Output of GET request different to view source - go

Question

I'm trying to extract match data from whoscored.com. When I view the source on firefox, I find on line 816 a big json string with the data I want for that matchid. My goal is to eventually get this json.
In doing this, I've tried to download every page of https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/ID/Live where ID is the id of the match. I wrote a little Go program to GET request each ID up to a certain point:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"io/ioutil"
"net/http"
"os"
)
// http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/614052/Live is the match for
// Eveton vs Manchester
const match_address = "http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/"
// the max id we get
const max_id = 300
const num_workers = 10
// function that get the bytes of the match id from the website
func match_fetch(matchid int) {
url := fmt.Sprintf("%s%d/Live", match_address, matchid)
resp, err := http.Get(url)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
// if we sucessfully got a response, store the
// body in memory
defer resp.Body.Close()
body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
// write the body to memory
pwd, _ := os.Getwd()
filepath := fmt.Sprintf("%s/match_data/%d", pwd, matchid)
err = ioutil.WriteFile(filepath, body, 0644)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
}
// data type to send to the workers,
// last means this job is the last one
// matchid is the match id to be fetched
// a matchid of -1 means don't fetch a match
type job struct {
last bool
matchid int
}
func create_worker(jobs chan job) {
for {
next_job := <-jobs
if next_job.matchid != -1 {
match_fetch(next_job.matchid)
}
if next_job.last {
return
}
}
}
func main() {
// do the eveton match as a reference
match_fetch(614052)
var joblist [num_workers]chan job
var v int
for i := 0; i < num_workers; i++ {
job_chan := make(chan job)
joblist[i] = job_chan
go create_worker(job_chan)
}
for i := 0; i < max_id; i = i + num_workers {
for index, c := range joblist {
if i+index < max_id {
v = i + index
} else {
v = -1
}
c <- job{false, v}
}
}
for _, c := range joblist {
c <- job{true, -1}
}
}
The code seems to work in that it fills a directory called match_data with html. The problem is that this html is completely different to what I get in the browser! Here is the section which I think does this: (from the body of the GET request of http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/614052/Live.
(function() {
var z="";var b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for (var i=0;i<b.length;i+=2){z=z+parseInt(b.substring(i, i+2), 16)+",";}z = z.substring(0,z.length-1); eval(eval('String.fromCharCode('+z+')'));})();
The reason I think this is the case is that the javascript in the page fetches and edits the DOM to what I see on view source. How can I get golang to run the javascript? Is there are library to do this? Better still, could I directly grab the JSON from the servers?

Answer 1

This can be done with https://godoc.org/github.com/sourcegraph/webloop#View.EvaluateJavaScript
Read their main example https://github.com/sourcegraph/webloop
What you need is a "headless browser" in general.

Answer 2

In general it is better to use an Web API vs. scraping. For example, whoscored themselves use OPTA which you should be able to access directly.
http://www.jokecamp.com/blog/guide-to-football-and-soccer-data-and-apis/#opta