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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
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import asyncio
import json

from crawlee import HttpHeaders
from crawlee.crawlers import HttpCrawler, HttpCrawlingContext
from crawlee.errors import HttpStatusCodeError
from crawlee.sessions import SessionPool

# Using a placeholder refresh token for this example
REFRESH_TOKEN = 'PLACEHOLDER'
UNAUTHORIZED_CODE = 401


async def main() -> None:
crawler = HttpCrawler(
max_request_retries=2,
# Only treat 403 as a blocking status code, not 401
session_pool=SessionPool(create_session_settings={'blocked_status_codes': [403]}),
# Don't treat 401 responses as errors
ignore_http_error_status_codes=[UNAUTHORIZED_CODE],
)

@crawler.router.default_handler
async def default_handler(context: HttpCrawlingContext) -> None:
context.log.info(f'Processing {context.request.url} ...')
# Now we can handle 401 responses ourselves
if context.http_response.status_code == UNAUTHORIZED_CODE:
# Get a fresh access token
headers = {'authorization': f'Bearer {REFRESH_TOKEN}'}
response = await context.send_request(
'https://placeholder.org/refresh', headers=headers
)
data = json.loads(response.read())
# Add the new token to our `Request` headers
new_headers = {
**context.request.headers,
'authorization': f'Bearer {data["access_token"]}',
}
context.request.headers = HttpHeaders(new_headers)
# Trigger a retry with our updated headers
raise HttpStatusCodeError('Unauthorized', status_code=UNAUTHORIZED_CODE)

await crawler.run(['http://httpbingo.org/status/401'])


if __name__ == '__main__':
asyncio.run(main())
30 changes: 30 additions & 0 deletions docs/guides/code_examples/error_handling/disable_retry.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
import asyncio

from crawlee.crawlers import BasicCrawlingContext, HttpCrawler, HttpCrawlingContext
from crawlee.errors import HttpStatusCodeError, SessionError


async def main() -> None:
crawler = HttpCrawler(max_request_retries=5)

# Create a parsing error for demonstration
@crawler.router.default_handler
async def default_handler(context: HttpCrawlingContext) -> None:
context.log.info(f'Processing {context.request.url} ...')
raise ValueError('Simulated parsing error')

# This handler runs before any retry attempts
@crawler.error_handler
async def retry_handler(context: BasicCrawlingContext, error: Exception) -> None:
context.log.error(f'Failed request {context.request.url}')
# Only allow retries for network-related errors
if not isinstance(error, (SessionError, HttpStatusCodeError)):
context.log.error('Non-network error detected')
# Stop further retry attempts for this `Request`
context.request.no_retry = True

await crawler.run(['https://crawlee.dev/'])


if __name__ == '__main__':
asyncio.run(main())
40 changes: 40 additions & 0 deletions docs/guides/code_examples/error_handling/handle_proxy_error.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
import asyncio

from crawlee import Request
from crawlee.crawlers import BasicCrawlingContext, HttpCrawler, HttpCrawlingContext
from crawlee.errors import ProxyError


async def main() -> None:
# Set how many session rotations will happen before calling the error handler
# when ProxyError occurs
crawler = HttpCrawler(max_session_rotations=5, max_request_retries=6)

# For this example, we'll create a proxy error in our handler
@crawler.router.default_handler
async def default_handler(context: HttpCrawlingContext) -> None:
context.log.info(f'Processing {context.request.url} ...')
raise ProxyError('Simulated proxy error')

# This handler runs after all retry attempts are exhausted
@crawler.failed_request_handler
async def failed_handler(context: BasicCrawlingContext, error: Exception) -> None:
context.log.error(f'Failed request {context.request.url}, after 5 rotations')
request = context.request
# For proxy errors, we can add a new `Request` to try again
if isinstance(error, ProxyError) and not request.unique_key.startswith('retry'):
context.log.info(f'Retrying {request.url} ...')
# Create a new `Request` with a modified key to avoid deduplication
new_request = Request.from_url(
request.url, unique_key=f'retry{request.unique_key}'
)

# Add the new `Request` to the `Queue`
rq = await crawler.get_request_manager()
await rq.add_request(new_request)

await crawler.run(['https://crawlee.dev/'])


if __name__ == '__main__':
asyncio.run(main())
44 changes: 44 additions & 0 deletions docs/guides/error_handling.mdx
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
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---
id: error-handling
title: Error handling
description: How to handle errors that occur during web crawling.
---

import ApiLink from '@site/src/components/ApiLink';
import RunnableCodeBlock from '@site/src/components/RunnableCodeBlock';

import HandleProxyError from '!!raw-loader!roa-loader!./code_examples/error_handling/handle_proxy_error.py';
import ChangeHandleErrorStatus from '!!raw-loader!roa-loader!./code_examples/error_handling/change_handle_error_status.py';
import DisableRetry from '!!raw-loader!roa-loader!./code_examples/error_handling/disable_retry.py';

This guide demonstrates techniques for handling common errors encountered during web crawling operations.

## Handling proxy errors

Low-quality proxies can cause problems even with high settings for `max_request_retries` and `max_session_rotations` in <ApiLink to="class/BasicCrawlerOptions">`BasicCrawlerOptions`</ApiLink>. If you can't get data because of proxy errors, you might want to try again. You can do this using <ApiLink to="class/BasicCrawler#failed_request_handler">`failed_request_handler`</ApiLink>:

<RunnableCodeBlock className="language-python" language="python">
{HandleProxyError}
</RunnableCodeBlock>

You can use this same approach when testing different proxy providers. To better manage this process, you can count proxy errors and [stop the crawler](../examples/crawler-stop) if you get too many.

## Changing how error status codes are handled

By default, when <ApiLink to="class/Session">`Sessions`</ApiLink> get status codes like [401](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Status/401), [403](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Status/403), or [429](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Status/429), Crawlee marks the <ApiLink to="class/Session">`Session`</ApiLink> as `retire` and switches to a new one. This might not be what you want, especially when working with [authentication](./logging-in-with-a-crawler). You can learn more in the [Session management guide](./session-management).

Here's an example of how to change this behavior:

<RunnableCodeBlock className="language-python" language="python">
{ChangeHandleErrorStatus}
</RunnableCodeBlock>

## Turning off retries for non-network errors

Sometimes you might get unexpected errors when parsing data, like when a website has an unusual structure. Crawlee normally tries again based on your `max_request_retries` setting, but sometimes you don't want that.

Here's how to turn off retries for non-network errors using <ApiLink to="class/BasicCrawler#error_handler">`error_handler`</ApiLink>, which runs before Crawlee tries again:

<RunnableCodeBlock className="language-python" language="python">
{DisableRetry}
</RunnableCodeBlock>
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