A quick python script used to deliver email notifications to yourself if the Tesla Model 3 prices change. I frequently check the Tesla website for price changes because I really like Tesla's Model 3. I eventually will buy one but not anytime soon as I am broke. However, I want to be up to date with the prices.
tesla.py is a very quick script I threw together to automate and notify myself of price Tesla Model 3 price changes. The script scrapes the Tesla website and pulls data from the website's contents. The script then checks the current prices of the Model 3 configurations and compares them to the most recent price. If there is a price change, the script will send an email to the target email from the specified source email.
The script then appends the current prices in a mock database in the form of .json files, located in the /db folder. It will then use this newly appended price to check against the next time the script is run. The script also uses the logging module to log into the /logs folder.
gitpython3bs4selenium
First, clone this project into your working machine or wherever you want the script to be run.
git clone https://github.com/ptrang127/tesla-price-monitor.git
Select the folder based on your host OS (windows or raspbian).
Locate the following snippet of code in tesla.py.
server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
If you are not using gmail, look into SMTP configurations specific to your email service and change this line of code accordingly.
If you have 2-Factor Authentification enabled on your gmail account, which you should, you won't be able to use your actual email password. Look into creating an app password here.
Open your command prompt or terminal and navigate to the appropriate folder based on your platform.
The chromedrivers for each platform are different (Windows, Raspbian) so make sure to use the appropriate folder.
cd path/to/tesla-price-monitor/your_platform
Then configure the following command to your needs:
python tesla.py -u your_email@domain.com -p your_password -r recipient_1@domain.com recipient_2@domain.com
This command runs the script with your email account as your_email@domain.com, the password to that account as your_password, and a list of recipients as recipient_1@domain.com and recipient_2@domain.com. Replace these fields for your specific use case. The script checks Tesla's website and writes data into the mock database. If there are any changes, an email will be sent from your_email@domain.com to all emails specified with the -r flag. You can add as many recipients as you'd like.
If you would like to schedule this script, look into Windows Task Scheduler or Windows batch scripts.
This script is different because Raspbian uses chromium instead of google-chrome.
If you would like to schedule this script, look into setting up a cronjob. For your cronjob, you must include export DISPLAY =:0; in your command as follows:
0 12 * * * export DISPLAY=:0; cd /path/to/tesla-price-monitor/raspbian && /path/to/python /path/to/tesla-price-monitor/raspbian/tesla.py -u your_email@domain.com -p your_password -r recipient@domain.com
This cronjob runs the script every day at 12PM.
For more help with cronjob scheduling, check out Crontab Guru.
- scraping dynamic content is rough
- debugging cronjob sucks
- vscode is great for things other than typescript
- argparse and flags
- logging
- documentation