I have a script that uses bs4 to scrape a webpage and grab a string named, "Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.". I then assign this string to a variable and send it in an email. The script is scheduled to run once a day. However, the date and time on the website change every other day. So, instead of emailing every time I run the script I'd like to set up a trigger so that it sends only when the date is different. How do I configure the script to detect that change? '''Checks municipal websites for changes in meal assistance during C19 pandemic''' # Import requests (to download the page) import requests # Import BeautifulSoup (to parse what we download) from bs4 import BeautifulSoup # Import win32com (Python module that controls Outlook) import win32com . client from win32com . client import Dispatch , constants import re import urllib import urllib . request #list of urls urls = [ 'http://www.vofil.com/covid19_updates' ] #set the headers like we are a browser headers = { 'User-Agent' : 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.2171.95 Safari/537.36' } #download the homepage response = requests . get ( urls [ 0 ] , headers = headers ) #parse the downloaded homepage and grab all text soup = BeautifulSoup ( response . text , "lxml" ) #Find string last_update_fra = soup . findAll ( string = re . compile ( "Last Updated" ) ) print ( last_update_fra ) #Put something here (if else..?) to trigger an email. #I left off email block... Here's where the string is in the HTML: h1 > COVID-19 News Updates h1 > div > br > div > div > Last Updated 4/3/2020, 12:08 p.m. div >

nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

BeautifulSoup Detect Change Trigger

JaredPilbeam2

I have a script that uses bs4 to scrape a webpage and grab a string named, "Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.". I then assign this string to a variable and send it in an email. The script is scheduled to run once a day. However, the date and time on the website change every other day. So, instead of emailing every time I run the script I'd like to set up a trigger so that it sends only when the date is different. How do I configure the script to detect that change?

<SPAN class="string token">'''Checks municipal websites for changes in meal assistance during C19 pandemic'''</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token"># Import requests (to download the page)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> requests
<SPAN class="comment token"># Import BeautifulSoup (to parse what we download)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">from</SPAN> bs4 <SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> BeautifulSoup
<SPAN class="comment token"># Import win32com (Python module that controls Outlook)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> win32com<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>client
<SPAN class="keyword token">from</SPAN> win32com<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>client <SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> Dispatch<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> constants
<SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> re
<SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> urllib
<SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> urllib<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>request

<SPAN class="comment token">#list of urls</SPAN>
urls <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'http://www.vofil.com/covid19_updates'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#set the headers like we are a browser</SPAN>
headers <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'User-Agent'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.2171.95 Safari/537.36'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#download the homepage</SPAN>
response <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> requests<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>get<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>urls<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> headers<SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN>headers<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="comment token">#parse the downloaded homepage and grab all text</SPAN>
soup <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> BeautifulSoup<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>response<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>text<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"lxml"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="comment token">#Find string</SPAN>
last_update_fra <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> soup<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>findAll<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>string<SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN>re<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>compile<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"Last Updated"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#Put something here (if else..?) to trigger an email.</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#I left off email block...‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍</SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

Here's where the string is in the HTML:

<SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"><</SPAN>h1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN>COVID-19 News Updates<SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"></</SPAN>h1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN>


<SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"><</SPAN>div</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"><</SPAN>br</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"></</SPAN>div</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"><</SPAN>div</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN>Last Updated 4/3/2020, 12:08 p.m.<SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="token tag"><SPAN class="punctuation token"></</SPAN>div</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

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Accepted answers

bixb0012

Your current script is "stateless" in that it has no memory/awareness of whether it was run before nor what those results were from previous runs. If you want to only have an e-mail sent when the date changes, then the script has to be able to determine when the last update happened. I recommend having your script save the previous date in a file on the local machine, then it can open the file and read the date, and then check it against the current date.

All comments

JaredPilbeam2

" Ditch the list by writing only the string of the date in the list and then comparing it to the string of the date you just retrieved."

Joshua,

I'm thinking I did just that. But, it sent the email even though they appear to be both strings now?

<SPAN class="comment token">#Find string in webpage</SPAN>
last_update_fra <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> soup<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>findAll<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>string<SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN>re<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>compile<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"Last Updated"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="comment token">#use ''.join to change list object to string</SPAN>
last_update_fra_string <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">''</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>join<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra_string<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#write to text file</SPAN>
txt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> open<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"C:\Users\jpilbeam\LastUpdate.txt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"w"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>write<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra_string<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>close<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

txt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> open<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"C:\Users\jpilbeam\LastUpdate.txt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"r"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>read<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

<SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN> last_update_fra_string <SPAN class="operator token">==</SPAN> txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
    <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"no change"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">else</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
    <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"send email"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

>>> 
Last Updated 4/6/2020, 4:45 p.m.
Last Updated 4/6/2020, 4:45 p.m.
send email
>>>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

bixb0012

You are comparing a text representation of a list to an actual list, in effect comparing string to list so of course they won't be equal. Ditch the list by writing only the string of the date in the list and then comparing it to the string of the date you just retrieved.

JaredPilbeam2

Randy,

Thanks. I'm still working on this. I had another method going based on an answer which isn't working either after testing. It seems like I'm comparing the same thing, so the email never sent when the website eventually changed: python - BeautifulSoup Detect Change Trigger - Stack Overflow

So, back here now.

I was running the snippets in the interpreter as you've done. When I read the txt file it came back as something different (date has changed as the website has since updated):

<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> last_update_fra <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> txt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> open<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"C:\Users\jpilbeam\LastUpdate.txt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"r"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> type<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN><SPAN class="keyword token">class</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">'_io.TextIOWrapper'</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> t <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>read<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> type<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>t<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN><SPAN class="keyword token">class</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">'str'</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> t
<SPAN class="string token">"['Last Updated 4/6/2020, 4:45 p.m.']"</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> type<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN><SPAN class="keyword token">class</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">'list'</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> tt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> str<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> tt
<SPAN class="string token">"['Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.']"</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> <SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN> t <SPAN class="operator token">==</SPAN> tt<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>     <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"match"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN> <SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

RandyBurton

Although they look identical, txt is a file object, and last_update_fra appears to be a list object.

<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> last_update_fra <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> txt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> open<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"C:\Users\jpilbeam\LastUpdate.txt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"r"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> type<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN>type <SPAN class="string token">'file'</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> t <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>read<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> type<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>t<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN>type <SPAN class="string token">'str'</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> t
<SPAN class="string token">"['Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.']"</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> type<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN>type <SPAN class="string token">'list'</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> tt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> str<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> tt
<SPAN class="string token">"['Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.']"</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> <SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN> t <SPAN class="operator token">==</SPAN> tt<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN> 	<SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"match"</SPAN>
<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN> 	
match
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> <SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

JaredPilbeam2

Joshua,

I have a good grasp on what you're saying, thanks. I'm at the point where I'm checking the two dates against each other.

Both the "last_update_fra" and "txt" variables print out the same, but when I do if == there is no result.

<SPAN class="comment token">#Find string</SPAN>
last_update_fra <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> soup<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>findAll<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>string<SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN>re<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>compile<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"Last Updated"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#write "Last Update" to file</SPAN>
txt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> open<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"C:\Users\jpilbeam\LastUpdate.txt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"w"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="comment token">#to write to file parameter has to be a string</SPAN>
txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>write<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>str<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>close<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="comment token">#open and read the file</SPAN>
txt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> open<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"C:\Users\jpilbeam\LastUpdate.txt"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"r"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>txt<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>read<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
<SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN> txt <SPAN class="operator token">==</SPAN> last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
    <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"good"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> 
<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN>
<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">'Last Updated 4/3/2020, 8:28 p.m.'</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN>
<SPAN class="operator token">>></SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">></SPAN> ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

Edit: They're not the same. Now I have to figure out why.

<SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN> txt <SPAN class="operator token">!=</SPAN> last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
    <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"good"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token">#prints good</SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

bixb0012

RandyBurton

Perhaps if "last update" was done in the last 24 hours (or other time period), then send an email. You may also need to consider the time zone in the time calculations. The basic idea:

<SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> re
<SPAN class="keyword token">from</SPAN> dateutil <SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> parser
<SPAN class="keyword token">from</SPAN> datetime <SPAN class="keyword token">import</SPAN> datetime

pattern <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> re<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>compile<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>r<SPAN class="string token">"\d[\d\/,:. AaPpMm]{4,24}"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>

last_update_fra <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"""<h1>COVID-19 News Updates</h1>

<div><br></div><div>Last Updated 4/3/2020, 12:08 p.m.</div>"""</SPAN>

<SPAN class="comment token"># assumes datetime will be last element, and a datetime was found</SPAN>
dt <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> parser<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>parse<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>pattern<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>findall<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>last_update_fra<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="operator token">-</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
updated <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> datetime<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>now<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN> <SPAN class="operator token">-</SPAN> dt

<SPAN class="keyword token">if</SPAN> updated<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>days <SPAN class="operator token"><</SPAN> <SPAN class="number token">1</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN> <SPAN class="comment token"># updated in the past day</SPAN>
    <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"process -"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> dt
<SPAN class="keyword token">else</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
    <SPAN class="keyword token">print</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">"ignore -"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> dt

<SPAN class="comment token"># prints: ignore - 2020-04-03 12:08:00‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍</SPAN><SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

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