OPAL - Oppositional Positions in ALabama¶
Extract Alabama Court Data & News with Ease
A powerful web scraping tool designed specifically for Alabama public records and news sources
Start Scraping in 5 Minutes →What is OPAL?¶
OPAL is a specialized web scraping framework that makes it easy to extract structured data from Alabama news sites and court records. Built with researchers, journalists, and civic technologists in mind.
Key Features¶
- 3 Data Sources - Scrape from Alabama Appeals Court, 1819 News, and Alabama Daily News
- 5-Minute Setup - Get up and running quickly with simple installation
- JSON Export Format - Structured data output for easy analysis and integration
- 100% Open Source - Free to use, modify, and contribute
Available Parsers¶
⚖️ Alabama Appeals Court
Extract appellate court decisions with full metadata including case numbers, parties, and opinions
python -m opal --parser ParserAppealsAL
📰 1819 News
Scrape articles from Alabama's independent news source with author, date, and content extraction
python -m opal --parser Parser1819
📊 Alabama Daily News
Parse daily news articles with structured data extraction and category classification
python -m opal --parser ParserDailyNews
Quick Start¶
$
pip install -e .
Successfully installed opal-scraper
$
python -m opal --url https://publicportal.alacourt.gov --parser ParserAppealsAL
Processing court case data...
Found 12 pages to process
Successfully scraped court cases
Found 12 pages to process
Successfully scraped court cases
Choose Your Path¶
I want to use OPAL to scrape data
I want to extend OPAL or contribute
Built by Alabama Forward¶
This project was created by Gabriel Cabán Cubero, Data Director at Alabama Forward, to support civic engagement and transparency in Alabama.