Signals

Scrapy uses signals extensively to notify when certain events occur. You can catch some of those signals in your Scrapy project (using an :ref:`extension <topics-extensions>`, for example) to perform additional tasks or extend Scrapy to add functionality not provided out of the box.

Even though signals provide several arguments, the handlers that catch them don't need to accept all of them - the signal dispatching mechanism will only deliver the arguments that the handler receives.

You can connect to signals (or send your own) through the :ref:`topics-api-signals`.

Here is a simple example showing how you can catch signals and perform some action:

from scrapy import signals
from scrapy import Spider


class DmozSpider(Spider):
    name = "dmoz"
    allowed_domains = ["dmoz.org"]
    start_urls = [
        "http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/Python/Books/",
        "http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/Python/Resources/",
    ]

    @classmethod
    def from_crawler(cls, crawler, *args, **kwargs):
        spider = super(DmozSpider, cls).from_crawler(crawler, *args, **kwargs)
        crawler.signals.connect(spider.spider_closed, signal=signals.spider_closed)
        return spider

    def spider_closed(self, spider):
        spider.logger.info("Spider closed: %s", spider.name)

    def parse(self, response):
        pass

Deferred signal handlers

Some signals support returning :class:`~twisted.internet.defer.Deferred` or :term:`awaitable objects <awaitable>` from their handlers, allowing you to run asynchronous code that does not block Scrapy. If a signal handler returns one of these objects, Scrapy waits for that asynchronous operation to finish.

Let's take an example using :ref:`coroutines <topics-coroutines>`:

import scrapy


class SignalSpider(scrapy.Spider):
    name = "signals"
    start_urls = ["https://quotes.toscrape.com/page/1/"]

    @classmethod
    def from_crawler(cls, crawler, *args, **kwargs):
        spider = super(SignalSpider, cls).from_crawler(crawler, *args, **kwargs)
        crawler.signals.connect(spider.item_scraped, signal=signals.item_scraped)
        return spider

    async def item_scraped(self, item):
        # Send the scraped item to the server
        response = await treq.post(
            "http://example.com/post",
            json.dumps(item).encode("ascii"),
            headers={b"Content-Type": [b"application/json"]},
        )

        return response

    def parse(self, response):
        for quote in response.css("div.quote"):
            yield {
                "text": quote.css("span.text::text").get(),
                "author": quote.css("small.author::text").get(),
                "tags": quote.css("div.tags a.tag::text").getall(),
            }

See the :ref:`topics-signals-ref` below to know which signals support :class:`~twisted.internet.defer.Deferred` and :term:`awaitable objects <awaitable>`.

Built-in signals reference

.. module:: scrapy.signals
   :synopsis: Signals definitions

Here's the list of Scrapy built-in signals and their meaning.

Engine signals

engine_started

.. signal:: engine_started

.. function:: engine_started()

    Sent when the Scrapy engine has started crawling.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

Note

This signal may be fired after the :signal:`spider_opened` signal, depending on how the spider was started. So don't rely on this signal getting fired before :signal:`spider_opened`.

engine_stopped

.. signal:: engine_stopped

.. function:: engine_stopped()

    Sent when the Scrapy engine is stopped (for example, when a crawling
    process has finished).

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

Item signals

Note

As at max :setting:`CONCURRENT_ITEMS` items are processed in parallel, many deferreds are fired together using :class:`~twisted.internet.defer.DeferredList`. Hence the next batch waits for the :class:`~twisted.internet.defer.DeferredList` to fire and then runs the respective item signal handler for the next batch of scraped items.

item_scraped

.. signal:: item_scraped

.. function:: item_scraped(item, response, spider)

    Sent when an item has been scraped, after it has passed all the
    :ref:`topics-item-pipeline` stages (without being dropped).

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param item: the scraped item
    :type item: :ref:`item object <item-types>`

    :param spider: the spider which scraped the item
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

    :param response: the response from where the item was scraped
    :type response: :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object

item_dropped

.. signal:: item_dropped

.. function:: item_dropped(item, response, exception, spider)

    Sent after an item has been dropped from the :ref:`topics-item-pipeline`
    when some stage raised a :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.DropItem` exception.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param item: the item dropped from the :ref:`topics-item-pipeline`
    :type item: :ref:`item object <item-types>`

    :param spider: the spider which scraped the item
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

    :param response: the response from where the item was dropped
    :type response: :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object

    :param exception: the exception (which must be a
        :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.DropItem` subclass) which caused the item
        to be dropped
    :type exception: :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.DropItem` exception

item_error

.. signal:: item_error

.. function:: item_error(item, response, spider, failure)

    Sent when a :ref:`topics-item-pipeline` generates an error (i.e. raises
    an exception), except :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.DropItem` exception.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param item: the item that caused the error in the :ref:`topics-item-pipeline`
    :type item: :ref:`item object <item-types>`

    :param response: the response being processed when the exception was raised
    :type response: :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object

    :param spider: the spider which raised the exception
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

    :param failure: the exception raised
    :type failure: twisted.python.failure.Failure

Spider signals

spider_closed

.. signal:: spider_closed

.. function:: spider_closed(spider, reason)

    Sent after a spider has been closed. This can be used to release per-spider
    resources reserved on :signal:`spider_opened`.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param spider: the spider which has been closed
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

    :param reason: a string which describes the reason why the spider was closed. If
        it was closed because the spider has completed scraping, the reason
        is ``'finished'``. Otherwise, if the spider was manually closed by
        calling the ``close_spider`` engine method, then the reason is the one
        passed in the ``reason`` argument of that method (which defaults to
        ``'cancelled'``). If the engine was shutdown (for example, by hitting
        Ctrl-C to stop it) the reason will be ``'shutdown'``.
    :type reason: str

spider_opened

.. signal:: spider_opened

.. function:: spider_opened(spider)

    Sent after a spider has been opened for crawling. This is typically used to
    reserve per-spider resources, but can be used for any task that needs to be
    performed when a spider is opened.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param spider: the spider which has been opened
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

spider_idle

.. signal:: spider_idle

.. function:: spider_idle(spider)

    Sent when a spider has gone idle, which means the spider has no further:

        * requests waiting to be downloaded
        * requests scheduled
        * items being processed in the item pipeline

    If the idle state persists after all handlers of this signal have finished,
    the engine starts closing the spider. After the spider has finished
    closing, the :signal:`spider_closed` signal is sent.

    You may raise a :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.DontCloseSpider` exception to
    prevent the spider from being closed.

    Alternatively, you may raise a :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.CloseSpider`
    exception to provide a custom spider closing reason. An
    idle handler is the perfect place to put some code that assesses
    the final spider results and update the final closing reason
    accordingly (e.g. setting it to 'too_few_results' instead of
    'finished').

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param spider: the spider which has gone idle
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

Note

Scheduling some requests in your :signal:`spider_idle` handler does not guarantee that it can prevent the spider from being closed, although it sometimes can. That's because the spider may still remain idle if all the scheduled requests are rejected by the scheduler (e.g. filtered due to duplication).

spider_error

.. signal:: spider_error

.. function:: spider_error(failure, response, spider)

    Sent when a spider callback generates an error (i.e. raises an exception).

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param failure: the exception raised
    :type failure: twisted.python.failure.Failure

    :param response: the response being processed when the exception was raised
    :type response: :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object

    :param spider: the spider which raised the exception
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

feed_slot_closed

.. signal:: feed_slot_closed

.. function:: feed_slot_closed(slot)

    Sent when a :ref:`feed exports <topics-feed-exports>` slot is closed.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param slot: the slot closed
    :type slot: scrapy.extensions.feedexport.FeedSlot

feed_exporter_closed

.. signal:: feed_exporter_closed

.. function:: feed_exporter_closed()

    Sent when the :ref:`feed exports <topics-feed-exports>` extension is closed,
    during the handling of the :signal:`spider_closed` signal by the extension,
    after all feed exporting has been handled.

    This signal supports returning deferreds from its handlers.

Request signals

request_scheduled

.. signal:: request_scheduled

.. function:: request_scheduled(request, spider)

    Sent when the engine schedules a :class:`~scrapy.Request`, to be
    downloaded later.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param request: the request that reached the scheduler
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider that yielded the request
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

request_dropped

.. signal:: request_dropped

.. function:: request_dropped(request, spider)

    Sent when a :class:`~scrapy.Request`, scheduled by the engine to be
    downloaded later, is rejected by the scheduler.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param request: the request that reached the scheduler
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider that yielded the request
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

request_reached_downloader

.. signal:: request_reached_downloader

.. function:: request_reached_downloader(request, spider)

    Sent when a :class:`~scrapy.Request` reached downloader.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param request: the request that reached downloader
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider that yielded the request
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

request_left_downloader

.. signal:: request_left_downloader

.. function:: request_left_downloader(request, spider)

    .. versionadded:: 2.0

    Sent when a :class:`~scrapy.Request` leaves the downloader, even in case of
    failure.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param request: the request that reached the downloader
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider that yielded the request
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

bytes_received

.. versionadded:: 2.2

.. signal:: bytes_received

.. function:: bytes_received(data, request, spider)

    Sent by the HTTP 1.1 and S3 download handlers when a group of bytes is
    received for a specific request. This signal might be fired multiple
    times for the same request, with partial data each time. For instance,
    a possible scenario for a 25 kb response would be two signals fired
    with 10 kb of data, and a final one with 5 kb of data.

    Handlers for this signal can stop the download of a response while it
    is in progress by raising the :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.StopDownload`
    exception. Please refer to the :ref:`topics-stop-response-download` topic
    for additional information and examples.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param data: the data received by the download handler
    :type data: :class:`bytes` object

    :param request: the request that generated the download
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider associated with the response
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

headers_received

.. versionadded:: 2.5

.. signal:: headers_received

.. function:: headers_received(headers, body_length, request, spider)

    Sent by the HTTP 1.1 and S3 download handlers when the response headers are
    available for a given request, before downloading any additional content.

    Handlers for this signal can stop the download of a response while it
    is in progress by raising the :exc:`~scrapy.exceptions.StopDownload`
    exception. Please refer to the :ref:`topics-stop-response-download` topic
    for additional information and examples.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param headers: the headers received by the download handler
    :type headers: :class:`scrapy.http.headers.Headers` object

    :param body_length: expected size of the response body, in bytes
    :type body_length: `int`

    :param request: the request that generated the download
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider associated with the response
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

Response signals

response_received

.. signal:: response_received

.. function:: response_received(response, request, spider)

    Sent when the engine receives a new :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` from the
    downloader.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param response: the response received
    :type response: :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object

    :param request: the request that generated the response
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider for which the response is intended
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

Note

The request argument might not contain the original request that reached the downloader, if a :ref:`topics-downloader-middleware` modifies the :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object and sets a specific request attribute.

response_downloaded

.. signal:: response_downloaded

.. function:: response_downloaded(response, request, spider)

    Sent by the downloader right after a ``HTTPResponse`` is downloaded.

    This signal does not support returning deferreds from its handlers.

    :param response: the response downloaded
    :type response: :class:`~scrapy.http.Response` object

    :param request: the request that generated the response
    :type request: :class:`~scrapy.Request` object

    :param spider: the spider for which the response is intended
    :type spider: :class:`~scrapy.Spider` object

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signals.rst

signals.rst

Signals

Deferred signal handlers

Built-in signals reference

Engine signals

engine_started

engine_stopped

Item signals

item_scraped

item_dropped

item_error

Spider signals

spider_closed

spider_opened

spider_idle

spider_error

feed_slot_closed

feed_exporter_closed

Request signals

request_scheduled

request_dropped

request_reached_downloader

request_left_downloader

bytes_received

headers_received

Response signals

response_received

response_downloaded

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Signals

Deferred signal handlers

Built-in signals reference

Engine signals

engine_started

engine_stopped

Item signals

item_scraped

item_dropped

item_error

Spider signals

spider_closed

spider_opened

spider_idle

spider_error

feed_slot_closed

feed_exporter_closed

Request signals

request_scheduled

request_dropped

request_reached_downloader

request_left_downloader

bytes_received

headers_received

Response signals

response_received

response_downloaded