Monitor instagram account with basic web scraping
A semi configurable Python script to scrap various analytics from Instagram each and every day through Internet, without using the API. The data is stored in a JSON file so the daily changes can be tracked during the growth of the given Instagram account.
The collected information:
- Count of posts
- Count of followers
- Count of followed accounts
Before you run analytics.py, copy the config.json.example file, and create your own configuration file. When ready, rename it to config.json. The available configuration:
- USER: the Instagram user to be scraped
- RUN_HOUR: the hour, at which time the script should run daily
The script support three optional arguments apart from the generic --help (or -h):
- -v (or --verbose): triggers verbose logging ON
- -s (or --scheduled): forces the script to run at defined hour from the config filer
- -r (or --recursive): forces the script to run daily in a recursive manner
Example:
python analytics.py -v -r
Check your installed python version
python --version or py --version
Check python interpreter in VS Code
- Ctrl+Shift+P
- Python: Select Interpreter
In case having issues with "pip" or "python" not being recognized, make sure that Python is installed and included in your PATH (Advanced System Settings --> Environment Variables)
Before the script can be run, you will need to install a few Python dependencies.
- BeautifulSoup4, for parsing html:
pip install BeautifulSoup4 - Selenium, for browser automation:
pip install Selenium - Web Driver manager, for browser management:
pip install webdriver-manager