How to Scrape Super Course Table App Topics with Python – A Step‑by‑Step Guide

Most mobile apps return JSON or encrypted data; this guide demonstrates how to capture and parse the topic data from the Super Course Table app.

1. Capture the app data packet

The request body contains encrypted username, password, and device information; posting it directly works, but the request must also include the proper HTTP headers, otherwise a login error occurs.

2. Login

import urllib2
from cookielib import CookieJar
loginUrl = 'http://120.55.151.61/V2/StudentSkip/loginCheckV4.action'
headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8',
    'User-Agent': 'Dalvik/1.6.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.1; M040 Build/JRO03H)',
    'Host': '120.55.151.61',
    'Connection': 'Keep-Alive',
    'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip',
    'Content-Length': '207',
}
loginData = 'phoneBrand=Meizu&platform=1&deviceCode=868033014919494&account=FCF030E1F2F6341C1C93BE5BBC422A3D&phoneVersion=16&password=A55B48BB75C79200379D82A18C5F47D6&channel=MXMarket&phoneModel=M040&versionNumber=7.2.1&'
cookieJar = CookieJar()
opener = urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(cookieJar))
req = urllib2.Request(loginUrl, loginData, headers)
loginResult = opener.open(req).read()
print loginResult

Successful login returns a JSON string with account information.

3. Fetch topic data

Using the same method, obtain the topic URL and POST parameters, then repeatedly request to load more content, achieving infinite scrolling.

#!/usr/local/bin/python2.7
# -*- coding: utf8 -*-
"""Super Course Table topic scraper"""
import urllib2
from cookielib import CookieJar
import json

def fetch_data(json_data):
    data = json_data['data']
    timestampLong = data['timestampLong']
    messageBO = data['messageBOs']
    topicList = []
    for each in messageBO:
        if each.get('content', False):
            topicDict = {
                'content': each['content'],
                'schoolName': each['schoolName'],
                'messageId': each['messageId'],
                'gender': each['studentBO']['gender'],
                'time': each['issueTime']
            }
            print each['schoolName'], each['content']
            topicList.append(topicDict)
    return timestampLong, topicList

def load(timestamp, headers, url):
    headers['Content-Length'] = '159'
    loadData = 'timestamp=%s&phoneBrand=Meizu&platform=1&genderType=-1&topicId=19&phoneVersion=16&selectType=3&channel=MXMarket&phoneModel=M040&versionNumber=7.2.1&' % timestamp
    req = urllib2.Request(url, loadData, headers)
    loadResult = opener.open(req).read()
    loginStatus = json.loads(loadResult).get('status', False)
    if loginStatus == 1:
        print 'load successful!'
        timestamp, topicList = fetch_data(json.loads(loadResult))
        load(timestamp, headers, url)
    else:
        print 'load fail'
        print loadResult
        return False

loginUrl = 'http://120.55.151.61/V2/StudentSkip/loginCheckV4.action'
topicUrl = 'http://120.55.151.61/V2/Treehole/Message/getMessageByTopicIdV3.action'
headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8',
    'User-Agent': 'Dalvik/1.6.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.1; M040 Build/JRO03H)',
    'Host': '120.55.151.61',
    'Connection': 'Keep-Alive',
    'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip',
    'Content-Length': '207',
}
# --- login ---
loginData = 'phoneBrand=Meizu&platform=1&deviceCode=868033014919494&account=FCF030E1F2F6341C1C93BE5BBC422A3D&phoneVersion=16&password=A55B48BB75C79200379D82A18C5F47D6&channel=MXMarket&phoneModel=M040&versionNumber=7.2.1&'
cookieJar = CookieJar()
opener = urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(cookieJar))
req = urllib2.Request(loginUrl, loginData, headers)
loginResult = opener.open(req).read()
loginStatus = json.loads(loginResult).get('data', False)
if loginResult:
    print 'login successful!'
else:
    print 'login fail'
print loginResult
# --- fetch topics ---
topicData = 'timestamp=0&phoneBrand=Meizu&platform=1&genderType=-1&topicId=19&phoneVersion=16&selectType=3&channel=MXMarket&phoneModel=M040&versionNumber=7.2.1&'
headers['Content-Length'] = '147'
topicRequest = urllib2.Request(topicUrl, topicData, headers)
topicHtml = opener.open(topicRequest).read()
topicJson = json.loads(topicHtml)
if topicJson.get('status') == 1:
    print 'fetch topic success!'
    timestamp, topicList = fetch_data(topicJson)
    load(timestamp, headers, topicUrl)

The script logs in, retrieves the initial topic list, and continuously loads additional pages, allowing unlimited extraction of topic content.