Price Drop Tracker — Installation Guide

A complete guide to set up, run, and automate the Price Drop Tracker on Ubuntu/Linux.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 20.04 or later
• Google Chrome installed
• Python 3.10 or later
• A Telegram account

---

Step 1 — Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram → search @BotFather
2. Send /newbot
3. Give it a name (e.g. PriceTrackerBot)
4. Copy the token BotFather gives you — looks like:

   7412345678:AAFxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   

   This is your TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN

Get your Chat ID

1. Send any message to your new bot (e.g. /start)
2. Visit this URL in your browser (replace YOUR_TOKEN):

   https://api.telegram.org/botYOUR_TOKEN/getUpdates
   

3. Find "chat":{"id": 123456789} in the response
4. That number is your TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID

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Step 2 — Create Project Folder

mkdir -p ~/Projects/price-tracker
cd ~/Projects/price-tracker

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Step 3 — Install Python Virtual Environment

# Install venv support (Ubuntu requires this)
sudo apt install python3.12-venv

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv

# Activate it
source venv/bin/activate

Your terminal prompt will change to show (venv) — this means it's active.

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Step 4 — Install Dependencies

pip install requests beautifulsoup4 python-dotenv selenium webdriver-manager

# Optional — for Cloudflare-protected sites (Shopee, etc.)
pip install cloudscraper

# Optional — for heavy JS sites (better than Selenium)
pip install playwright
playwright install chromium

Save your installed versions:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

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Step 5 — Create .env File

nano .env

Paste and fill in your values:

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_bot_token_here
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=your_chat_id_here

PRODUCT_1_URL=https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html
PRODUCT_1_THRESHOLD=60.00
PRODUCT_1_NAME=Book Example

PRODUCT_2_URL=https://www.nike.com/my/t/promina-walking-shoes-CsDWSZ/FV6343-002
PRODUCT_2_THRESHOLD=400.00
PRODUCT_2_NAME=Nike Promina Shoes

Save: Ctrl+O → Enter → Ctrl+X

Add as many products as you want by incrementing the number (PRODUCT_3, PRODUCT_4, etc.)

---

Step 6 — Create tracker.py

nano tracker.py

Paste the full script content, then save: Ctrl+O → Enter → Ctrl+X

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Step 7 — Create .gitignore

nano .gitignore

Add these lines:

.env
venv/
__pycache__/
*.pyc
debug_screenshot.png

Save: Ctrl+O → Enter → Ctrl+X

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Step 8 — Test the Script

python3 tracker.py

Expected output:

====================================================
  Price Drop Tracker — 2 product(s) to check
====================================================

🔍 Nike Promina Shoes
   https://www.nike.com/my/t/...
   ⚙️  Detected JS-rendered site → using Selenium
   ✅ Price found via: [data-test='product-price']
   💲 Current price:  379.00
   🎯 Threshold:      400.00
   📉 BELOW threshold! Sending alert...
   ✅ Telegram alert sent!

---

Step 9 — Push to GitHub

git init
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add price drop tracker"
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/price-tracker.git
git push -u origin main

---

Step 10 — Add GitHub Secrets

So your tokens are never exposed in code:

1. Go to your GitHub repo
2. Click Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
3. Click New repository secret and add:

Name	Value
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN	Your bot token
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID	Your chat ID

---

Step 11 — Set Up GitHub Actions (Auto-run daily)

Create the workflow file:

mkdir -p .github/workflows
nano .github/workflows/tracker.yml

Paste this:

name: Price Drop Tracker

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 9 * * *"   # Runs at 09:00 UTC every day
  workflow_dispatch:        # Also allows manual trigger from GitHub UI

jobs:
  check-price:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Python 3.11
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "3.11"

      - name: Install Chrome
        uses: browser-actions/setup-chrome@v1

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pip install -r requirements.txt

      - name: Run price tracker
        env:
          TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN }}
          TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID: ${{ secrets.TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID }}
        run: python tracker.py

Save: Ctrl+O → Enter → Ctrl+X

Commit and push:

git add .github/
git commit -m "feat: add GitHub Actions workflow"
git push

---

Daily Usage

Start the tracker

cd ~/Projects/price-tracker
source venv/bin/activate
python3 tracker.py

Stop the tracker

Ctrl + C

Deactivate virtual environment

deactivate

Optional — create a shortcut alias

Run this once to add a tracker command to your terminal:

echo "alias tracker='cd ~/Projects/price-tracker && source venv/bin/activate && python3 tracker.py'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Now just type tracker anywhere to start it.

---

Adding New Products

Just append to your .env file:

PRODUCT_3_URL=https://www.lazada.com.my/your-product-url
PRODUCT_3_THRESHOLD=299.00
PRODUCT_3_NAME=Lazada Headphones

No code changes needed — ever.

---

Supported Site Types

Site Type	Method Used	Examples
Plain HTML	requests	books.toscrape.com, Harvey Norman
JavaScript-rendered	Selenium	Nike, Lazada, Zalora, Amazon
Cloudflare-protected	cloudscraper	Shopee
Heavy JS	Playwright	Complex SPAs

The script auto-detects which method to use based on the domain. If one method fails, it automatically falls back to another.

---

Troubleshooting

externally-managed-environment error

sudo apt install python3.12-venv
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Price not found

# Take a screenshot to see what the browser loaded
# Check debug_screenshot.png in your project folder
xdg-open debug_screenshot.png

Empty result from getUpdates

• Make sure you sent a message to your bot first
• Search your bot name in Telegram and press Start

Selenium crashes

# Make sure Chrome is installed
google-chrome --version

# Reinstall webdriver-manager
pip install --upgrade webdriver-manager

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Project Structure

price-tracker/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── tracker.yml      ← GitHub Actions (auto-run daily)
├── venv/                    ← Virtual environment (never commit)
├── tracker.py               ← Main script
├── requirements.txt         ← Locked dependency versions
├── .env                     ← Your secrets (never commit)
└── .gitignore               ← Excludes .env and venv/

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Security Reminders

• Never commit your .env file
• Never share your TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN publicly
• If your token is exposed, revoke it immediately via @BotFather → /revoke
• Always store tokens as GitHub Secrets for automated runs