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Eurotunnel price checker

Overview

This is a personal tool designed to scrape and display Eurotunnel ticket prices. The tool consists of two primary Python scripts:

  1. check.py: A script that runs headless browsing to scrape ticket data and save it as HTML files.
  2. web_view.py: A Flask web application that parses the scraped HTML data and displays the available tickets and prices.

Requirements

  • Python 3.x
  • Flask
  • lxml
  • Playwright Python package
  • pytz

Install them via pip:

pip install flask lxml playwright pytz

How to use

Running the scraper (check.py)

  1. Update the outbound_date and return_date variables in the script to match your desired travel dates.
  2. Run the script manually or add it to your crontab for scheduled checks. The HTML files will be saved in a specified directory.

For example, to run the script every day at 6:34 AM:

34 6 * * * ~/src/2023/eurotunnel-scrape/check.py

Running the web viewer (web_view.py)

  1. Run web_view.py to start the Flask web server.
  2. Access the web interface to view available tickets and prices.

To start the web server:

python web_view.py

You can then navigate to http://localhost:5000/ to see the ticket options.

Code structure

  • check.py uses the playwright package to scrape the Eurotunnel website for ticket prices and saves the resulting HTML files.
  • web_view.py reads these HTML files, extracts the relevant data using lxml, and displays it using a Flask web interface.

Data Classes and Functions

  • Train: Data class representing a Eurotunnel train with departure time, arrival time, and price.
  • get_filename(direction: str) -> tuple[datetime, str]: Function to find the most recent file corresponding to a given direction ('outbound' or 'return').
  • get_tickets(filename: str) -> tuple[date, list[Train]]: Function to parse the HTML and get a list of available trains and prices.

Notes

  • All prices are displayed for 'standard' tickets only.
  • The time and price information are displayed only for trains that are within a specific time range (as defined in web_view.py).

Data Storage

Scraped data is saved as HTML files in the data directory. The filenames include timestamps to indicate when the data was scraped. For example:

  • 2023-09-29_123456_outbound.html: Outbound data scraped on September 29, 2023, at 12:34:56.
  • 2023-10-06_234567_return.html: Return data scraped on October 6, 2023, at 23:45:67.

Author

This tool was created by Edward Betts.

Support and Contributions

This tool is provided as-is and may require maintenance or updates as Eurotunnel's website changes. If you encounter issues or have suggestions for improvements, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on the GitHub repository.

License

This tool is released under the MIT License.

Disclaimer

This tool is not affiliated with Eurotunnel and is meant for personal use only. Always refer to the official Eurotunnel website for the most accurate and up-to-date information.