Build Your First Web Crawler Without Code: A Make + Novada Scraper API Tutorial

Have you ever wished the internet could just… work for you?

Not by passively scrolling through feeds the algorithm thinks you want, but by turning the entire web into a vast, obedient library of information. A tireless personal assistant that, while you’re sleeping, in a meeting, or watching a movie, keeps an eye on the things you care about and notifies you the instant something changes.

For instance, the price drops on that camera you’ve been wanting.

Or your favorite blogger publishes a new article on a specific topic you follow.

Or an important new document is uploaded to an official website.

These are things that used to require us to manually refresh pages, again and again, draining our time and energy. But what if there was a way to make it all happen automatically?

And what if you could do it all without knowing a single line of code, without buying expensive servers? What if the whole process was as simple as snapping a few Lego bricks together?

Today, I’m going to guide you through building your very first automated information assistant using two magical digital “Lego bricks.”

Their names are Make and Novada Scraper API.

Don’t let the names scare you.

Think of Make as an infinite digital Lego table. You can connect all sorts of functional blocks on it, making them work together according to your grand design.

And the Novada Scraper API? That’s your incredibly resourceful delivery guy. You just tell him which restaurant (which website) to go to and what dish (what information) to pick up. He’ll bypass any obstacle and bring the hot, perfectly packaged meal (structured data) right to your hands. Traffic jams, security guards (a website’s anti-scraping measures)—he handles it all for you.

Our goal is simple: create an assistant to monitor a specific phone on an online store. The moment its status changes from “Out of Stock” to “Buy Now,” it will instantly send a message to my phone.

Ready? Let’s start assembling your first digital creation.

Step 1: Build the Skeleton, Find Your Lego Table

Our workshop is the Make website. Open it in your browser and sign up for an account. Don’t worry, their free plan is more than enough for what we’re creating today.

Once you log in, you’ll see a clean interface. Click “Create a new scenario” in the top right corner, and a vast white canvas will unfold before you. This is your personal digital Lego table, the birthplace of countless powerful automations to come.

In the center of the canvas is a giant purple plus sign. It’s practically winking at you, as if to say, “Go on, add your first brick.”

Step 2: Summon the All-Powerful Delivery Guy, Novada

Click that plus sign, and a search box will pop up. Type “Novada” into it, and you’ll see a module with the Novada logo. Click it.

Now you need to choose from the actions Novada offers. We just want to get information from a webpage, so select “Make a Request to the Crawler API.”

This module is our delivery guy. But to get him to work, you need to issue him a “work ID”—an API Key.

No need to panic. This ID is free.

Open the Novada Scraper API website and, you guessed it, sign up for an account. After logging in, you’ll easily find a long string of letters and numbers labeled “API Key” in your dashboard or the documentation. This is your unique identity in their digital world. Copy it.

Head back to your Make canvas, click on the Novada module, and a settings window will appear. Click “Add,” give your connection a name like “My Novada,” and then paste the API Key you just copied.

There. Your delivery guy is now officially on the payroll, ready for your command.

Step 3: Give the Order, Set Your First Mission

It’s time to give our delivery guy his first mission.

In the Novada module’s settings, you’ll see two crucial input fields: URL and Elements to Extract.

URL is straightforward. It’s the webpage address of the phone you want to monitor. Just go to the store page, find it, copy the link, and paste it here.

Now for the main event: Elements to Extract. This tells the delivery guy exactly where to look on the page to find the information you need.

To do this, we need to use something called a “selector.”

Don’t be afraid. This is the only part of the whole process that looks even remotely “hacker-like.” But trust me, it’s just a copy-and-paste job.

On your computer, using Chrome or Edge, open the product page for the phone. Find the grayed-out button that says “Out of Stock” or “Notify Me.”

Right-click on that button and, from the menu that appears, select “Inspect.”

A window full of what looks like gibberish code will pop up on the side or bottom of your page. Ignore it. The line of code corresponding to where you just right-clicked will already be highlighted.

On that highlighted line of code, right-click again. Go to “Copy” and then “Copy selector.”

A mysterious string of text, something like #J_buyBtnBox > a.btn.btn-primary, is now in your clipboard.

This string is a magic wand. It points precisely to that “Out of Stock” button.

Go back to Make. In the Novada module’s “Elements to Extract” setting, click “Add item.” You’ll see two boxes: Name and CSS Selector.
In Name, give it a label you’ll remember, like “Button Status.”

In CSS Selector, paste the mysterious string you just copied.

Click “OK” to save.

And with that, the core command has been given. Translated into plain English, it says: “Hey Novada, go to this URL, use this magic wand to find that button, and tell me what text is written on it.”

Step 4: Define the Action, Call Me When Something Happens

Our assistant now knows what to “look for.” Next, we need to teach it what to “do” when it finds it.

Hover your mouse over the right side of the Novada module, and another plus sign will appear. Click it to add the next Lego brick.

To get notified, we can choose from many modules—email, SMS, even Slack. For this demo, let’s use the native notification feature on your phone, which you can easily receive by installing the Make app.

In the search box, look for “Notifications” (for iOS) or “Android” and add the module for sending a notification.

Click on the notification module to set it up.

In the Title, you can write: “Phone Status Update!”

The Body is where it gets interesting. We can have it tell us the specific status. Type “The latest button status is: ” and then look at the variable box that pops up. You’ll see data from the previous Novada step. Click and drag the one we named “Button Status” into the input box.

With this setup, if the button text is “Out of Stock,” the notification you receive will say, “The latest button status is: Out of Stock.” If it changes to “Buy Now,” you’ll get, “The latest button status is: Buy Now.”

Step 5: Bring Your Creation to Life

Everything is in place. Now, let’s breathe life into this little assistant and set it to run on its own.

In the bottom-left corner of the canvas, you’ll see a clock icon. Click it to set how often this process should run. For example, you can set it to run every 15 minutes.

Once that’s set, click the “Run once” button in the bottom-left to test it manually.

You’ll see data flow like an electric current from the Novada module on the left to the notification module on the right. Green checkmarks will light up above both.

Almost instantly, your phone buzzes. Ding.

You light up the screen, and there it is. A notification, crafted by you: “Phone Status Update! The latest button status is: Out of Stock.”
In that moment, you might just stare at your screen for a few seconds.

No code, no complex configurations. Just by clicking your mouse a few times as if playing a game, you’ve created a digital assistant that works for you. It’s real, it’s running, and it faithfully executed your command.

That feeling, of turning a simple idea into a real, working thing from scratch… that’s the feeling of creation.

Finally, don’t forget to click the switch in the bottom-left corner, turning it from “OFF” to “ON.”

From this moment on, the digital lifeform you created will, according to your instructions, tirelessly monitor that product page, day in and day out. Until one day, when it discovers that “Out of Stock” has become “Buy Now,” your phone will buzz again.

That sound will be the echo of your own creativity.

What you’ve just unlocked is so much more than a trick for monitoring product stock.

You’ve been handed a key—a key to the vast world of information automation. You’ve mastered a completely new way of interacting with the internet.

Today, you can monitor phone stock. Tomorrow, using the very same method, you can create all sorts of information assistants:

Monitor flights to your dream destination and get an alert when the price drops below a certain point.

Monitor a marketplace for a rare, out-of-print book and get notified the moment a copy is listed.

Monitor a rental site for your favorite neighborhood and get new listings sent to you the second they’re posted.

Monitor industry news sites and have links and summaries of any articles mentioning your company automatically sent to your work chat.
You are no longer a passive recipient of information, drowning in a sea of algorithmic recommendations. You have become the master of your own information world, a creator who can actively hunt down and capture value.

The information barriers of the world have just begun to crack open right in front of you.

Now, it’s your turn. Go build more of your own digital assistants.