UpToDate 🔍

Never miss important website changes again!

UpToDate monitors websites and notifies you when specific content appears or disappears. Perfect for tracking price drops, stock availability, news alerts, or any content that matters to you.

✨ What Can It Do? What you want it to!

• 🛍️ Price Monitoring - Get notified when prices drop or sales start
• 📦 Stock Alerts - Know instantly when items come back in stock
• 📰 News Tracking - Stay updated on breaking news or specific topics
• 🚨 Service Monitoring - Monitor API health, error rates, or uptime
• 📈 Content Changes - Track any text, numbers, or patterns on websites

🚀 Key Features

• Smart Pattern Matching - Find exact text, use regex, or combine multiple conditions
• Multiple Notifications - Email, Discord, and Slack alerts
• Real Browser Engine - Handles JavaScript and dynamic content perfectly
• Flexible Scheduling - Check every minute or once a day
• XPath Support - Target specific page elements precisely
• Docker Ready - Easy deployment with Docker Compose

🏃‍♂️ Quick Start

1. Download & Install

# Download the binary or build from source
go mod tidy
go build -o uptodate

2. Create Your First Monitor

Create a config.json file:

{
  "url": "https://example-store.com/product/123",
  "search": {
    "type": "string",
    "pattern": "In Stock",
    "notify_on": "found"
  },
  "notifications": {
    "discord": {
      "webhook_url": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL"
    }
  },
  "interval": 300
}

3. Start Monitoring

# Using the binary
./uptodate -config config.json
# Using docker compose
docker compose up -d

That's it! You'll get notified on Discord when "In Stock" appears on the page.

📋 Configuration Examples

Price Drop Alert

Monitors a product page and sends email alerts when the price drops to $10-$49 range.

{
  "url": "https://store.com/expensive-item",
  "search": {
    "type": "regex",
    "pattern": "\\$[1-4][0-9]\\.[0-9]{2}",
    "xpath": "//div[@class='price']",
    "notify_on": "found"
  },
  "notifications": {
    "email": {
      "smtp_host": "smtp.gmail.com",
      "smtp_port": 587,
      "username": "your-email@gmail.com",
      "password": "your-app-password",
      "from": "your-email@gmail.com",
      "to": "alerts@example.com",
      "subject": "💰 Price Drop Alert!"
    }
  },
  "interval": 600
}

News Monitoring

Watches a news site and sends Slack alerts when breaking news articles with dates are published.

{
  "url": "https://news-site.com",
  "search": {
    "type": "compound",
    "pattern": "string:'breaking news' AND regex:[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}",
    "notify_on": "found"
  },
  "notifications": {
    "slack": {
      "webhook_url": "YOUR_SLACK_WEBHOOK"
    }
  },
  "interval": 60
}

Service Health Check

Monitors an API health endpoint and sends alerts to Discord and email when the service becomes unhealthy.

{
  "url": "https://api.yourservice.com/health",
  "search": {
    "type": "string",
    "pattern": "healthy",
    "notify_on": "not_found"
  },
  "notifications": {
    "discord": {
      "webhook_url": "YOUR_DISCORD_WEBHOOK"
    },
    "email": {
      "smtp_host": "smtp.gmail.com",
      "smtp_port": 587,
      "username": "monitoring@company.com",
      "password": "password",
      "from": "monitoring@company.com",
      "to": "devops@company.com",
      "subject": "🚨 Service Down!"
    }
  },
  "interval": 120
}

🔧 Configuration Options

Required Settings

• url - The webpage to monitor
• search.pattern - What to look for on the page
• notifications - At least one notification method (email, discord, or slack)

Search Options

• search.type - "string" (exact text), "regex" (pattern), or "compound" (multiple conditions)
• search.notify_on - "found" (notify when pattern is found) or "not_found" (notify when pattern is not found)
• search.xpath - Optional: target specific page elements (e.g., "//div[@class='price']")

Timing

• interval - How often to check in seconds (default: 300 = 5 minutes)

📧 Setting Up Notifications

Email (SMTP)

Works with most common email providers (Gmail, Hotmail, ...):

"email": {
  "smtp_host": "smtp.gmail.com",
  "smtp_port": 587,
  "username": "your-email@gmail.com",
  "password": "your-app-password",
  "from": "your-email@gmail.com",
  "to": "alerts@example.com",
  "subject": "UpToDate Alert"
}

Gmail Setup:

1. Enable 2-factor authentication
2. Generate an "App Password"
3. Use the app password instead of your regular password

Discord Webhook

1. Go to your Discord server
2. Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks
3. Create webhook and copy the URL

"discord": {
  "webhook_url": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL"
}

Slack Webhook

1. Create a Slack app
2. Add "Incoming Webhooks" feature
3. Copy the webhook URL

"slack": {
  "webhook_url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/YOUR/SLACK/WEBHOOK"
}

🎯 Pattern Matching Guide

Simple Text Search

"search": {
  "type": "string",
  "pattern": "Sale"
}

Regular Expressions

"search": {
  "type": "regex", 
  "pattern": "\\$[0-9]+\\.[0-9]{2}"
}

Complex Conditions (Compound Patterns)

Use AND and OR to combine multiple conditions:

"search": {
  "type": "compound",
  "pattern": "string:'price drop' AND regex:\\$[0-9]+\\.[0-9]{2}"
}

Compound Pattern Examples:

• "string:sale OR string:discount" - Either word appears
• "string:'breaking news' AND regex:[0-9]{4}" - Both conditions must be true
• "(string:error OR string:failed) AND regex:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}" - Use parentheses for grouping

Important: Use single quotes for text containing spaces or special characters: string:'Hot Deal'

XPath Targeting

Target specific page elements:

"search": {
  "type": "string",
  "pattern": "In Stock",
  "xpath": "//div[@class='availability']"
}

Common XPath examples:

• "//div[@class='price']" - Element with specific class
• "//span[@id='stock-status']" - Element with specific ID
• "//h1" - All H1 headings
• "//div[contains(@class, 'product')]" - Class contains text

🚀 Running UpToDate

Command Line Options

# Continuous monitoring (default)
./uptodate -config config.json

# Run once and exit
./uptodate -config config.json -once

# Use different config file
./uptodate -config /path/to/my-config.json

Docker

# Using docker-compose
docker compose up -d

❓ Troubleshooting

"Pattern not found" but you can see it on the page

• The content might be lazy loaded by JavaScript - Currently this is not handled, feel free to create an issue.
• Check if the text is in a specific element using XPath
• Verify the exact text (case-sensitive)

Getting too many notifications

• Increase the interval (time between checks)
• Make your pattern more specific
• Use XPath to target a specific page section

Pattern syntax errors

• Use single quotes for text with spaces, AND/OR or special characters: string:'hello world'
• Escape special regex characters: \\$ for dollar signs
• Check parentheses are balanced in compound patterns

---

👨‍💻 Developer Section

Architecture Overview

UpToDate uses a modular architecture:

• Browser Engine: go-rod with embedded Chromium for JavaScript support
• Pattern Parser: Recursive descent parser for compound patterns
• Notification System: Plugin-style support for multiple channels
• Configuration: JSON-based with validation

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/paul-eff/UpToDate
cd UpToDate
go mod tidy
go build -o uptodate

Project Structure

├── main.go              # Application entry point
├── config.go            # Configuration parsing & compound patterns  
├── browser.go           # Browser-based web fetching
├── client.go            # Client interface
├── notifications.go     # Multi-channel notification system
└── examples/            # Configuration examples

Adding New Notification Channels

1. Add config struct to config.go:

type MyServiceConfig struct {
    APIKey string `json:"api_key"`
    Channel string `json:"channel"`
}

2. Add to main Notifications struct:

type Notifications struct {
    Email   *EmailConfig     `json:"email,omitempty"`
    Discord *DiscordConfig   `json:"discord,omitempty"`
    Slack   *SlackConfig     `json:"slack,omitempty"`
    MyService *MyServiceConfig `json:"myservice,omitempty"`
}

3. Implement sending in notifications.go:

func (ns *NotificationService) sendMyService(message string) error {
    // Implementation here
}

Pattern Parser Details

The compound pattern parser uses recursive descent parsing:

• Tokenization: Handles quoted strings and operators
• Precedence: AND has higher precedence than OR
• Quotes: Single quotes preferred (no JSON escaping needed)
• Evaluation: Returns boolean result and matched strings

Configuration Validation

All configuration is validated at startup:

• Required fields checked
• Pattern syntax validated
• Notification channels verified
• Defaults applied where appropriate

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

⭐ Support

If UpToDate helps you catch that perfect deal or stay informed, please consider giving it a star!