Cobweb is a command line oriented screen scraper, this is very early code, more a proof of concept, but as with all the very best proofs of concept, it still provides some value.
I was inspired by the awesome pages at https://www.macovidvaccines.com/, which provide a much more glossy and user friendly way of presenting this data.
The tool targets the Massachusetts Department of Health web site, which handles reservations for obtaining vaccination against Covid-19. Cobweb does nothing that the official https://www.maimmunizations.org/clinic/search cannot do, but it does avoid paging through results so is a lot quicker than querying by hand.
This program is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The information may not be complete or accurate. It may break without prior warning, it may offend those of a sensitive disposition, or curdle fresh milk, whether it works at all depends on the underlying web site, and remember, it's only code!
Run from the command line, with no parameters to see a list of clinics that advertise availability and if available, a link for reservation...
For example:
> cobweb
Searching https://www.maimmunizations.org
Worcester Senior Center on 02/22/2021 has 41 available
Tree House Deerfield on 02/25/2021 has 1 available
Register at https://www.maimmunizations.org/client/registration?clinic_id=2040
Tree House Deerfield on 02/26/2021 has 1 available
Register at https://www.maimmunizations.org/client/registration?clinic_id=2041
Found 44 clinics, 3 with availability (fetched 5 pages)
The scraper saves time by checking multiple pages to collate the results
You can list all the clinics found, even those with no availability using the -a option, or list from some future date onwards, using the -f option, or filter by site name using -s.
In cases of high load, requests may be routed to a waiting room, normally the program will exit, as in this state results cannot immediately be obtained, but you can use -w to repeatedly poll, until results are available.
To list all the options, run with the --help flag