Friday, January 2, 2009

Web Scraper for string prices

I successfully tested a web scraper in python. It scrapes about 20 web pages for the prices of violin strings, then puts the prices in an OpenOffice document for handy printing. It is structured so I can add other output formats, and I could add an XML file to track prices over time or just print changes.

I'm installing it on the store iMac, and setting it as a daily recurring job. The finished file just pops onto the desktop, marked with the date.

A future version may compare prices from multiple sites.

The script and template live in the standard location for user scripts, /Users/username/Library/Scripts/scriptname/

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