Selector shell
An interactive REPL for testing CSS and XPath expressions against a live page — no code editing or re-running the full generator needed. Ideal for nailing down a selector the heuristics got wrong.
bash
php artisan datahelm:scrap:shell https://www.exampleauctions.com/real-estate/apartments
Once the page is loaded, type commands at the datahelm> prompt:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
css <selector> | Run a CSS selector; shows match count + first 5 text values |
xpath <expression> | Run an XPath expression |
attr <selector> <attr> | Extract an attribute from all matches (e.g. attr a href) |
html <selector> | Show raw outer-HTML of the first match |
links | List all unique <a href> on the page |
images | List all unique <img src> on the page |
info | Show page title and byte count |
help / ? | Print help |
quit / exit | Leave the shell |
Add --timeout=N or --user-agent="..." for custom HTTP options.
Typical loop
- Load the page in the shell.
- Try
css article.product_podto confirm the item selector matches the right count. - Use
attr h3 a hrefto verify the link field extracts correctly. - Copy the working selectors into your blueprint's
fields[].
This is the fastest way to iterate on selectors without re-fetching the page on every attempt.