changedetection.io smart home integration, free and open source
Know in Gladys when a watched web page changes: price drop, back in stock, new post.
Published by guim31
- Devices
- Version 1.0.1
- Requires Gladys >=5.1.0
- ★ 0
changedetection.io is a free, self-hosted service that watches web pages and tells you when they change: a price drop, a product back in stock, a new post on a forum, a new version of a piece of software. This integration brings its watches into Gladys: each one becomes a device (unviewed change, error, last change, what changed, and price and stock for the shop pages), scenes can react when any page changes, a price drops or a product is back in stock, and a dashboard widget lists the latest changes.
Tested against a real changedetection.io 0.60.9 (Docker); not yet on every setup: feedback welcome on the issues.
What you need
- Gladys Assistant 5.1.0 or later.
- changedetection.io, reachable from the Gladys machine (on the local network, or on the Internet in HTTPS), with its API enabled (the default).
- Its API key.
changedetection.io does the watching, at the interval set for each watch (every 3 hours by default): Gladys reads its results, it never fetches the pages itself. Watches are created and edited in changedetection.io.
Getting started
1. Copy the API key
In changedetection.io, open Settings → API. Check that API access is enabled and copy the API key.
2. Configure the integration
In Gladys, open the integration, then its Configuration tab:
- changedetection.io address: the address you open changedetection.io
with, port included, for example
http://192.168.1.2:5000. An address copied from the browser works too. - API key: the key copied above.
- Refresh interval: how often Gladys reads the results (1 minute by default). One request per read, plus a few after a change.
- Currency of the prices: the unit of the price of the "Re-stock & Price detection" watches (euro by default). changedetection.io gives the price without its currency.
- Accept self-signed certificates: only for an
https://address whose certificate your browser does not trust either. - Language of the names: the language of the feature names, of the dates and of the error messages (French by default).
Save, then click Test the connection: it shows the version of changedetection.io, the number of watches, those in error and the unviewed changes.
3. Add the watches
The Discover tab lists a changedetection.io device and one device per watch. Add the ones you want to see in Gladys. The scene triggers work for every watch, added or not.
The devices
Each watch has:
- Unviewed change: on while a change has not been viewed (in changedetection.io, or with the "Mark as viewed" action).
- In error: on while the last check of the page failed.
- Error message: the reason of the last failure, "None" otherwise.
- Last change: the date and time of the last change.
- What changed: a short excerpt of the last change seen by the integration, the lines added (or the lines removed, marked "−").
- On a watch of type "Re-stock & Price detection" only: Price and In stock.
The changedetection.io device counts the Watches, the Watches in error and the Unviewed changes.
Dashboard
The Latest changes widget shows the number of unviewed changes and of watches in error, then the eight latest changes, newest first: title, what changed, date, and a "New" or "Error" badge. A tap on a change opens its detail with a link to the page. Two buttons:
- Check now: changedetection.io checks every page again now.
- Mark as viewed: every change no longer counts as new (asks for confirmation).
In its settings, Watches narrows it to the devices you choose (only devices added to Gladys can be chosen).
Scenes
Triggers
They fire for every watch, added to Gladys or not. Leave Watches empty to react to any of them, or choose some.
- A page changed: changedetection.io detected a change. Variables: watch title, page address, what changed (one line, 200 characters at most), tags.
- A price dropped: the price of a "Re-stock & Price detection" watch went down. Variables: title, address, price, previous price, tags.
- Back in stock: a "Re-stock & Price detection" watch went from out of stock to in stock. Variables: title, address, price, tags.
- A watch fails: the check of a page started failing (page gone, server error, filter not found…). Once, until it works again. Variables: title, address, error message, tags.
A change that happens while Gladys or the integration restarts is still announced, once. Nothing is announced at the very first read.
To react under a price threshold, use the Price feature of the device in a Gladys scene ("the price goes below 100"): the scene triggers of integrations only compare for equality.
Actions
- Check a page now: changedetection.io checks the chosen page again now (every page when the field is empty, or the changedetection.io device is chosen). The result is read 20 seconds later and fires the triggers above. Output: the number of pages queued.
- Mark as viewed: the change of the chosen watch no longer counts as new (every unviewed change when empty). Output: the number of watches marked.
Scene ideas
- Price alert: trigger "A price dropped" on the coffee grinder → send a message "💶 … now at … (was …)" with "Watch title", "Price" and "Previous price".
- Back in stock: trigger "Back in stock" → send a message with the title and the address, then turn a light green.
- Town hall news: trigger "A page changed" on the page of the town hall → send "📰 …: …" with "Watch title" and "What changed", then "Mark as viewed".
- Before leaving: every Saturday at 9:00 → "Check a page now" on the opening hours of the market.
Troubleshooting
- "API key refused": copy the key again from Settings → API; a key regenerated in changedetection.io invalidates the old one.
- "An API key is needed": changedetection.io asks for a key and none is configured.
- "changedetection.io does not answer": check the address and the port
(5000 by default) from the Gladys machine.
localhostis the integration container itself: use the IP address of the machine running changedetection.io. - "Certificate refused": the HTTPS certificate is self-signed or expired;
tick "Accept self-signed certificates", or use the
http://address on the local network. - "No changedetection.io API at this address": the address points at another service, or a changedetection.io too old to have its REST API: update it.
- No price on a shop page: the watch must use the "Re-stock & Price detection" type in changedetection.io, and the page must publish its price (most shops do). The price and stock devices appear once the type is set; click "Search" in the Discover tab, then "Update" on the device.
- "What changed" is empty: it is filled at the first change seen by the integration.
Limits
- changedetection.io checks the pages at its own interval; Gladys reads the results at the refresh interval, so an event comes at most that much later.
- The excerpt shows lines added or removed, not changes inside a line, and is cut at 200 characters.
- The price has no currency in changedetection.io: the unit comes from the configuration, the same for every watch.
- Paused watches stay listed (the API does not say which ones are paused).
- Watches are created, edited and deleted in changedetection.io; Gladys only checks them now and marks them as viewed.
Configuration settings
These are the settings changedetection.io asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.
| Setting | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your changedetection.io | section | No | In changedetection.io, open Settings → API, copy the API key and paste it below with the address of changedetection.io. Then add the watches to follow from the Discover tab: the scene triggers work for every watch, added or not. |
| changedetection.io address | string | No | The address you open changedetection.io with, port included (5000 by default). |
| API key | secret | No | Settings → API in changedetection.io. Leave empty only if API access needs no key there. |
| Options | section | No | changedetection.io checks each page at its own interval (3 hours by default): Gladys reads its results, it does not check the pages. |
| Refresh interval | select | No | How often the results of changedetection.io are read. |
| Currency of the prices | select | No | Unit of the price of the "Re-stock & Price detection" watches, set when a device is added. |
| Accept self-signed certificates | boolean | No | Only for an https:// address whose certificate your browser does not trust either. |
| Language of the names | select | No | Language of the feature names (set when a device is added), of the dates and of the error messages. |
How to install changedetection.io in Gladys
- In Gladys, open Integrations: changedetection.io appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
- Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (
ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-changedetection:1.0.1), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration). - Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
- You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-changedetection.
changedetection.io requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.
Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.
About external integrations
changedetection.io is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.
- Browse all integrations, native and community
- Build and publish your own external integration
- Source code on GitHub — source of this documentation