[Python] Web Scraping with Python to buy a PS5

Have you ever chosen a product from specific e-commerce that you like a lot but feel that the price of that product could be even cheaper in the future?

So if you like programming and don’t have a single problem in waiting, maybe the tip I have today is for you.

Based on some Python and HTML codes, I developed an application. Let’s say that I want to buy a PlayStation 5 (I hope my wife doesn’t know about this), but I am okay waiting for the best price. So I set my code to update a spreadsheet on my PC with current prices every 6 hours automatically. If the value of the videogame is less than R$6000, I receive an update by email informing me about it. By doing this, I’m doing Web Scraping, which is the process of collecting structured data from the web in an automated way.

As an entry-level person in Python, it was quite a challenge for me.

I am immensely grateful to Alex Freberg, who has the best Data Analytics content on Youtube. He spent some time in it and uploaded a video talking about it, with a different product, explaining step-by-step how to create this code and giving the instructions for those who want to create a portfolio in the data area. You rock, Alex!

I posted the code down below.

So, tell me: is this useful for you? In which applications would you use in your life or in your business environment?

#import libraries
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup #to "call" the html page (1)
import requests #to "call" the html page
import smtplib #email
import time #to set the time of updating (1)
import datetime #to set the time of updating (2)
import pandas as pd
import csv
# getting the page's information
URL = 'https://www.amazon.com.br/PlayStation-Console-PlayStation%C2%AE5/dp/B088GNRX3J/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=playstation+5&qid=1630628596&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.25548f35-0de7-44b3-b28e-0f56f3f96147'


headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/92.0.4515.159 Safari/537.36"}

page = requests.get(URL, headers=headers)

soup1 = BeautifulSoup(page.content, "html.parser")

soup2 = BeautifulSoup(soup1.prettify(), 'html.parser')

title = soup2.find(id='productTitle').get_text()

price = soup2.find(id='priceblock_ourprice').get_text()
title1 = title.strip()
price1 = price.strip()[3:]

print(title1)
print(price1)
import datetime 
today = datetime.date.today()
print(today)
header =['Title','Price', 'Date']
data = [title1, price1, today]
with open('AmazonWebScraperPS5.csv', 'w', newline='', encoding ='UTF8') as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f)
    writer.writerow(header)
    writer.writerow(data)
df = pd.read_csv('C:/Users/thiag/AmazonWebScraperPS5.csv')
df
with open('AmazonWebScraperPS5.csv', 'a+', newline='', encoding ='UTF8') as f:
    writer = csv.writer(f)
    writer.writerow(data)
#appending 

def check_price8():
    URL = 'https://www.amazon.com.br/PlayStation-Console-PlayStation%C2%AE5/dp/B088GNRX3J/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=playstation+5&qid=1630628596&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.25548f35-0de7-44b3-b28e-0f56f3f96147'

    headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/92.0.4515.159 Safari/537.36"}

    page = requests.get(URL, headers=headers)

    soup1 = BeautifulSoup(page.content, "html.parser")

    soup2 = BeautifulSoup(soup1.prettify(), 'html.parser')
    
    title = soup2.find(id='productTitle').get_text()
    
    price = soup2.find(id='priceblock_ourprice').get_text()
    
    title1 = title.strip()
    
    price1 = price.strip()[3:]
    
    import datetime
    
    datetime.date.today()
    
    import csv
    
    header =['Title','Price', 'Date']
    
    data = [title1, price1, today]
    
    with open('AmazonWebScraperPS5.csv', 'a+', newline='', encoding ='UTF8') as f:
        writer = csv.writer(f)
        writer.writerow(data)
    
    
    if (price1 < 6000):
        send_mail()
#setting the time to update the csv file. I've choose every 6 hours. 

while(True):
    check_price8()
    time.sleep(14400)
df = pd.read_csv('C:/Users/thiag/AmazonWebScraperPS5.csv')
df
#sending the email everytime that the price hits less than R$ 6000

def send_mail():
    server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL('smtp.gmail.com',465)
    server.ehlo()
    server.ehlo()
    server.login('thiagoxxxxxx@gmail.com', 'xxxxxxxxx')
    
    assunto = "O PS5 baixou de preço!"
    mensagem = "Olá, Thiago. Você criou um alerta de preço para compra do PS5 quando ele estiver menos que R$ 6000. Essa é sua chance!"
    
    msg = f"Subject: {assunto}\n\n{mensagem}"
    
    server.sendmail(
        'thiagoxxxxxx2@gmail.com',
        msg
    
    )