Coronavirus Tracker

Web-Scraping has always excited me and I knew that one day, sooner or later, I would do a Web-Scraping Project. However, Web-Scraping can be hard, especially since a lot is required to get your program working.

But with the right tools, you can scrape almost ANYTHING (websites). This is where a tool known as Parsehub comes in. I first learnt about this tool from the amazing Tech with Tim YouTube channel. This project is in fact one of the tutorials in the channel. All I did was add the SMS API.

Prerequisites

This project as with most of my projects, is written in the Python Programming Language.

Requirements:

  • Python 3.8 - Python 3.6 & above will work just fine
  • Parsehub - Download it for free here
  • Vonage SMS API - Formerly known as Nexmo
  • Basic Python Knowledge

Python
Python 3.6 or above
Parsehub
Parsehub
Vonage / Nexmo SMS API
Vonage / Nexmo SMS API

Building the Project

I have not made any tutorial concerning Parsehub & Web Scraping in general. But I surely plan to do so in the near future. Parsehub is really easy to use and it also comes with free walkthroughs / tutorials on how to use the software. Simply download it and follow the tutorial that pops-up when you open the software

Additionally, if you want to replicate this project, I highly recommend Tech with Tim's Tutorial on scraping the web for Corona-virus updates. You can use this link to the tutorial.

Typically, when working with web scrapers and APIs, the data is usually in JSON Format. This might seem like a burden (having to learn JSON), but you will not regret learning more about JSON. Understanding JSON is usually a major step in a Software Developer's Journey.
Furthermore, if you understand Python Dictionaries, then you already know 80% of JSON.

The next step is Adding Logic to your code that will handle the SMS part.
This is actually the easy part of this project. Vonage (Nexmo) has a practical guide on how to integrate their API in your application.
The process generally involves:

  • Signing Up on their website
  • Generating API keys / credentials
  • Add the API credentials to your application
  • Sending messages using your application !!!

And that's it!! The scary part of this project was scraping, but as you'll find out, Parsehub makes our job much easier.

Let's now talk more about improving our app.

Improvements We Can Make

As we all know, there is always room for improvement!

  1. Adding Timed events so that the app sends an SMS automatically after every 24 hours.
  2. Building a User Interface so that a user can tweak the SMS that they receive.
  3. Building a Web Interface so that users can register their phone numbers for Corona-virus updates
  4. If you are up to the challenge, turn this into a hardware project so that the cases are displayed on a LCD Screen

You can view all my code for this project as well as any other resources on my Github Page.

Vonage / Nexmo SMS API
STAY SAFE

For any Questions or Comments, Feel free to Contact Me.