Create a Web-Crawler Notification Bot in Python

In this article, we will guide you through the process of creating a Web-Crawler Notification Bot using Python. This notification bot is designed to display notification messages on your window, providing a useful tool for alerting users to relevant information gathered through web crawling.

What is a Notification Bot?

A Notification Bot is a program designed to deliver timely alerts or messages to users. Typically automated, it serves to notify users of important events, updates, or information, enhancing user engagement and awareness. In Python, creating a Notification Bot involves utilizing web-crawling techniques to gather relevant data for instant notifications on a user's window.

Create A Web-Crawler Notification Bot in Python

Below, are the step-by-step implementation of Web-Crawler Notification Bot in Python.

Step 1: Create a Virtual Environment

First, create the virtual environment using the below commands

python -m venv env 
.\env\Scripts\activate.ps1

Step 2: Install Neccassary Library

We need to install two libraries: bs4 for BeautifulSoup and plyer for notification display. For install this library run the below command

pip install bs4
pip install plyer

Step 3: Import Neccassary Library

We , First import the two libraries: bs4 for BeautifulSoup and plyer for notification display. For import these library run the below code

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from plyer import notification

Step 4:Implement the Logic

In this example, below code first imports necessary modules such as requests for HTTP requests, BeautifulSoup for HTML parsing, and plyer for notifications. The `send_notification` function is defined to display notifications, and the `parse_html` function fetches the content of a webpage, compares it with the previous content, and sends a notification if changes are detected. The main loop in the `main` function continuously checks the specified URL (in this case, Apple's iPhone page) for changes every hour, utilizing the functions mentioned earlier.

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
from plyer import notification
import time

# Function to send notifications
def send_notification(title, message):
    notification.notify(
        title=title,
        message=message,
        timeout=10  # Notification will disappear after 10 seconds
    )

# Function to parse HTML and check for changes
def parse_html(url, last_content):
    try:
        # Send HTTP request and get the webpage content
        response = requests.get(url)
        soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')

        # Customize this part based on the structure of the webpage
        current_content = str(soup.find('div', class_='content').text)

        # Check if content has changed since the last check
        if current_content != last_content:
            send_notification("Web Crawler Notification", "New content detected on the webpage!")

        return current_content

    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}")
        return last_content

# Main loop to run the script continuously
def main():
    url = "https://www.apple.com/iphone/" # or any example url
    last_content = ""

    while True:
        last_content = parse_html(url, last_content)
        time.sleep(3600)  # Check for changes every hour

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()