Panapass Balance Scraper with MQTT Integration

This repository contains a Python script designed to automate the retrieval of the Panapass balance using Playwright, with the additional capability to publish the balance to an MQTT broker. Panapass serves as the electronic toll collection system utilized in Panama, and this script facilitates the seamless acquisition of the balance, followed by its transmission to a specified MQTT topic. The script is configured to use an .env file for securely storing credentials and configuration settings.

Features:

• Automated Login: The script securely logs into the Panapass website using credentials stored in an .env file, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected.
• Balance Retrieval: It efficiently scrapes and retrieves the current Panapass balance.
• MQTT Publishing: Once retrieved, the balance is published to an MQTT broker, with the topic and broker details also sourced from the .env file.
• Error Handling: Robust error handling is implemented to manage issues related to login failures, balance retrieval errors, and MQTT publishing failures.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: The script is designed to operate across various platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Requirements:

• Python 3.7+
• Playwright for Python
• Paho-MQTT (for MQTT communication)
• Python-dotenv (for loading environment variables)

Installation:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/alejandro5x/panapass-balance-scraper.git
   cd panapass-balance-scraper

2. Install the required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   playwright install
   playwright install-deps

3. Create an .env file in the root directory of the project with the following structure:

   PANAPASS_NUMBER=yourPanapassNumber
   PANAPASS_PASSWORD=yourPanapassPassword
   MQTT_TOPIC=yourMQTTTopic
   MQTT_ERROR_TOPIC=yourMQTTErrorTopic
   MQTT_BROKER=yourMQTTBrokerAddress
   MQTT_PORT=yourMQTTPort
   MQTT_USER=yourMQTTUser
   MQTT_PASSWORD=yourMQTTPassword
   

Usage:

python scrape_balance.py

Example Output:

Upon execution, the script will retrieve the Panapass balance and publish it to the specified MQTT broker and topic, as defined in the .env file:

Published balance of $25.10 to MQTT topic 'panapass/balance'.

Crontab:

At minute 0 past every hour

0 * * * * /bin/bash -l -c 'source /home/alex/python/panapass-balance-scraper/bin/activate && python /home/alex/python/panapass-balance-scraper/panapass-balance-scraper.py' > /dev/null 2>&1