Python Program to scrape the CRO Database
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the CRO database in the past few weeks, so I wrote this python script called croscraper.py to do a quick lookup on companies.
Usage is:
backus:~/Documents/workspace/CloudSplit/src/croscrape jpd$ python croscraper.py -h Usage: croscraper.py <list of files> Options: --version show program's version number and exit -h, --help show this help message and exit -c COMPANY, --company=COMPANY return information on company named <company> -d, --debug turn on debugging backus:~/Documents/workspace/CloudSplit/src/croscrape jpd$
To look up a specific company name or part of a name try,
backus:~/Documents/workspace/CloudSplit/src/croscrape jpd$ python croscraper.py -c cloud
{'Number': '44950', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'BLUE CLOUD LIMITED', 'Address': '46, LOWER LEESON STREET, DUBLIN 2. '}
{'Number': '332318', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'CLOUD 9 DESIGN LIMITED', 'Address': '21 CLOISTER AVENUE BLACKROCK CO DUBLIN '}
{'Number': '102707', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'CLOUD DANCER LIMITED', 'Address': '18, MERRION SQUARE, DUBLIN 2. '}
{'Number': '&', 'Type': '361040', 'Name': 'CLOUD ELECTRICAL ', 'Address': ' COMMUNICATION SERVICES LIMITED'}
{'Number': '472475', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'CLOUD IGNITE LIMITED', 'Address': 'BAYVIEW HOUSE 49 NORTH STRAND ROAD DUBLIN 3 '}
{'Number': '466027', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'THE CLOUD NETWORKS (IRELAND) LIMITED', 'Address': "C/O O'MAHONY DONNELLY 10 MCCURTAIN HILL CLONAKILTY CO CORK"}
{'Number': '328355', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'CLOUD NINE BEDS LIMITED', 'Address': 'Unit T1 Coolmine Industrial Estate Clonsilla Road Dublin 15'}
{'Number': '124102', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'CLOUD NINE HAIRLINE (SALES) LIMITED', 'Address': 'BALLYMOUNT ROAD, DUBLIN 12. '}
{'Number': '55964', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'CLOUD NINE PROMOTIONS LIMITED', 'Address': '********NO ADDRESS DETAILS******* ********NO ADDRESS DETAILS******* ********NO ADDRESS DETAILS******* ********NO ADDRESS DETAILS*******'}
{'Number': '311145', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'DILL CLOUD LIMITED', 'Address': '6 RICHMOND ROAD DRUMCONDRA DUBLIN 3 '}
{'Number': '316954', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'MUSHROOM CLOUD PRODUCTIONS LIMITED', 'Address': '3RD FLOOR WESTLAND SQUARE DUBLIN 2 '}
{'Number': '44954', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'RED CLOUD LIMITED', 'Address': '6, CAVENDISH ROW, DUBLIN. '}
{'Number': '433681', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'ROLLIN CLOUD LIMITED', 'Address': '44 BELGRAVE SQUARE WEST RATHMINES DUBLIN 6 '}
{'Number': '175728', 'Type': 'Company', 'Name': 'SOLAR CLOUD LIMITED', 'Address': '38, ENNAFORT ROAD, RAHENY, DUBLIN 5. '}
backus:~/Documents/workspace/CloudSplit/src/croscrape jpd$
Gee look at all those cloud companies
It is left as an exercise to the reader to port the program to Google App Engine or get more data out of the CRO. I may do some more work on this in the future.
You will need Python installed to run this program. It has only been tested on a Mac.

Works like a charm on XP with Python 2.6
Paul Power
September 2, 2009 at 12:29 am
Interesting market research technique
Jarek
September 2, 2009 at 8:31 am
tested on FreeBSD
no problems at all
Jarek
September 2, 2009 at 8:35 am
[...] Scraping the CRO Database by Joe Drumgoole [...]
Web 2.0 Ireland » Blog Archive » Government 2.0 in Ireland?
September 6, 2009 at 9:03 am
[...] Copacetic » Blog Archive » Python Program to scrape the CRO Database I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the CRO database in the past few weeks, so I wrote this python script called croscraper.py to do a quick lookup on companies. (tags: @2file) Comments closed — Trackbacks closed RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Thursday, October 8, 2009, at 02:09 by nrvous.delicious. Filed in Delicious Links. « links for 2009-10-06 links for 2009-10-08 » Home [...]
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October 9, 2009 at 2:09 am