server.js

//This is the server that makes requests to the external website

var express = require('express'); //Express is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications.

var fs = require('fs'); //fs library gives access to the computer's file system so files can be written to disk.
var request = require('request'); //simplest way possible to make http calls. It supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default.
var cheerio = require('cheerio'); //jQuery designed specifically for the server.
var app = express();
app.get('/scrape', function(req, res) {


  url = 'http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229340/'; // The URL we will scrape from - in our example Anchorman 2.


  // The structure of our request call.   The first parameter is our URL.  The callback function takes 3 parameters, an error, response status code and the html

  request(url, function(error, response, html) {

    if (!error) { // Check to make sure no errors occurred when making the request

      var $ = cheerio.load(html); //Utiltize cheerio library on the returned html (essentially gives jQuery functionality).
      //var jQuery = $;

      var title, release, rating; // Define the variables we're going to capture
      var json = {
        title: "",
        release: "",
        rating: ""
      };
      //$('.header').filter(function() {

        var data = $(this); // Store the data we filter into a variable.


        // My code
        // Get Method-1 jQuery navigate and get:
        // 

        title = $(".title_wrapper h1").first().clone().children().remove().end().text().trim(); //Gets text (title without release year) as trimmed text.
        // 

        release = $(".title_block .title_wrapper h1 a").text();
        // 

        // rating = $(".subtext meta")[0].content
        rating = $(".subtext meta").first().attr('content'); //Gets rating from the class '.subtext'
        // 


        // Get Method-2 no jQuery
        // getElementsByTagName navigate and get:
        // title = data.children().first().text();
        // title = document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[1].innerHTML
        // year = document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[1].children[0].innerText

        //Tutorial code:
        // In examining the DOM we notice that the title rests within the first child element of the header tag.
        //  title = data.children().first().text();
        //         title = $('h1')
        //         release = data.children().last().children().text();
        //         


        json.title = title; // Once we have our title, we'll store it to the our json object.

        json.release = release; // Once again, once we have the data extracted we'll save it to our json object

        json.rating = rating // Add the rating to the JSON file
     // })

      $('.star-box-giga-star').filter(function() {

        var data = $(this);

        //         // The .star-box-giga-star class was exactly where we wanted it to be.
        //         // To get the rating, we can simply just get the .text(), no need to traverse the DOM any further

        rating = data.text();
        json.rating = rating;

      })

      // To write to the system we will use the built in 'fs' library.
      //     // In this example we will pass 3 parameters to the writeFile function
      //     // Parameter 1 :  output.json - this is what the created filename will be called
      //     // Parameter 2 :  JSON.stringify(json, null, 4) - the data to write, here we do an extra step by calling JSON.stringify to make our JSON easier to read
      //     // Parameter 3 :  callback function - a callback function to let us know the status of our function
      

      fs.writeFile('output.json', JSON.stringify(json, null, 4), function(err) {
        
      })

      //  Finally, we'll just send out a message to the browser reminding you that this app does not have a UI.
      res.send('Something here, Dave.  Check your console and project output file!')


    } else {
      res.send('there was an error')
    }
  })
})

app.listen('8081');

Export = module.exports = app;


// //Title wrapper has changed from tutorial.  Must adapt to match current code.  See below:
// //
// //   <h1 itemprop="name" class="">Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues&nbsp;<span id="titleYear">
// //   (<a href="/year/2013/?ref_=tt_ov_inf">2013</a>)</span> </h1>


// //.filter may not work.

// //IDEA: Use regular expression to extract strings from html elements.