[Tut] I Used This Python Script to Check a Website Every X Seconds for a Given Word

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I Used This Python Script to Check a Website Every X Seconds for a Given Word

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I host multiple websites such as

• https://finxter.com,
  
  
• https://blog.finxter.com, and
  
  
• https://pythononeliners.com.
  

Many of them use caching services to speed up the loading time for visitors worldwide. Consequently, when I do change a website, the change does often not appear immediately on the site (because the stale cached site is served up).

The Project



To ensure that my website is up-to-date, I wrote a simple Python script that helps me regularly check my website every few seconds to see if a certain word appears there.

Because I thought many people will probably have the same problem, I’ll share this code here. So, let’s get started!

Project Challenge: How to write a Python script that reads content from a website every

Code:

x

seconds and checks if a specific word appears there?

The Code



I used the following code to accomplish this easily and quickly. You can copy&paste it, just make sure to adjust the highlighted

Code:

url

,

Code:

word

, and

Code:

x

variables to your need:

Code:

import requests import time url = 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_partition' word = 'finxter' x = 60 # seconds between two requests # Repeat forever while True: # Get the content from the website r = requests.get(url) # Check if word is on website if word in r.text: print("The word appears on the website") else: print("The word does not appear on the website") # Do nothing for some time (e.g., 60 seconds) to avoid spam requests time.sleep(x)

In this case, I check the Wikipedia page on Graph Partitioning if the keyword

Code:

'finxter'

appears there. If you need to check another word on another URL, just change the variables accordingly.

Code Explanation



This code snippet uses the Python

Code:

requests

library to read from a website every two seconds and check if a certain word appears there.

You use the

Code:

requests

library to issue an HTTP request to the specified website and save the response in the variable

Code:

r

.

Recommended: Python Request Library – Understanding

Code:

get()

Then you check if the word appears in the response text using

Code:

r.text

.

• If it does, it prints the message
  Code:

  "The word appears on the website"
  and
  
  
• If it does not, it prints the message
  Code:

  "The word does not appear on the website"
  .
  

Finally, the code pauses for two (or

Code:

x

!) seconds before making another request. This process is repeated continuously to ensure that the website is checked regularly.

You can stop the code by hitting

Code:

CTRL+C

.

Recommended: How to Stop a Python Script?