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Show HN: I created a browser automation tool

by iamandras on 8/5/22, 5:58 AM with 55 comments

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.

  • by fareesh on 8/5/22, 7:23 PM

    There's a chrome extension that records all your steps and then generates a puppeteer/playwright script for you. Then you can just edit bits of that script and run it. This is my go-to method presently.

    I feel like you could incorporate some of those features into this and eliminate some of the manual entry of css selectors.

  • by lorey on 8/6/22, 9:14 AM

    Really interesting tool. I've always found the task of finding the right CSS selectors tiresome, so I created tool which automatically extracts the right selectors for you (and builds a scraper as well). Open Source on GitHub: https://github.com/lorey/mlscraper

  • by pmontra on 8/5/22, 8:21 PM

    > Periodically check for changes

    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.

  • by bcjordan on 8/5/22, 7:52 PM

    I'd love to use this as a webpage interaction/scraping component in chains of webhooks (building on e.g. low-code step pipelines built with Pipedream, could imagine fitting with something like Zapier, too).

    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.

  • by Heavywater on 8/7/22, 7:39 AM

  • by Krastan on 8/5/22, 7:06 PM

    This is cool! Is it free? If not would be good to have pricing be visible without creating an account.

    Also the logo in the header looks low definition. Upping its resolution will make the website way better.

  • by melony on 8/6/22, 2:35 AM

    Rocket ride is the name of Stripe's API demo app. Might want to change the name, this is bad for your SEO.

  • by blackdogie on 8/6/22, 1:01 AM

    Best of luck.

    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

  • by thih9 on 8/5/22, 7:06 PM

    Is there any way to play with the product without registering? Or perhaps see a video showing it in action?

  • by ramoz on 8/5/22, 10:45 PM

    Curious what your pricing strategy is here? The free offering is cool for sure. Guess you'll learn how serious users may want to actually use the service, what that means for your unit costs, and how it all scales in your favor? or sort of already figured that out?

  • by BeetleB on 8/6/22, 12:25 AM

    Only tangentially related, but...

    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?

  • by Ladyady on 8/10/22, 1:48 PM

    Are you no longer accepting new users?

  • by dhux on 8/5/22, 8:05 PM

    Can you also record video with sound?

  • by anon115 on 8/5/22, 10:50 PM

    landing page is nice

  • by partloyaldemon on 8/5/22, 7:01 PM

    I'll check it out. Thanks!