pythondebuggingpython-2.7scrapypycharm

How to use PyCharm to debug Scrapy projects


I am working on Scrapy 0.20 with Python 2.7. I found PyCharm has a good Python debugger. I want to test my Scrapy spiders using it. Anyone knows how to do that please?

What I have tried

Actually I tried to run the spider as a script. As a result, I built that script. Then, I tried to add my Scrapy project to PyCharm as a model like this:
File->Setting->Project structure->Add content root.

But I don't know what else I have to do


Solution

  • The scrapy command is a python script which means you can start it from inside PyCharm.

    When you examine the scrapy binary (which scrapy) you will notice that this is actually a python script:

    #!/usr/bin/python
    
    from scrapy.cmdline import execute
    execute()
    

    This means that a command like scrapy crawl IcecatCrawler can also be executed like this: python /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/scrapy/cmdline.py crawl IcecatCrawler

    Try to find the scrapy.cmdline package. In my case the location was here: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/scrapy/cmdline.py

    Create a run/debug configuration inside PyCharm with that script as script. Fill the script parameters with the scrapy command and spider. In this case crawl IcecatCrawler.

    Like this: PyCharm Run/Debug Configuration

    Put your breakpoints anywhere in your crawling code and it should work™.