How can i use multiple requests and pass items in between them in scrapy python

I have the item object and i need to pass that along many pages to store data in single item

LIke my item is

class DmozItem(Item):
    title = Field()
    description1 = Field()
    description2 = Field()
    description3 = Field()

Now those three description are in three separate pages. i want to do somrething like

Now this works good for parseDescription1

def page_parser(self, response):
    sites = hxs.select('//div[@class="row"]')
    items = []
    request =  Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp",  callback =self.parseDescription1)
    request.meta['item'] = item
    return request 

def parseDescription1(self,response):
    item = response.meta['item']
    item['desc1'] = "test"
    return item

But i want something like

def page_parser(self, response):
    sites = hxs.select('//div[@class="row"]')
    items = []
    request =  Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp",  callback =self.parseDescription1)
    request.meta['item'] = item

    request =  Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp",  callback =self.parseDescription2)
    request.meta['item'] = item

    request =  Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp",  callback =self.parseDescription2)
    request.meta['item'] = item

    return request 

def parseDescription1(self,response):
    item = response.meta['item']
    item['desc1'] = "test"
    return item

def parseDescription2(self,response):
    item = response.meta['item']
    item['desc2'] = "test2"
    return item

def parseDescription3(self,response):
    item = response.meta['item']
    item['desc3'] = "test3"
    return item

No problem. Following is correct version of your code:

def page_parser(self, response):
      sites = hxs.select('//div[@class="row"]')
      items = []

      request = Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp", callback=self.parseDescription1)
      request.meta['item'] = item
      yield request

      request = Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp", callback=self.parseDescription2, meta={'item': item})
      yield request

      yield Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp", callback=self.parseDescription3, meta={'item': item})

def parseDescription1(self,response):
            item = response.meta['item']
            item['desc1'] = "test"
            return item

def parseDescription2(self,response):
            item = response.meta['item']
            item['desc2'] = "test2"
            return item

def parseDescription3(self,response):
            item = response.meta['item']
            item['desc3'] = "test3"
            return item

In order to guarantee an ordering of the requests/callbacks and that only one item is ultimately returned you need to chain your requests using a form like:

  def page_parser(self, response):
        sites = hxs.select('//div[@class="row"]')
        items = []

        request = Request("http://www.example.com/lin1.cpp", callback=self.parseDescription1)
        request.meta['item'] = Item()
        return [request]


  def parseDescription1(self,response):
        item = response.meta['item']
        item['desc1'] = "test"
        return [Request("http://www.example.com/lin2.cpp", callback=self.parseDescription2, meta={'item': item})]


  def parseDescription2(self,response):
        item = response.meta['item']
        item['desc2'] = "test2"
        return [Request("http://www.example.com/lin3.cpp", callback=self.parseDescription3, meta={'item': item})]

  def parseDescription3(self,response):
        item = response.meta['item']
        item['desc3'] = "test3"
        return [item]

Each callback function returns an iterable of items or requests, requests are scheduled and items are run through your item pipeline.

If you return an item from each of the callbacks, you'll end up with 4 items in various states of completeness in your pipeline, but if you return the next request, then you can guaruntee the order of requests and that you will have exactly one item at the end of execution.

The accepted answer returns a total of three items [with desc(i) set for i=1,2,3].

If you want to return a single item, Dave McLain's item does work, however it requires parseDescription1, parseDescription2, and parseDescription3 to succeed and run without errors in order to return the item.

For my use case, some of the subrequests MAY return HTTP 403/404 errors at random, thus I lost some of the items, even though I could have scraped them partially.

Workaround

Thus, I currently employ the following workaround: Instead of only passing the item around in the request.meta dict, pass around a call stack that knows what request to call next. It will call the next item on the stack (so long as it isn't empty), and returns the item if the stack is empty.

The errback request parameter is used to return to the dispatcher method upon errors and simply continue with the next stack item.

def callnext(self, response):
    ''' Call next target for the item loader, or yields it if completed. '''

    # Get the meta object from the request, as the response
    # does not contain it.
    meta = response.request.meta

    # Items remaining in the stack? Execute them
    if len(meta['callstack']) > 0:
        target = meta['callstack'].pop(0)
        yield Request(target['url'], meta=meta, callback=target['callback'], errback=self.callnext)
    else:
        yield meta['loader'].load_item()

def parseDescription1(self, response):

    # Recover item(loader)
    l = response.meta['loader']

    # Use just as before
    l.add_css(...)

    # Build the call stack
    callstack = [
        {'url': "http://www.example.com/lin2.cpp",
        'callback': self.parseDescription2 },
        {'url': "http://www.example.com/lin3.cpp",
        'callback': self.parseDescription3 }
    ]

    return self.callnext(response)

def parseDescription2(self, response):

    # Recover item(loader)
    l = response.meta['loader']

    # Use just as before
    l.add_css(...)

    return self.callnext(response)


def parseDescription3(self, response):

    # ...

    return self.callnext(response)

Warning

This solution is still synchronous, and will still fail if you have any exceptions within the callbacks.

For more information, check the blog post I wrote about that solution.