changd: A JavaScript repository from saidsl

Changd is a open source web monitoring application and a free alternative to ChangeTower.com, Hexowatch.com, and other SaaS-based solutions. Changd can currently be used for automated monitoring visual site changes (screenshots), XPath's or API's.

Changd is developed using Typescript, React and AntD for UI, and the API/backend is written in JS and running on Node.js. I developed Changd because I wanted a free website monitoring solution that I could host locally and have full control over.

Changd has multiple configuration options and screenshots can be stored on Amazon S3 or locally. Notifications can be sent using your own SMTP service or Amazon SES.

Monitoring Use Cases

Content is changed on a website
Online shopping price changes
Get notified when a news article is changed
Detect changes in API responses
Monitor specific text (via XPath) changes on a website
Your website gets defaced, hacked, or changed without your knowledge
Monitor your site availability (online or offline)
Monitor competitor websites for changes
Be sure content is displayed correctly

Features

Monitors Visual changes, APIs or HTML XPaths
Run using docker, locally or in a scaled node environment
Quickly and easily setup new jobs
Notify one or multiple email addresses when a condition is met
Visual screenshot of website changes via email notifications
Notification options for SMTP or Amazon SES Notifications
Store screenshots in AWS S3 or Locally
Store data in Postgres DB
Includes a history of changes
Usage charts
Supports multiple users
Open Source

Changd is an open source alternative to apps like Stillio, ChangeTower, Hexowatch, VisualPing or Wachete.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Running Locally: Node.js/npm

Or using Docker: Docker

Running from Docker

Running from docker is the quickest and easiet method for testing the application. Clone the repo and run:

git clone https://github.com/paschmann/changd
docker-compose up

Open your browser to http://localhost:80

Create a new account using the "Register" button on the login screen.

Running Locally

Installing

Clone/download the Changd repository or a release
Install npm packages in the frontend and server folders
Set variables in the server/.env (Copy from .env_template)

git clone https://github.com/paschmann/changd
cd changd
cd server
cp .env_template .env
npm install
cd ..
cd frontend
npm install

Running

I suggest opening two terminal windows to run the frontend and the backend, if you want the Cron service to run in the background periodically, you will need a third terminal as well.

cd server
npm run dev
cd ..
cd frontend
npm start

Optional (Cron Service):

cd server
npm run crondev

Once running, your web application frontend should be available on http://localhost:3000, the API/backend should be available on http://localhost:8000. The frontend API calls will be proxied to port 8000 using the proxy referenced in the frontend/package.json file.

AWS S3 Storage

If you would like to reduce your local file system storage and use AWS S3, be sure to specify a S3_BUCKET filename in your .env file along with your AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY. This should be a IAM User with S3 Access (suggested).

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the license file for details

saidsl/changd