Podcasts Technology Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats Hasty Treat - How Would We Script a PS5 Buying Bot?

Hasty Treat - How Would We Script a PS5 Buying Bot?

Published: Dec. 21, 2020, 2 p.m.

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about the PS5 bot debacle, and how they would do it differently!

LogRocket - Sponsor

LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It\u2019s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at\xa0logrocket.com/syntax.

Show Notes

03:12 - Scott\u2019s strategy

  • Go to Reddit and refresh until someone posts a link and then GO GO GO
  • Don\u2019t buy on sites that allow simple bots to work
  • TBH I don\u2019t know how to code this type of bot and would prob end up accidentally buying a ton of stuff

05:06 - Wes\u2019 strategy

  1. You need a way to find out of there is stock
    • Find out of there is an API endpoint you can hit (inspect element)
  2. If there is not, you\u2019ll need to scrape the site.
  3. Fetch(url). text()
  4. Regex
  5. Cheerio
  6. Puppeteer\xa0(slower, easier to run)
  7. Save any data that you want in a database. Text-based database is great.
  8. Re-run the scrape every N mins
  9. When there IS a match you can:
    • Send a text message -\xa0Twilio
    • Send an email -\xa0Postmark
    • Try to fill out the form and submit it yourself
      • document.querySelector()

11:35 - Things that get in the way

  • Blocked IP
    • Use a VPN
  • Captcha or\xa0Cloudflare
  • Run it on your local computer
  • Use Puppeteer to get all cookies and headers
Links Tweet us your tasty treats!