Fix MSU (Mid Suffolk) scraper - #488
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…bypass The scraper was hitting http://baberghmidsuffolk.moderngov.co.uk which returned 403. Mid Suffolk's ModernGov instance is now behind Cloudflare and requires both HTTPS and a browser-level JS challenge to access the ASMX web service endpoint. - Migrate base_url from http:// to https:// - Add http_lib = "playwright" to execute Cloudflare JS challenge via headless Chromium
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Re-scrape after 85d10ebInitial fix: HTTPS migration + Playwright for Cloudflare bypass. Cloudflare blocks all non-Chromium clients from this environment, so scrape counts can only be confirmed after a Lambda run.
Generated by Claude Code |
This was referenced Aug 5, 2026
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What broke
The scraper was requesting
http://baberghmidsuffolk.moderngov.co.uk/mgWebService.asmx/GetCouncillorsByWardand receiving a 403. The Babergh and Mid Suffolk shared ModernGov instance is now behind Cloudflare, which blocks the HTTP endpoint entirely and serves a Cloudflare challenge page on HTTPS when accessed with a non-browser TLS fingerprint. Same failure pattern as BNS, BRW, CHI, CHS, HAS, HAT, MSS and other recently affected ModernGov councils.What was fixed
metadata.json: migratedbase_urlfromhttp://tohttps://councillors.py: addedhttp_lib = "playwright"so headless Chromium executes the Cloudflare JS challenge before fetching the ModGov ASMX XML endpoint (the existing email-domain filterget_single_councilloris preserved)Scrape results
Cloudflare blocks all non-Chromium clients from this environment, so exact counts require a Lambda run.
Generated by Claude Code