Crate grscraper

Goodreads Metadata Scraper

This library provides a convenient way to fetch and scrape book metadata from Goodreads by providing either an ISBN, a Goodreads book ID, or a combination of title and author. It is designed to be used in applications where access to Goodreads book data is needed, but no official Goodreads API access is available.

Features

• Retrieve metadata by ISBN
• Retrieve metadata by Goodreads ID
• Retrieve metadata by title (optionally with author for more accurate results)
• Structured, typed metadata output for easy access to common book fields (title, author, publication year, etc.)
• Query builder pattern for customizable requests

Usage

Add this crate to your dependencies in Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
goodreads-metadata-scraper = "0.2.1"

Examples

To use this library, create a MetadataRequestBuilder to specify the search criteria. Then, use the execute method to retrieve the metadata.

Fetching Metadata by ISBN

use grscraper::MetadataRequestBuilder;

let isbn = "9780141381473";
let metadata = MetadataRequestBuilder::default()
    .with_isbn(isbn)
    .execute()
    .await?
    .expect("Book not found");

assert_eq!(metadata.title, "The Lightning Thief");
println!("{:#?}", metadata);

Fetching Metadata by Goodreads ID

use grscraper::MetadataRequestBuilder;

let goodreads_id = "175254";
let metadata = MetadataRequestBuilder::default()
    .with_id(goodreads_id)
    .execute()
    .await?
    .expect("Book not found");

assert_eq!(metadata.title, "Pride and Prejudice");
println!("{:#?}", metadata);

Fetching Metadata by Title and Author

Providing an author along with the title helps improve the accuracy of the search:

use grscraper::MetadataRequestBuilder;

let title = "The Last Magician";
let author = "Lisa Maxwell";
let metadata = MetadataRequestBuilder::default()
    .with_title(title)
    .with_author(author)
    .execute()
    .await?
    .expect("Book not found");

assert_eq!(metadata.title, title);
println!("{:#?}", metadata);

Limitations

• Since this library relies on web scraping, it may be sensitive to changes in Goodreads’ website structure.
• This library is intended for personal or small-scale use, as frequent requests to Goodreads may be rate-limited.

Note: When running tests, it is highly recommended to run them with the --test-threads=1 flag to avoid rate-limiting issues with Goodreads.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Structs

BookContributor

Represents an individual who contributed to the book, such as an author or editor.

BookMetadata

The primary data structure containing the metadata of a book.

BookSeries

Represents series information for a book, including the series title and book’s position within the series.

MetadataRequestBuilder

Builder for constructing a metadata request.

Enums

ScraperError

Custom error type for handling errors in the Goodreads metadata scraper.