Urgent: Developers Wanted!

Since I've been working multiple part-time jobs, I haven't had time to maintain or add new features. That is why I'm looking for developers who would like to volunteer to contribute to this project. Whether you're a JavaScript expert or you're intrigued by the idea of programming, please contact me on Discord Prince#0584 or email prince112592@yahoo.com.

StockAlertBot

Faced with the scenario of scalpers using bots to hog up all the inventory of popular holiday toys and sell them at ridiculously high markup prices, I decided to put up a fight so we can get our hands on things we want need to survive the #Coronavirus quarantine(s).

Of course, this is only half the battle. For full writeup on scoring items, look here.

Donate, buy me a Pizza or PayPal me if you'd like to see this project expanded and support me. :)

How does it work?

Enter links of the products you want tracked and how often you want the program to monitor them. When an item becomes available, you will be alerted through variety of notifications.

Features

• Add links and change settings easily through a browser page
• Complete control over check intervals
  • Ability to freely set monitor frequency, no limits
  • Ability to space out checks if multiple items per store
  • Ability to override default interval and define frequency for each store
• Proxy Support
• Automatically opens a product's URL upon restock
• Notifications
  • Desktop
  • Email
  • SMS / Text
  • Terminal
  • Webhooks: Discord, IFTTT, and Slack

What stores/websites are supported?

Currently, the following stores are supported:

• AntOnline
• Amazon, with ability to track stock by a particular merchant
• Argos (UK. Does not currently work with proxies)
  For PS5, use the following links. Disc: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8349000, Digital: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8349024
• Best Buy, including open-box and packages (Does not currently work with proxies)
• Costco (Does not currently work with proxies)
• Currys (UK)
• Ebuyer (UK)
• Gamestop (Does not currently work with proxies)
• Microcenter
• Newegg, including combo deals
• Target, including local stock
• Tesco (UK. Does not currently work with proxies)
• Walmart (No third party sellers)

Prerequisites

0. A Terminal: (cmd (Windows), Terminal (macOS), or Console (Linux))
1. Install Node.js, either LTS or Current.
2. Clone or download this repository git clone https://github.com/Prince25/StockAlertBot.git
3. Go to root directory cd StockAlertBot
4. Install npm packages via a terminal npm install
   
   

Usage

There are only two steps to use this program: 1) enter information and 2) launch the program.

1. You can now enter information using two ways: via a browser (recommended) or a text editor.

   Via Browser

   Expand

   1. At the root directory, run on the terminal: npm run settings
      A browser window should open up. If it doesn't and the console says Server started!, go to: http://localhost:3250/ in your browser.
   2. Enter the links of the items you want to track in the URLs tab.
   3. Go to Settings tab and change to your heart's content.
      • Set how often you want to check the stores for given URLs and how much to space out the checks between items. It's not recommended to set it to 0 as you may be flagged as a bot. If you have 3 items (call them A, B, C) for Amazon and 2 items for Walmart (call them D, E) at 10 second interval spaced out at 2 seconds, for example, Items A and D will be checked first. 2 seconds later, items B and E will be checked. 2 seconds later, item C will be checked. The checks will start again in 8 seconds for Walmart and 10 seconds for Amazon.
      • If you want to use Proxies, turn it on and create a file called proxies.txt in the config folder and fill it with one proxy per line. See proxies.
      • If you have Amazon link(s), you will see an option to pick a region. Select a region if you want to only monitor items sold by Amazon and not third party sellers. If you want to use a particular seller or if your region is not in the list, select Custom and provide the merchant ID. See Feedback and Support if you'd like to request a region.
      • If you have Target link(s), you will see additional options to put zip code and API Key. Only change the key if you get API key errors. Refer to the instructions in the following section.
   4. Configure notification options in Optional tab.
      • If you want notifications sent to Discord, IFTTT, or Slack, expand WEBHOOKS and enter the webhook URL(s) there.
      • If you want notification sent via SMS/Text, expand SMS and choose a method: Amazon Web Services, Email, or Twilio. See SMS.
      • If you want notifications sent to Email, turn on email and enter your service provider information. Some providers (Yahoo, AOL, AT&T) cause problems. Refer to this section.
   5. Once you're happy with the settings, click Save Settings.
      config.json and .env files in the config directory should now reflect your settings.
      You can use CTRL + C or CMD + C to stop the program.
   
   

   Via Text Editor

   Expand

   Open and edit config.json in the config directory

   1. Add urls of products in the URLS array
   2. Change the INTERVAL to suit your desires.
      You can override this default interval for any store by changing STORE_INTERVALS in the following manner:
      "STORE_INTERVALS": { "newegg": { "unit": "seconds", "value": 10 } },
      WARNING: Having the interval too low might have negative consquences such as this program being detected as a bot or blocking your IP from accessing the website entirely. See proxies. Setting TIME_BETWEEN_CHECKS might help prevent this. See step 3a from the other method for a detailed explanation and an example.
   3. Set OPEN_URL to false if you don't want the application to automatically open urls when item is in stock
   4. Set DESKTOP to false if you want to disable desktop and audible warnings
   5. Optional Settings.
      1. If you're planning to track Amazon item(s), you can also set a merchant ID in AMAZON_MERCHANT_ID to only get prices from a ceratin merchant. The other method allows you to select pre-configured IDs items only sold by Amazon depending on the region.
      2. If you're planning to track Target item(s), enter your zip code in TARGET_ZIP_CODE.
         NOTE: If you encounter an error relating to API Key, you need to get this key yourself:
         1. Go to target.com with the DevTools (Chrome) or Developer Tools (Firefox) open (Google or ask if you're unsure how)
         2. On the console, you should see GET requests as you load the page.
            In DevTools, you have to click the gear and check "Log XMLHttpRequests" to see them
         3. Click on any of the urls that has the string "key=" and copy the whole key
         4. Paste it to TARGET_KEY
      3. If you want to send alerts to webhook URL(s) like Discord, IFTTT, or Slack, add them to WEBHOOK_URLS array.
      4. If you want to use Proxies, change PROXIES to true and create a file called proxies.txt in the config directory and fill it with one proxy per line. See proxies.
      5. If you want to send alerts to email, change EMAIL to true. Make a copy of example.env in the config directory and rename it to .env. Inside .env, type out one of the service providers (EMAIL_SERVICE) listed in Email, your email (EMAIL_FROM) and password (EMAIL_PASS) and the email you want alerts sent to (EMAIL_TO). All without quotes.
      6. If you want to send alerts to SMS, change SMS_METHOD to either "Email", "Amazon Web Services", or "Twilio". Then change the associated values in .env. See SMS.
   
   

2. Execute and continue about your day: npm start OR node --experimental-modules main.js
   You can use CTRL + C or CMD + C to stop the program.

3. Consider donating or buying me a Pizza or PayPal me 😄

Email

Expand for important information

Supported email providers:

    Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Hotmail, Outlook365, QQ, 126, 163, 1und1, AOL, DebugMail, DynectEmail, 
    FastMail, GandiMail, Godaddy, GodaddyAsia, GodaddyEurope, hot.ee, mail.ee, Mail.ru, Maildev, Mailgun, Mailjet, 
    Mailosaur, Mandrill, Naver, OpenMailBox, Postmark, QQex, SendCloud, SendGrid, SendinBlue, SendPulse, SES, 
    SES-US-EAST-1, SES-US-WEST-2, SES-EU-WEST-1, Sparkpost, Yandex, Zoho, qiye.aliyun

NOTE: If you receive the error: 535 5.7.0 (#AUTH005) Too many bad auth attempts, most likely you are using Yahoo for the email server or an email server managed by Yahoo, such as AOL or AT&T. Yahoo has implemented an option that by default, does not let 3rd party products access the email servers. To resolve, go to https://login.yahoo.com/account/security and then enable the option to allow apps that use less secure sign in. Use the password generated by "Generate app password". If you are using AOL, do the same thing, from https://login.aol.com/account/security.

SMS

Expand for important information

SMS / Text support is available via Amazon Web Services, Email, or Twilio. This, however, requires some setup on your part. Read below regarding setup for each method:

• Amazon Web Services
  First, read pricing information here. First 100 SMS are free for each month as long as you send them to a United States destination. For this method, you will need:

  • Region
  • Access Key
  • Secret Access Key
  • Phone Number

  Region is Amazon server you want to send from. It's probably best to choose one closest to you. More information here.
  Access Key and Secret Access Key can be obtained following instructions in this tutorial.
  Phone number is the number to send SMS to. You will need to include country code and area code. Country code information can be found here.

• Email
  FREE but limited. Uses email to send text via phone carrier's SMS gateway. Mostly the same setup as Email.
  Currently supported carriers: Alltel, AT&T, Boost Mobil, Cricket Wireless, EE, FirstNet, Google Project Fi, MetroPCS, O2, Republic Wireless, Sprint, Straight Talk, T-Mobile, Ting, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone.
  If you'd like to request a carrier, please refer to Feedback and Support and provide your carrier's SMS gateway if possible.

• Twilio
  First, read pricing information here. You get some free starting balance with which you can buy a Twilio phone number. For this method, you will need:

  • Twilio Account SID
  • Twilio Auth Token
  • Twilio Phone Number
  • Phone Number

  The first three can easily be obtained from the Twilio console after you make a Twilio account.
  Phone number is the number to send SMS to. You will need to include country code and area code. Country code information can be found here.

Proxies

Expand for important information

If you plan to use low interval rates OR track several items from one store, it is highly recommended that you use proxies such as ones from Webshare in the format ip:port for IP-based authentication or username:password@ip:port.

NOTE: The following stores do not currently work with proxies due to them blocking some connections/headers which results in inconsistent connection: Argos, Best Buy, Costco, Gamestop and Tesco. Thus I thought it'd be best to take off proxy support for now until further research is done or an alternative way is found.

Screenshots

Feedback and Support

To ensure this program continues to work, please report bugs by creating an issue.
To ask questions, give feedback or suggestions among other things, create a new discussion.
To contribute code, programming questions/guidance, gaming sessions, and more, add me on Discord: Prince#0584
To provide monetary support, donate or buy me a Pizza or PayPal me

Timeline

v4.0: Complete code overhaul! Better control over intervals, new stores and notifications! (see Features)

v3.0: SMS / Text notification support 📱 !! (see SMS)

v2.0: 📧 E-mail notification support and an user interface 💻 (see screenshots)

v1.0: Official release! New name and webhook notification support.

Things to work on

• Add more stores
  • Newegg search pages
  • Best Buy preorder alerts
  • B&H Photo Video (no longer supported)
  • Ebuyer
  • Walmart
  • Gamestop
  • Currys
  • Newegg Combos
  • Newegg
  • AntOnline
  • Target
  • Tesco
  • Argos
• Add tests
• Documentation page
• Twitter notifications
• Add delay between items from the same store
• More OOP!!
  • Add way to track notification status independent of items in a store
• Fix Find Bugs
  • Fix notifications relying on OPEN_URL
• Add Ability to use certain Amazon Merchants
• Add Email and SMS Notifications
• Add Proxies
• Add GUI - Make it easier to use
• Initially create seperation between intervals for Amazon items
• Add a way to have independent delay timers for Amazon
• Open product page when in stock
• Add webhookURL to enable posting messages to Slack and Discord
  
  

Main Technologies

• Node.js with Express.js
• Vue.js powered by Vuetify and Material Design Icons
• ESLint with Prettier and Unicorn plugin
• AWS SDK
• Axios
• Chalk
• Cheerio
• Dotenv
• Moment
• Node Fetch
• Node Notifier
• Nodemailer
• Twilio
  
  

License

See the LICENSE file for license rights and limitations (MIT).