Article Objective

In this piece, I'll illustrate how we can streamline our online shopping experience by automating the process of tracking discounted prices for our desired products using Python.

Web scraping is a valuable skill. By utilizing web scraping techniques, we can extract data from websites and minimize our manual efforts. Below, I've included a Python script that can be tailored to scrape various websites and products as needed.

Understanding the principles of web scraping can empower us to develop robust data-driven applications, which is why I encourage everyone to learn how it functions.

1. Installing Required Libraries

Begin by installing the following dependency:

bs4==0.0.12

2. Crafting the Main Script: main.py

The script consists of two classes: PriceNotifier, which is initialized with an instance of EmailSender. The PriceNotifier includes a method called notify_if_cheap, which takes in the URL of the product page to monitor and a target price. It will send me an email notification if the product's price falls below the specified target.

import requests

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

from email.message import EmailMessage

import smtplib

class PriceNotifier:

def __init__(self, email_sender):

self._email_sender = email_sender

def notify_if_cheap(self, url, target_price):

page = requests.get(url)

soup = BeautifulSoup(page.content, 'html.parser')

current_price = float(soup.find_all('div', {'class': 'cf-price'})[2].getText().strip().replace(',', '')[1:])

if current_price < target_price:

self._email_sender.send(url, current_price)

class EmailSender:

def __init__(self, email_id, email_password, to):

self._email_pass = email_password

self._email_id = email_id

self._to = to

def send(self, url, price):

message = EmailMessage()

message['Subject'] = "Price Alert: Time To Purchase"

message['From'] = self._email_id

message['To'] = self._to

message.set_content(f"The product {url} is now available at your target price of {price}.")

with smtplib.SMTP_SSL('smtp.gmail.com', 465) as smtp:

smtp.login(self._email_id, self._email_pass)

smtp.send_message(message)

3. Executing the Script (in main.py)

if __name__ == "__main__":

target_price = 8000

email_id = "[email protected]"

email_password = "your_password"

to = "[email protected]"

price_notifier = PriceNotifier(EmailSender(email_id, email_password, to))

price_notifier.notify_if_cheap(target_url, target_price)

By running this script, I can track the price of my desired product and receive notifications when it falls below my set threshold. Additionally, this script can be scheduled to run automatically at designated intervals.

Summary

Web scraping is a valuable skill that allows us to extract data from various online sources and automate manual tasks. I hope this script proves useful for anyone seeking to gather information from web pages.