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Contributing to Google Maps Scraper — Light Edition

Thanks for your interest in contributing! This project is built and maintained by the SoClose community. Whether you're fixing a bug, adding a feature, or improving docs — every contribution counts.

Getting Started

  1. Fork this repository
  2. Clone your fork locally: 
    git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/GoogleMapScraper.git
cd GoogleMapScraper
  3. Create a virtual environment and install dependencies: 
    python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
  4. Create a feature branch: 
    git checkout -b feature/my-feature

Guidelines

Code Style

  • Keep it simple — this is the Light Edition, not an enterprise framework
  • Follow existing patterns in the codebase
  • Use descriptive variable and function names
  • Add docstrings to new functions
  • Use logging instead of print() for output

Pull Requests

  • One feature or fix per PR
  • Write a clear description of what changed and why
  • Test your changes before submitting
  • Keep PRs small and focused

Commit Messages

Use clear, descriptive commit messages:

Add proxy rotation support
Fix CSV encoding issue on Windows
Update README with new usage examples

Ideas for Contributions

Here are some features the community would love to see:

  • New data fields — ratings, review count, business category, Google Maps place ID
  • Export formats — JSON, Excel (.xlsx), SQLite
  • Proxy support — rotate proxies to avoid rate limiting
  • Multi-threading — scrape multiple places in parallel
  • Search by area — scrape all businesses in a geographic zone
  • Duplicate detection — skip places already scraped
  • Tests — unit tests for parsing logic
  • Docker support — containerized deployment

Reporting Bugs

Open an issue with:

  • What you expected to happen
  • What actually happened
  • Steps to reproduce
  • Your OS and Python version

Community

Join the SoClose community at soclose.com to discuss ideas, get help, and collaborate on projects.

Thank you for making this project better!