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webchanges

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webchanges

Check web (or command output) for changes since last run and notify. Anonymously alerts you of web changes, with

3.26.0
PyPI

Maintainers: 1

.. role:: underline :class: underline .. role:: additions :class: additions .. role:: deletions :class: deletions

====================== webchanges |downloads|

webchanges checks web content including images, and notifies you via email (or one of many other supported services <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/introduction.html#reporters-list>__) if a change is detected. webchanges can also check the output of local commands. The notification includes a detail of what has changed ("diff"), with an optional summary generated by AI (BETA).

webchanges anonymously alerts you of web changes.

Requirements

webchanges requires |support|.

You should use the latest version of Python <https://www.python.org/downloads/>__ if possible, but older Python versions are supported for 3 years after being obsoleted by a new major release (3.x). For each major release, only the latest bug and security fix version (3.x.y) is supported.

For Generative AI summaries (BETA), you need a free API Key from Google Cloud AI Studio <https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey>__ (see here <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/differs.html#ai-google>__).

Installation

.. code-block:: bash

pip install webchanges

Running in Docker

webchanges can be run in a Docker <https://www.docker.com/>__ container; please see here <https://github.com/yubiuser/webchanges-docker>__ for one such implementation.

Documentation |readthedocs|

The documentation is hosted on Read the Docs <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/>__.

Quick Start

Initialize

#. Run the following command to create the default config.yaml (configuration) and jobs.yaml (jobs) files and open an editor to add your jobs <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/jobs.html>__:

.. code-block:: bash

  webchanges --edit

#. Run the following command to change the default configuration <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/configuration.html>, e.g. to receive change notifications ("reports <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reporters.html>") by email <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reporters.html#smtp>__ and/or one of many other methods:

.. code-block:: bash

  webchanges --edit-config

Run

To check the sources in your jobs and report on (e.g. display or via email) any changes found from the previous execution, just run:

.. code-block:: bash

webchanges

webchanges does not include a scheduler. We recommend using a system scheduler to automatically run it periodically:

On Linux or macOS, you can use cron (if you have never used cron before, see here <https://www.computerhope.com/unix/ucrontab.htm>); crontab.guru <https://crontab.guru> will build a schedule expression for you;
On macOS, you can use launchd <https://developer.apple .com/library/archive/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/ScheduledJobs.html>__;
On Windows, you can use the built-in Windows Task Scheduler <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Task_Scheduler>__.

Code

|coveralls| |issues|

The code and issues tracker are hosted on GitHub <https://github.com/mborsetti/webchanges>__.

Contributing

We welcome any contribution no matter how small, both as pull requests or issue reports <https://github.com/mborsetti/webchanges/issues>__.

More information for code and documentation contributors is here <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/contributing.html>, and our wishlist is here <https://github.com/mborsetti/webchanges/blob/main/WISHLIST.md>.

License

|license|

Released under the MIT License <https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>__ but redistributing modified source code from urlwatch 2.21 <https://github.com/thp/urlwatch/tree/346b25914b0418342ffe2fb0529bed702fddc01f>__ dated 30 July 2020 licensed under a BSD 3-Clause License <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thp/urlwatch/346b25914b0418342ffe2fb0529bed702fddc01f/COPYING>. See the complete license here <https://github.com/mborsetti/webchanges/blob/main/LICENSE>.

Compatibility with and improvements from urlwatch

This project is based on code from urlwatch 2.21 <https://github.com/thp/urlwatch/tree/346b25914b0418342ffe2fb0529bed702fddc01f>__ dated 30 July 2020. You can easily upgrade to webchanges from the current version of urlwatch using the same job and configuration files (see here <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/migration.html>__) and benefit from many improvements, including:

Summary of changes in plain text using Generative AI, useful for long documents (e.g. legal);
Depicting changes to an image;
Element-by-element changes of JSON or XML data;
Much better documentation <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/>__, easing implementation;
Much clearer to HTML reports, which include:
- Links that are clickable <https://pypi.org/project/webchanges/>__!
- Retaining of original formatting such as bolding / headers, italics, :underline:underlining, list bullets (•) and indentation;
- Lines that are :additions:added and :deletions:deleted are clearly highlighted by color and strikethrough, and long lines wrap around;
- Correct rendering by email clients who override stylesheets (e.g. Gmail);
- Other legibility improvements;
New filters such as additions_only <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/diff_filters.html#additions-only>__, which makes it easier to track content that was added without the distractions of the content that was deleted;
New command line arguments, such as --errors (to catch jobs that no longer work);
More reliability and stability, including a ~30 percentage point increase in testing coverage;
Many other additions, refinements and fixes (see detailed information <https://webchanges.readthedocs.io/en/stable/migration.html#upgrade-details>__).

Example enhancements to HTML reporting:

.. image:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mborsetti/webchanges/main/docs/html_diff_filters_example_1.png :width: 504

.. image:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mborsetti/webchanges/main/docs/html_diff_filters_example_3.png :width: 504

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