Checker is a Python package that checks websites for new items and sends notifications via Telegram.

To install Checker, you can use pip:

pip install git+https://github.com/dearkafka/checker.git

This will install Checker and its dependencies.

Checker is designed to be used as a command-line tool. After installing the package, you can run the checker command to check for new items:

checker path/to/config.ini

Here, path/to/config.ini is the path to a configuration file that Checker uses to determine which website to scrape and how to send notifications. The configuration file should be in the INI format, see example; with sections and keys defined as follows:

[Scraper]
url = https://example.com/

The [Scraper] section specifies the URL of the website to scrape.

[WantedList]
url1 = https://example.com/item1
url2 = https://example.com/item2

Before anything, you need to train scraper.
The [WantedList] section lists the URLs of the items from the [Scraper] so that simiar items would be recognised in future. It's like a training data for scraper and it's what you would like to receive if you scraped manually. You can add as many items as you like, using keys numbered from url1 to urln.

[File]
scraper_file = scraper.json

The [File] section specifies the filename to use for the scraper cache/scrape model file. This file will store the results of previous scrapes, so that Checker can determine whether there are new items.

[Telegram]
bot_token = YOUR_BOT_TOKEN
chat_id = YOUR_CHAT_ID
startup_message = Hello!

The [Telegram] section specifies the Telegram bot token and chat ID to use for sending notifications. You can obtain a bot token by talking to the BotFather in Telegram. The chat ID can be obtained by sending a message to your bot and inspecting the chat object in the JSON response. The startup_message key specifies a message to send when the Checker is started.

[Time]
startup_delay_sec = 10
min_run_delay_min = 10
max_run_delay_min = 30
min_error_delay_min = 4
max_error_delay_min = 12

The [Time] section specifies the time-related parameters for the Checker. The startup_delay_sec key specifies the number of seconds to wait before starting the first scrape. The min_run_delay_min and max_run_delay_min keys specify the minimum and maximum number of minutes to wait between scrapes. The min_error_delay_min and max_error_delay_min keys specify the minimum and maximum number of minutes to wait before retrying a scrape in case of an error.

Checker provides only new data using very convenient tinyDB so it wont send same twice to your Telegram.

Checker can also be set up as a systemd service on Linux. This allows it to run in the background and automatically start at boot time.

To create the systemd service, run the following command:

checker-service --create path/to/config.ini

This will create a new systemd service called checker.service that uses the specified configuration file. It will start immediately.

If you want to enable debug logging for Checker, you can pass the --debug flag when running the checker command:

checker --debug path/to/config.ini

This will output more detailed log messages to specified log file (stated in config.ini)

The project is licensed under the Cooperative Non-Violent Public License v7 or later (CNPLv7+) - see the LICENSE for details. Built for people, not corporations.