How to Use Python to Extract All Articles from a WeChat Public Account via the Official API

When we want to extract all articles from a specific WeChat public account, we can use the platform's open API and write a Python crawler.

1. Import required libraries

import requests
import json

2. Send request to get article list

def get_article_list(public_account, count=10):
    # Construct request URL
    url = f"https://api.weixin.qq.com/cgi-bin/token?grant_type=client_credential&appid=APPID&secret=APPSECRET"
    # Send GET request to obtain access token
    response = requests.get(url)
    access_token = response.json()["access_token"]
    # Construct article list URL
    article_url = f"https://api.weixin.qq.com/cgi-bin/material/batchget_material?access_token={access_token}"
    # Request body
    data = {
        "type": "news",
        "offset": 0,
        "count": count
    }
    # Send POST request to get articles
    response = requests.post(article_url, data=json.dumps(data))
    # Parse JSON response
    articles = response.json()["item"]
    return articles

3. Process article data

def process_articles(articles):
    # Process each article
    for article in articles:
        title = article["title"]
        summary = article["digest"]
        url = article["url"]
        print("标题:", title)
        print("摘要:", summary)
        print("链接:", url)
        print()

4. Call functions and output results

public_account = "公众号名称"
count = 10
# Get article list
articles = get_article_list(public_account, count)
# Process article data
process_articles(articles)

The script fetches an access token, retrieves the article list, and prints each article’s title, digest, and link, providing a simple way to collect and analyze WeChat public account content.