTimeout
int CkSpider_getConnectTimeout(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putConnectTimeout(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The maximum number of seconds to wait while connecting to an HTTP server.

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DebugLogFilePath
void CkSpider_getDebugLogFilePath(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkSpider_putDebugLogFilePath(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkSpider_debugLogFilePath(HCkSpider cHandle);

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

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Domain
void CkSpider_getDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_domain(HCkSpider cHandle);

The domain name that is being spidered. This is the domain previously set in the Initialize method.

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FetchFromCache
BOOL CkSpider_getFetchFromCache(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putFetchFromCache(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If equal to 1 (true) then pages are fetched from cache when possible. If 0, the cache is ignored. The default value is 1. Regardless, if no CacheDir is set then the cache is not used.

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FinalRedirectUrl
void CkSpider_getFinalRedirectUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_finalRedirectUrl(HCkSpider cHandle);
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

If the last URL crawled was redirected (as indicated by the WasRedirected property), this property will contain the final redirect URL.

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HeartbeatMs
int CkSpider_getHeartbeatMs(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putHeartbeatMs(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The number of milliseconds between each AbortCheck event callback. The AbortCheck callback allows an application to abort any method call prior to completion. If HeartbeatMs is 0 (the default), no AbortCheck event callbacks will fire.

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LastErrorHtml
void CkSpider_getLastErrorHtml(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastErrorHtml(HCkSpider cHandle);

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorText
void CkSpider_getLastErrorText(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastErrorText(HCkSpider cHandle);

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorXml
void CkSpider_getLastErrorXml(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastErrorXml(HCkSpider cHandle);

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastFromCache
BOOL CkSpider_getLastFromCache(HCkSpider cHandle);

Equal to 1 if the last page spidered was fetched from the cache. Otherwise equal to 0.

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LastHtml
void CkSpider_getLastHtml(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastHtml(HCkSpider cHandle);

The HTML text of the last paged fetched by the spider.

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LastHtmlDescription
void CkSpider_getLastHtmlDescription(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastHtmlDescription(HCkSpider cHandle);

The HTML META description from the last page fetched by the spider.

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LastHtmlKeywords
void CkSpider_getLastHtmlKeywords(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastHtmlKeywords(HCkSpider cHandle);

The HTML META keywords from the last page fetched by the spider.

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LastHtmlTitle
void CkSpider_getLastHtmlTitle(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastHtmlTitle(HCkSpider cHandle);

The HTML title from the last page fetched by the spider.

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LastMethodSuccess
BOOL CkSpider_getLastMethodSuccess(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putLastMethodSuccess(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of TRUE indicates success, a value of FALSE indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = TRUE and failure = FALSE.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to TRUE. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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LastModDateStr
void CkSpider_getLastModDateStr(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastModDateStr(HCkSpider cHandle);

The last modification date/time from the last page fetched by the spider.

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LastUrl
void CkSpider_getLastUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_lastUrl(HCkSpider cHandle);

The URL of the last page spidered.

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MaxResponseSize
int CkSpider_getMaxResponseSize(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putMaxResponseSize(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The maximum HTTP response size allowed. The spider will automatically fail any pages larger than this size. The default value is 250,000 bytes.

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MaxUrlLen
int CkSpider_getMaxUrlLen(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putMaxUrlLen(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The maximum URL length allowed. URLs longer than this are not added to the unspidered list. The default value is 200.

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NumAvoidPatterns
int CkSpider_getNumAvoidPatterns(HCkSpider cHandle);

The number of avoid patterns previously set by calling AddAvoidPattern.

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NumFailed
int CkSpider_getNumFailed(HCkSpider cHandle);

The number of URLs in the object's failed URL list.

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NumOutboundLinks
int CkSpider_getNumOutboundLinks(HCkSpider cHandle);

The number of URLs in the object's outbound links URL list.

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NumSpidered
int CkSpider_getNumSpidered(HCkSpider cHandle);

The number of URLs in the object's already-spidered URL list.

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NumUnspidered
int CkSpider_getNumUnspidered(HCkSpider cHandle);

The number of URLs in the object's unspidered URL list.

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PreferIpv6
BOOL CkSpider_getPreferIpv6(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putPreferIpv6(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If TRUE, then use IPv6 over IPv4 when both are supported for a particular domain. The default value of this property is FALSE, which will choose IPv4 over IPv6.

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ProxyDomain
void CkSpider_getProxyDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkSpider_putProxyDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkSpider_proxyDomain(HCkSpider cHandle);

The domain name of a proxy host if an HTTP proxy is used.

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ProxyLogin
void CkSpider_getProxyLogin(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkSpider_putProxyLogin(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkSpider_proxyLogin(HCkSpider cHandle);

If an HTTP proxy is used and it requires authentication, this property specifies the HTTP proxy login.

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ProxyPassword
void CkSpider_getProxyPassword(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkSpider_putProxyPassword(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkSpider_proxyPassword(HCkSpider cHandle);

If an HTTP proxy is used and it requires authentication, this property specifies the HTTP proxy password.

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ProxyPort
int CkSpider_getProxyPort(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putProxyPort(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The port number of a proxy server if an HTTP proxy is used.

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ReadTimeout
int CkSpider_getReadTimeout(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putReadTimeout(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The maximum number of seconds to wait when reading from an HTTP server.

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UpdateCache
BOOL CkSpider_getUpdateCache(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putUpdateCache(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If equal to 1 (true) then pages saved to the cache. If 0, the cache is ignored. The default value is 1. Regardless, if no CacheDir is set then the cache is not used.

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UserAgent
void CkSpider_getUserAgent(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkSpider_putUserAgent(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkSpider_userAgent(HCkSpider cHandle);

The value of the HTTP user-agent header field to be sent with HTTP requests. This can be set to any desired value, but be aware that some websites may reject requests from unknown user agents.

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Utf8
BOOL CkSpider_getUtf8(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putUtf8(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

When set to TRUE, all "const char *" arguments are interpreted as utf-8 strings. If set to FALSE (the default), then "const char *" arguments are interpreted as ANSI strings. Also, when set to TRUE, and Chilkat method returning a "const char *" is returning the utf-8 representation. If set to FALSE, all "const char *" return values are ANSI strings.

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VerboseLogging
BOOL CkSpider_getVerboseLogging(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putVerboseLogging(HCkSpider cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If set to TRUE, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is FALSE. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
void CkSpider_getVersion(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkSpider_version(HCkSpider cHandle);

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

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WasRedirected
BOOL CkSpider_getWasRedirected(HCkSpider cHandle);
Introduced in version 9.5.0.85

Indicates whether the last URL crawled was redirected. (TRUE = yes, FALSE = no)

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WindDownCount
int CkSpider_getWindDownCount(HCkSpider cHandle);
void CkSpider_putWindDownCount(HCkSpider cHandle, int newVal);

The "wind-down" phase begins when this number of URLs has been spidered. When in the wind-down phase, no new URLs are added to the unspidered list. The default value is 0 which means that there is NO wind-down phase.

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Methods

AddAvoidOutboundLinkPattern
void CkSpider_AddAvoidOutboundLinkPattern(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *pattern);

Adds a wildcarded pattern to prevent collecting matching outbound link URLs. For example, if "*google*" is added, then any outbound links containing the word "google" will be ignored. The "*" character matches zero or more of any character.

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AddAvoidPattern
void CkSpider_AddAvoidPattern(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *pattern);

Adds a wildcarded pattern to prevent spidering matching URLs. For example, if "*register*" is added, then any url containing the word "register" is not spidered. The "*" character matches zero or more of any character.

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AddMustMatchPattern
void CkSpider_AddMustMatchPattern(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *pattern);

Adds a wildcarded pattern to limit spidering to only URLs that match the pattern. For example, if "*/products/*" is added, then only URLs containing "/products/" are spidered. This is helpful for only spidering a portion of a website. The "*" character matches zero or more of any character.

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AddUnspidered
void CkSpider_AddUnspidered(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *url);

To begin spidering you must call this method one or more times to provide starting points. It adds a single URL to the object's internal queue of URLs to be spidered.

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CanonicalizeUrl
BOOL CkSpider_CanonicalizeUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *url, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_canonicalizeUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *url);

Canonicalizes a URL by doing the following:

  • Drops username/password if present.
  • Drops fragment if present.
  • Converts domain to lowercase.
  • Removes port 80 or 443
  • Remove default.asp, index.html, index.htm, default.html, index.htm, default.htm, index.php, index.asp, default.php, .cfm, .aspx, ,php3, .pl, .cgi, .txt, .shtml, .phtml
  • Remove www. from the domain if present.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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ClearFailedUrls
void CkSpider_ClearFailedUrls(HCkSpider cHandle);

Clears the object's internal list of URLs that could not be downloaded.

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ClearOutboundLinks
void CkSpider_ClearOutboundLinks(HCkSpider cHandle);

Clears the object's internal list of outbound URLs that will automatically accumulate while spidering.

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ClearSpideredUrls
void CkSpider_ClearSpideredUrls(HCkSpider cHandle);

Clears the object's internal list of already-spidered URLs that will automatically accumulate while spidering.

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CrawlNext
BOOL CkSpider_CrawlNext(HCkSpider cHandle);

Crawls the next URL in the internal list of unspidered URLs. The URL is moved from the unspidered list to the spidered list. Any new links within the same domain and not yet spidered are added to the unspidered list. (providing that they do not match "avoid" patterns, etc.) Any new outbound links are added to the outbound URL list. If successful, the HTML of the downloaded page is available in the LastHtml property. If there are no more URLs left unspidered, the method returns FALSE. Information about the URL crawled is available in the properties LastUrl, LastFromCache, and LastModDate.

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CrawlNextAsync (1)
HCkTask CkSpider_CrawlNextAsync(HCkSpider cHandle);

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CrawlNext method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns NULL on failure

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FetchRobotsText
BOOL CkSpider_FetchRobotsText(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_fetchRobotsText(HCkSpider cHandle);

Returns the contents of the robots.txt file from the domain being crawled. This spider object will not crawl URLs excluded by robots.txt. If you believe the spider is not behaving correctly, please notify us at support@chilkatsoft.com and provide information detailing a case that allows us to reproduce the problem.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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FetchRobotsTextAsync (1)
HCkTask CkSpider_FetchRobotsTextAsync(HCkSpider cHandle);

Creates an asynchronous task to call the FetchRobotsText method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns NULL on failure

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GetAvoidPattern
BOOL CkSpider_GetAvoidPattern(HCkSpider cHandle, int index, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getAvoidPattern(HCkSpider cHandle, int index);

Returns the Nth avoid pattern previously added by calling AddAvoidPattern. Indexing begins at 0.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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GetBaseDomain
BOOL CkSpider_GetBaseDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *domain, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getBaseDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *domain);

Returns the second-level + top-level domain of the domain. For example, if domain is "xyz.example.com", this returns "example.com". For some domains, such as "xyz.example.co.uk", the top 3 levels are returned, such as "example.co.uk".

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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GetFailedUrl
BOOL CkSpider_GetFailedUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, int index, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getFailedUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, int index);

Returns the Nth URL in the failed URL list. Indexing begins at 0.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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GetOutboundLink
BOOL CkSpider_GetOutboundLink(HCkSpider cHandle, int index, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getOutboundLink(HCkSpider cHandle, int index);

Returns the Nth URL in the outbound link URL list. Indexing begins at 0.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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GetSpideredUrl
BOOL CkSpider_GetSpideredUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, int index, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getSpideredUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, int index);

Returns the Nth URL in the already-spidered URL list. Indexing begins at 0.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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GetUnspideredUrl
BOOL CkSpider_GetUnspideredUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, int index, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getUnspideredUrl(HCkSpider cHandle, int index);

Returns the Nth URL in the unspidered URL list. Indexing begins at 0.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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GetUrlDomain
BOOL CkSpider_GetUrlDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *url, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkSpider_getUrlDomain(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *url);

Returns the domain name part of a URL. For example, if the URL is "https://www.chilkatsoft.com/test.asp", then "www.chilkatsoft.com" is returned.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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Initialize
void CkSpider_Initialize(HCkSpider cHandle, const char *domain);

Initializes the object to begin spidering a domain. Calling Initialize clears any patterns added via the AddAvoidOutboundLinkPattern, AddAvoidPattern, and AddMustMatchPattern methods. The domain name passed to this method is what is returned by the Domain property. The spider only crawls URLs within the same domain.

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LoadTaskCaller
BOOL CkSpider_LoadTaskCaller(HCkSpider cHandle, HCkTask task);
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Loads the caller of the task's async method.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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RecrawlLast
BOOL CkSpider_RecrawlLast(HCkSpider cHandle);

Re-crawls the last URL spidered. This helpful when cookies set in a previous page load cause the page to be loaded differently the next time.

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RecrawlLastAsync (1)
HCkTask CkSpider_RecrawlLastAsync(HCkSpider cHandle);

Creates an asynchronous task to call the RecrawlLast method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)

Returns NULL on failure

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SkipUnspidered
void CkSpider_SkipUnspidered(HCkSpider cHandle, int index);

Moves a URL from the unspidered list to the spidered list. This allows an application to skip a specific URL.

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SleepMs
void CkSpider_SleepMs(HCkSpider cHandle, int numMilliseconds);

Suspends the execution of the current thread until the time-out interval elapses.

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