Reddit Data Scraper 🚀

A modern, interactive Reddit data scraper built with Streamlit. Extract posts, comments, and analytics from any subreddit or specific Reddit post with a beautiful, responsive interface.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Subreddit Scraping: Extract posts from any subreddit with advanced filtering options
• 🔗 Single Post Analysis: Deep dive into specific posts and their entire comment threads
• 📊 Real-time Analytics: Interactive charts and visualizations using Plotly
• 🎯 Advanced Filtering: Filter by date range, score, comments, awards, NSFW content, and more
• 📥 Multiple Export Formats: Download data as CSV or JSON
• 🌙 Modern Dark Theme: Beautiful, responsive UI with custom CSS styling
• ⚡ Fast & Efficient: Optimized data fetching with caching for better performance

🚀 Quick Start (Streamlit Cloud)

1. Deploy to Streamlit Cloud

1. Fork this repository to your GitHub account
2. Get Reddit API credentials:
   • Go to Reddit Apps
   • Click "Create App" or "Create Another App"
   • Choose "script" as the app type
   • Note down your client_id and client_secret
3. Deploy to Streamlit Cloud:
   • Go to share.streamlit.io
   • Click "New app" and connect your GitHub repository
   • Set the main file path to main.py
   • Configure secrets (see step 4)
4. Configure App Secrets:
   • In your Streamlit Cloud app dashboard, go to Settings > Secrets
   • Add your Reddit API credentials:

   REDDIT_CLIENT_ID = "your_client_id_here"
   REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET = "your_client_secret_here"  
   REDDIT_USER_AGENT = "YourAppName/1.0 by /u/yourusername"
   

5. Deploy your app! 🚀

Your Reddit scraper will be live and accessible to everyone!

🛠️ Local Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• Reddit API credentials (see above)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/pakagronglb/reddit-scraper.git
cd reddit-scraper

2. Create a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up environment variables:
   • Copy .streamlit/secrets.toml to create your local secrets file
   • Or create a .env file with:

   REDDIT_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id_here
   REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret_here
   REDDIT_USER_AGENT=YourAppName/1.0 by /u/yourusername

5. Run the application:

streamlit run main.py

The app will be available at http://localhost:8501

📋 Usage Guide

Subreddit Scraping

1. Enter Subreddit Name: Type the subreddit name (without r/)
2. Set Time Filter: Choose from "All", "Last Week", "Last Month", "Last Year", or custom date range
3. Configure Filters: Set minimum score, comments, awards, and content preferences
4. Start Scraping: Click the "Start Scraping" button
5. View Results: Explore the data with interactive charts and tables
6. Download Data: Export your results as CSV or JSON

Single Post Analysis

1. Enter Post URL: Paste the full Reddit post URL
2. Configure Options: Set comment filtering and sorting preferences
3. Scrape Post: Click "Scrape Post & Comments"
4. Analyze Results: Review post metrics and comment analytics
5. Export Data: Download post and comment data separately

🔧 Configuration

Streamlit Configuration

The app includes optimized Streamlit configuration in .streamlit/config.toml:

• Theme: Custom dark theme with Reddit-inspired colors
• Performance: Optimized caching and data handling
• Security: XSRF protection and secure headers

Environment Variables

📊 Data Export

The scraper provides comprehensive data export options:

Post Data Fields

• ID, Title, Post Text, Subreddit
• Author, Created UTC, Score, Up-vote Ratio
• Total Comments, Total Awards, Flair
• Content flags (NSFW, Spoiler, OC)
• URLs and Permalinks

Comment Data Fields

• Comment ID, Parent ID, Comment Text
• Author, Score, Created UTC
• Permalink, Submitter Status

🔒 Privacy & Rate Limiting

• Rate Limiting: The app respects Reddit's API rate limits
• Data Privacy: No data is stored permanently; everything is processed in real-time
• Caching: Uses Streamlit's caching for better performance (1-hour TTL)
• Security: API credentials are handled securely through Streamlit secrets

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. "Invalid credentials" error:

   • Verify your Reddit API credentials
   • Ensure the user agent string is descriptive
   • Check that your Reddit app type is set to "script"

2. "No posts found" error:

   • Verify the subreddit name is correct
   • Check if the subreddit is private or banned
   • Try adjusting your date filters

3. Rate limiting:

   • The app automatically handles rate limits
   • If you hit limits, wait a few minutes before retrying

4. App won't start:

   • Check that all dependencies are installed
   • Verify Python version compatibility (3.8+)
   • Ensure environment variables are set correctly

Performance Tips

• Use specific date ranges instead of "All" for large subreddits
• Apply filters to reduce data volume
• Clear browser cache if the app becomes slow

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Development Setup

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature-name
3. Make your changes and test thoroughly
4. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add feature'
5. Push to the branch: git push origin feature-name
6. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with Streamlit for the web interface
• Uses PRAW for Reddit API access
• Visualizations powered by Plotly
• Data processing with Pandas

📞 Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

1. Check the troubleshooting section
2. Search existing issues
3. Create a new issue with detailed information about the problem

Happy Scraping! 🎉

Made with ❤️ for the Reddit community