Show HN: I created a browser automation tool(rocketride.io) I created this tool a few months ago to automate some of my tasks.
I use it to collect prices and files and to get notified when something changes on certain websites. The task runner uses Playwright. I'm not sure if it can be useful to anybody else besides me :) Any feedback is welcome. |
I feel like you could incorporate some of those features into this and eliminate some of the manual entry of css selectors.
iMacros? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/imacros-for-chrome...
UI Vision is unique because it supports visual automation with image recognition and OCR. A bit like Sikuli but inside the browser. This avoids dealing with CSS selectors and XPaths.
https://www.automa.site/ https://github.com/AutomaApp/automa
I remember a Firefox extension that notified me with the diffs of changed pages. I don't remember exactly what I was using it for. I think something related to CVEs for some keywords. Then the service I was using shut down and I lost tracks of that extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/distill-web-m...
It was many years ago and definitely not a cloud service so not Distill Web Monitor. It didn't let me define fields to monitor, so not PageProbe.
I wouldn't have used a cloud service. What's the point? My browser already have everything it takes to download pages and diff them. I understand that if the computer is off the browser won't monitor the page but it was ok with my use case: if it's off I won't be able to react to the CVE.
And for other use cases, it's no business of anyone else but me to know what I'm monitoring.
Would require the ability to:
(1) make a web request to start a run
(2) collect the scraped info and return it as part of (a) a webhook call or (b) in the response of a synchronous "start run" blocked long http request
It sounds like #1 is already possible. 2a might be possible if there was a call webhook step or notification option? But 2b would be the simplest (if I could make a single GET or POST request, and the response gives me some outputs from an automation session).
Zapier/Pipedream integrations could be nice platform integration marketing for the tool as well.
Also the logo in the header looks low definition. Upping its resolution will make the website way better.
Two things that have tripped me up 1. "and save the value of this attribute", it wasn't clear that this could only be certain values, text, id. 2. API I can list tasks, get the status of a task, start tasks via API, but I don't se how I can read the results / stored data
I use Firefox. Anyone know of a way I can have it close all tabs once a day? Either via an external script or an extension?
Alternatively, have a batch script that just runs (Assuming windows) taskkill /f /im firefox.exe which would kill it. Then have firefox startup with no tabs loaded.
Best practice is to add test attributes to the HTML elements (such as data-testid="SubmitButton") so if the page is moved around or the button is edited the tests remain stable. There's a lot of good online sources on making UI testing somewhat more reliable :)