Page monitoring methodology

Patterns for tracking web page changes, detecting content removal, and preserving important pages before they disappear.

Monitoring service comparison

Quick-start: Monitor a page

Distill.io element monitoring

// Distill.io allows CSS/XPath selectors for precise monitoring
// Example selectors for common use cases:

// Monitor news article headlines
const newsSelector = '.article-headline, h1.title, .story-title';

// Monitor price changes
const priceSelector = '.price, .product-price, [data-price]';

// Monitor stock/availability
const availabilitySelector = '.in-stock, .availability, .stock-status';

// Monitor specific paragraph or section
const sectionSelector = '#main-content p:first-child';

// Monitor table data
const tableSelector = 'table.data-table tbody tr';

Python monitoring script

import requests
import hashlib
import json
import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from datetime import datetime
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Optional
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

class PageMonitor:
    """Simple page change monitor with local storage."""

    def __init__(self, storage_dir: Path):
        self.storage_dir = storage_dir
        self.storage_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
        self.state_file = storage_dir / 'monitor_state.json'
        self.state = self._load_state()

    def _load_state(self) -> dict:
        if self.state_file.exists():
            return json.loads(self.state_file.read_text())
        return {'pages': {}}

    def _save_state(self):
        self.state_file.write_text(json.dumps(self.state, indent=2))

    def _get_page_hash(self, url: str, selector: str = None) -> tuple[str, str]:
        """Get content hash and content for a page or element."""

        response = requests.get(url, timeout=30, headers={
            'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (PageMonitor/1.0)'
        })
        response.raise_for_status()

        if selector:
            soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'html.parser')
            element = soup.select_one(selector)
            content = element.get_text(strip=True) if element else ''
        else:
            content = response.text

        content_hash = hashlib.sha256(content.encode()).hexdigest()
        return content_hash, content

    def add_page(self, url: str, name: str, selector: str = None):
        """Add a page to monitor."""

        content_hash, content = self._get_page_hash(url, selector)

        self.state['pages'][url] = {
            'name': name,
            'selector': selector,
            'last_hash': content_hash,
            'last_check': datetime.now().isoformat(),
            'last_content': content[:1000],  # Store preview
            'change_count': 0
        }

        self._save_state()
        print(f"Added: {name} ({url})")

    def check_page(self, url: str) -> Optional[dict]:
        """Check single page for changes."""

        if url not in self.state['pages']:
            return None

        page = self.state['pages'][url]
        selector = page.get('selector')

        try:
            new_hash, new_content = self._get_page_hash(url, selector)
        except Exception as e:
            return {
                'url': url,
                'name': page['name'],
                'status': 'error',
                'error': str(e)
            }

        changed = new_hash != page['last_hash']

        result = {
            'url': url,
            'name': page['name'],
            'status': 'changed' if changed else 'unchanged',
            'previous_content': page['last_content'],
            'new_content': new_content[:1000] if changed else None
        }

        if changed:
            page['last_hash'] = new_hash
            page['last_content'] = new_content[:1000]
            page['change_count'] += 1

            # Archive the change
            archive_file = self.storage_dir / f"{hashlib.md5(url.encode()).hexdigest