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Developer Automates Weekly Product Data Tracking Using n8n Scraper Workflow

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A developer writing for DEV Community built an automated web scraping workflow using n8n to eliminate three to five hours of manual product data collection each week. The workflow uses a scheduled trigger, HTTP Request nodes, and CSS-selector-based HTML extraction to pull product names, prices, and availability from target pages every morning. Extracted data is automatically logged into Google Sheets with timestamps, while a conditional node sends Slack alerts only when values change between runs. The developer chose n8n over alternatives like Zapier, Make, and custom Python scripts for its open-source, self-hostable model and visual workflow editor. The article also emphasizes ethical scraping practices, including checking robots.txt, setting request delays, and mimicking standard browser behavior.

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