FollowTracker stores a GitHub url in usernames.txt file, and will then use that stored url to scrape the follower data of that user. After the data has been successfully scraped, it will be saved into a JSON file, from where it can be retrieved and written into an Excel file (.xlsx). As of 9th of February 2024, the user will interact with the program via a GUI created with Tkinter, a more user-friendly solution than the terminal.
The program will need multiple different libraries in order to work! Make sure you have installed all the dependencies before using this program!
⬇️ To quickly install the dependencies, run this command:
pip install -r requirements.txt
On top of that, tkinter is used. If you use a Debian-based Linux distro, you can install it with the following command:
sudo apt install python3-tk
After the dependencies have been installed, you should be good to go. 👍
This program only scrapes data that has been, willingly, made public by GitHub users. It is not built in a way that encourages malicious actions, like spam. It is, instead, built for research purposes to help its users figure out how the followership of a selected profile has developed.
Read the GitHub Acceptance Use Policy by clicking this!
The program comes with a tool for archiving follower data. This tool of preservation protects the data from being overwritten. You can use the tool by executing archiver.py. It copies the data from followerdata.json and then copies that data into another JSON file that has a name not being used.