This script is essentially a web page change detection system. It scrapes a specific webpage periodically and checks if the content has changed since the last check. If a change is detected, it sends a notification.
This tool provides a versatile solution for monitoring any webpage for updates, which can be particularly useful for pages that lack their own notification systems for changes or updates. However, it's crucial to exercise caution and ensure that the website being scraped permits such activity. Unauthorized scraping may violate the website's terms of service and could lead to legal consequences.
Please note that the effectiveness of the script might be impacted if the webpage relies heavily on dynamic content loading, as it may not capture real-time changes. Additionally, web scraping can put a strain on both the web server and the network, so responsible and considerate usage is advised.
Avoiding False Positives in Webpage Monitoring
This script utilizes the BeautifulSoup library to ensure accurate monitoring of webpages. By parsing the HTML content, it filters out non-visual elements such as metadata, scripts, and styles. This ensures that notifications are triggered only by genuine visual changes on the page, reducing the chances of false alerts due to minor metadata modifications.
URL Validation and Fault Tolerance The script includes URL validation to ensure that the provided URL is well-formed and starts with "http://" or "https://". If the URL is not valid, a detailed error message will be logged. The script is also designed to handle exceptions gracefully, such as connection errors or timeouts, and will log these errors without crashing.
Make sure to install the required libraries
pip install requests plyer beautifulsoup4 validators