Check Website Status and Monitor using Python

Sometimes we go to a website only to find it down or under maintenance. This can get frustrating real quick when we need some crucial information from the website and that is when a website monitor can help. We simply create a python program to notify us of the status of the website through email. Let us start with Python Website Monitoring Project.

Website monitor in python project:

To implement the project, we need to use libraries that already are in python by simply importing.

Project Prerequisites:

This project is for beginners, hence no prerequisite knowledge is required.

Download Project Code:

You can download the source code from the given link: Website Monitoring Project Code

Project File Structure:

Below is the flow of the project.

1. Importing necessary libraries
2. Declaring functions to send emails and monitor website
3. Read the inputs

Importing necessary libraries:

#Import libraries for Python Website Monitoring project
import urllib.request
import smtplib,time, hashlib

1. Code Explanation:

• import urllib.request: To open a website and obtain the status, we use urllib’s request.
• smtplib: To establish an SMTP connection with gmail, we use the library.
• time: To create the delay to monitor between, we use time.
• hashlib: To create hashcodes using which we can observe any changes in the website.

2. Declaring functions to send emails and monitor website:

#Function to send email
def send_email(email_string):
   #Fill credentials for sender's email and receiver's email
   email_from = 'enter sender\'s email'
   password = 'enter password'
   email_to = 'enter reciever\'s email'
   #Enter subject line
   subject = "Status of website"
 
   #Connect to gmail's smtp server
   smtp_server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL("smtp.gmail.com", 465)
 
   #Login to the gmail server 
   smtp_server.login(email_from, password)
 
   #Content of email
   message = f"Subject: {subject}\n\n{email_string}"
 
   #Send email through the smtp server
   smtp_server.sendmail(email_from, email_to, message)
 
   #Close the server connection
   smtp_server.close()

Code explanation:

• def send_email(email_string): Declare the function send_email() with the parameter email_string.
• Email_from, password, email_to: Enter email details of the sender and the receiver’s email
• subject: Enter subject of the email. It is optional, but a good practise to keep one.
• smtp_server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL(“smtp.gmail.com”, 465): Connect to the smtp server of gmail on port 465 using smtplib.SMTL_SSL. SSL is a security certificate
• smtp_server.login: Connect to the server by logging in using the credentials.
• Message: Create a message to send in the body of the email
• smtp_server.sendmail: Send the email using sendemail() with the parameters: sender’s email, receiver’s email and the message to send and close the server connection using close()

#Monitor the website
def monitor_website():
   #Run the loop to keep monitoring  
   while True:
       #Visit the website to know if it is up
       status = urllib.request.urlopen(input_website).getcode()
       #If it returns 200, the website is up
       if status != 200:
           #Call email function
           send_email("The website is down")
       else:
           send_email("The website is up")
           #Open url and create the hash code
           response = urllib.request.urlopen(input_website).read()
           current_hash = hashlib.sha224(response).hexdigest()
           #Revisit the website after time delay
           time.sleep(time_delay)
           #Visit the website after delay, and generate the new website
           response = urllib.request.urlopen(input_website).read()
           new_hash = hashlib.sha224(response).hexdigest()
           #Check the hash codes
           if new_hash != current_hash:
               send_email("The website changed")

Code explanation:

• def monitor_website(): Declare the function monitor_website() to monitor the website.
• while True: To keep monitoring until the user terminates the program, create an infinite while loop
• status = urllib.request.urlopen(input_website).getcode(): Open the website the user wishes to monitor and using getcode(), obtain the status of the website. If it returns 200, it implies the website is up and not otherwise.
• if status != 200: If the status code is not 220, send an email stating the website being down or so on.
• current_hash = hashlib.sha224(response).hexdigest(): Create a hash code for the retrieved website using SHA224.
• time.sleep(time_delay): Wait for a time interval before rechecking the website and obtaining its status
• response, new_hash: Revisit the website and create a new hash code
• new_hash != current_hash: Check if the hash codes are similar and send an email if they are not.

3. Read the inputs:

#Read the website and read time interval
input_website = input('Enter the website to monitor: ')
input_website = 'https://'+input_website
time_delay = int(input('Enter the time interval to check website: '))
 
#Monitoring website
monitor_website()

Code explanation:

• input_website: Read the website to monitor from the user and append ‘https://’ to the given website.
• time_delay: Read the time interval from the user
• monitor_website(): Call the function to monitor the website

Python Website Monitoring Output:

Run the website monitoring program and get the output:

Summary

We implemented a website monitor that will notify the user when there occurs a change in the website or when a website that was down, comes up.