Heritrix

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Heritrix
Heritrix is an open-source web crawler, allowing users to target websites they wish to include in a collection and to harvest an instance of each site.
Homepage:https://github.com/internetarchive/heritrix3/wiki
License:GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1
Platforms:Written in Java. Must have Java Runtime Environment (JRE, http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp) and at least Java version 5.0 installed. Default heap size is 256MB RAM.
Wikidata ID:Q3097891
Function:Web Capture
Content type:Web
Appears in COW:Quality Assurance: Iterative Seed Issue Decision Tree, Web Archiving Quality Assurance (QA) Workflow, Web Archiving Quality Assurance Lifecycle


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Mailing List(s)

See here for more information.

Issues Feed

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Description[edit]

Heritrix is an open-source web crawler, allowing users to target websites they wish to include in a collection and to harvest an instance of each site. The software is most often used as a powerful back-end tool incorporated into a web archiving workflow.

Provider[edit]

Internet Archive

Licensing and cost[edit]

Apache License, Version 2.0 – free. Some individual source code files are subject to or offered under other licenses.

Development activity[edit]

Version 3.1.1 was released in May 2012. Heritrix powers the Internet Archive, and so receives ongoing support.

Platform and interoperability[edit]

As a Java application, Heritrix is theoretically platform agnostic; however, only Linux is supported.  The software requires Java Runtime Environment 1.6 or higher, and at least 256MB of available RAM.

Functional notes[edit]

Web crawls are carried out by configuring a ‘job,’ which itself is an instance of a crawl template called a ‘profile.’ Although they contain the same configurations, these two entities have different functions; profiles record the set of configurations and act as a starting point for shaping a new job, but only the job itself can excecute a crawl. The software will crawl FTP sites in addition to HTTP. Users can examine the results of a crawl by opening its log files, which include information about crawl problems and errors, each URI that was collected, and statistics about the job as a whole. Users can also create reports showing a summary of the crawl’s activity. Heritrix stores the web resources it crawls in an Arc file. The software includes a command-line tool called arcreader which can be used to extract the contents.

Documentation and user support[edit]

The User Guide for versions 3.0 and 3.1 is in the form of a wiki, which at time of writing is not structured in any obvious narrative order; while detailed, it is very difficult to navigate.  The User Manual for version 2.0 is structured and can be used as a reference for navigation.  Extensive documentation is available, including release notes, Javadoc API documentation, and FAQs linking within the wiki. Heritrix’s website links to two active mailing lists: a yahoo discussion group and a sourceforge list distributing source code commits. The project also uses a public JIRA for bug, feature, and issue tracking.

Usability[edit]

Heritrix is installed via a command line interface, but once installed the user can launch a web-based interface for configuration. Setting up a crawl requires a significant number of adjustments.

Expertise required[edit]

Installation requires solid knowledge of Linux and command line interfaces. As with any web archiving software, deep understanding of the project’s scope and collections policy is essential in order to set up appropriate targets.

Standards compliance[edit]

Heritrix does not offer metadata support. The software is designed to respect robots.txt exclusion directives and META robots tags.

Influence and take-up[edit]

Heritrix is extremely influential; as of March 2012, the SourceForge site reports nearly 240,000 downloads. Users include the Internet Archive, the British Library, the United States Library of Congress, and the French National Library. The software powers NetarchiveSuite and the Web Curator Tool.


User Experiences[edit]

Development Activity[edit]

All development activity is visible on GitHub: http://github.com/internetarchive/heritrix3/commits


Release Feed[edit]

Below the last 3 release feeds:

2025-02-03 05:26:03
[tag:github.com,2008:Repository/2623406/3.7.0 3.7.0]
by ato
2024-11-29 12:08:58
[tag:github.com,2008:Repository/2623406/3.6.0 3.6.0]
by ato
2024-10-29 06:59:55
[tag:github.com,2008:Repository/2623406/3.5.0 3.5.0]
by ato


Activity Feed[edit]

Below the last 5 commits:

2025-02-03 05:11:22
[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/d21a053c6d8269048cbd885956dd77fbd90cdc8c [maven-release-plugin] prepare for next development iteration]
by ato https://github.com/ato
2025-02-03 05:11:18
[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/370f0480e555c669b17a64a0027fee64e7eb5c24 [maven-release-plugin] prepare release 3.7.0]
by ato https://github.com/ato
2025-02-03 05:08:51
[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/8cf3e476d1a9f628388cec82f2e507af8a0fa12e Bump ftpserver-core from 1.2.0 to 1.2.1]
by ato https://github.com/ato
2025-02-03 05:05:51
[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/ed02038e8b8752c743e564126880508c41946a67 Update CHANGELOG for 3.7.0]
by ato https://github.com/ato
2025-02-03 03:02:16
[tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/48ac7484f0da62815a6e4830e22bf5fe759c4727 Merge pull request #639 from internetarchive/update-deps-for-3.7]
by ato https://github.com/ato