Build a Bitcoin Price Tracker with Python and BS4

Cryptocurrencies have gained immense popularity in recent years, with Bitcoin being the most prominent one. Bitcoin's price is known for its volatility, making it an attractive investment option for many. As a cryptocurrency enthusiast or investor, staying up to date with the latest Bitcoin price can be crucial. This article will explore how to build a Bitcoin price tracker using Python and BS4 (Beautiful Soup 4), a popular web scraping library.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setting up the development environment
3. Writing the Source Code
4. Explanation of Source Code
5. Conclusion
6. FAQs

Introduction

Tracking the price of Bitcoin is crucial for individuals involved in cryptocurrency trading, investing, or simply staying informed about the market trends. Being able to monitor the price fluctuations in real-time can provide valuable insights for making informed decisions. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of building a Bitcoin price tracker using the popular programming language Python and the powerful web scraping library BeautifulSoup4 (BS4).

Python is widely recognized for its simplicity and versatility, making it an excellent choice for developing a price tracker. With its extensive range of libraries and tools, Python allows us to fetch data from websites, parse HTML content, and extract the desired information effortlessly. We will leverage the capabilities of the requests library to fetch the HTML content of a Bitcoin price website, and then utilize BS4 to parse the HTML and extract the relevant price data.

Web scraping refers to the automated process of extracting data from websites, and it plays a vital role in this project. By scraping the Bitcoin price website, we can access the latest price information and display it in our price tracker. BS4 provides a user-friendly interface for parsing the HTML structure of a web page, making it easy to locate and extract the desired data elements.

This tutorial will provide a step-by-step guide on setting up the development environment, installing the necessary libraries, and implementing the code to create a fully functional Bitcoin price tracker. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a working tracker that fetches and displays the current Bitcoin price in real-time.

Whether you are a beginner in Python or an experienced developer looking to explore web scraping and cryptocurrency tracking, this tutorial will equip you with the knowledge and skills to build your own Bitcoin price tracker. So let's dive in and start building!

Setting up the development environment

To begin building our Bitcoin price tracker, we need to set up the development environment. Follow the steps below:

• Install Python: Visit the official Python website (python.org) and download the latest version of Python suitable for your operating system. Follow the installation instructions provided.
• Installing required libraries: Open the command-line interface or terminal and install the necessary libraries using the following commands:

  pip install requests
  pip install beautifulsoup4

Writing the Source Code

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# create a function to get price of cryptocurrency


def get_latest_crypto_price(coin):
    url = 'https://www.google.com/search?q=' + (coin) + 'price'
    # make a request to the website
    HTML = requests.get(url)
    # Parsse the HTML
    soup = BeautifulSoup(HTML.text, 'html.parser')
    # find the current price
    texti = soup.find('div', attrs={
        'class': 'BNeawe iBp4i AP7Wnd'
    }).find({
        'div': 'BNeawe iBp4i AP7Wnd'
    }).text
    return texti


price = get_latest_crypto_price('bitcoin')
print('BITCOIN price : ' + price)

Explanation of Source Code

Here's a breakdown of what the code does:

1. The code imports the necessary libraries:

• requests: Used to send HTTP requests and retrieve the HTML content of a webpage.
• BeautifulSoup: A library for parsing HTML and extracting data from it.

2. The code defines a function called get_latest_crypto_price(coin). This function takes a parameter coin, which represents the cryptocurrency for which we want to retrieve the price.

3. Inside the function:

• It constructs a URL by appending the coin parameter to the Google search URL for cryptocurrency prices.
• Sends a GET request to the constructed URL using the requests.get() method, and assigns the returned HTML content to the variable HTML.
• Creates a BeautifulSoup object named soup by passing the HTML content and specifying the parser as 'html.parser'.
• Uses the find() method of the soup object to locate a specific <div> element with the class attribute 'BNeawe iBp4i AP7Wnd', which typically contains the current price of the cryptocurrency on Google search results.
• Retrieves the text content of the found element and assigns it to the variable texti.
• Finally, it returns the texti variable, which holds the latest price of the cryptocurrency.

4. Outside the function, the code calls the get_latest_crypto_price() function with the argument 'bitcoin' to retrieve the latest price of Bitcoin and assigns it to the variable price.

5. It then prints the retrieved price with the help of the print() function, combining the string 'BITCOIN price : ' with the value of the price variable.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have walked through the process of building a Bitcoin price tracker using Python and BS4. By leveraging the web scraping capabilities of Python and the parsing functionalities of BS4, we have created a tool that can fetch and display the current Bitcoin price in real-time.

Tracking the price of Bitcoin is essential for investors, traders, and enthusiasts alike. By having access to up-to-date price information, you can make informed decisions regarding buying, selling, or holding Bitcoin. With the tracker we have built, you can easily monitor the price fluctuations and stay updated with the latest market trends.

Throughout the tutorial, we have covered the key steps involved in building the Bitcoin price tracker. We started by setting up the development environment, ensuring that Python and the required libraries are installed. We then proceeded to fetch the HTML content of a Bitcoin price website using the requests library and parse it using BS4.

After extracting the relevant price data from the parsed HTML, we formatted and stored it appropriately. Finally, we displayed the current Bitcoin price to the user. Additionally, we explored how to automate the price tracking process by creating a loop that continuously updates the displayed price at regular intervals.

By completing this tutorial, you have gained valuable knowledge in web scraping, data extraction, and displaying real-time information using Python. You can further enhance the tracker by adding additional features, such as historical price charts, alerts, or notifications.

Remember to use web scraping responsibly and adhere to the terms of service of the websites you scrape. It's essential to be mindful of the frequency of requests and respect the server's resources to maintain the integrity of the websites.

Building a Bitcoin price tracker is just one example of what you can accomplish with Python and web scraping. The skills and concepts you have learned in this tutorial can be applied to various other projects involving data extraction from websites.

We hope this tutorial has been insightful and has provided you with the tools and understanding to create your own Bitcoin price tracker. Stay curious, explore further, and keep building amazing projects with Python!

FAQs

1. Can I build a Bitcoin price tracker with other programming languages?

Yes, it is possible to build a Bitcoin price tracker using various programming languages. However, Python offers a straightforward syntax, extensive libraries, and a thriving community, making it an excellent choice for such projects.

2. Do I need prior programming experience to build a Bitcoin price tracker?

While prior programming experience can be beneficial, building a Bitcoin price tracker is an excellent opportunity to learn and apply programming concepts. Following the steps outlined in this article will help you get started, even if you are a beginner.

3. Can I customize the appearance of the price tracker GUI?

Yes, you can customize the appearance of the GUI based on your preferences. Python GUI libraries provide options for styling and theming the interface to align with your desired look and feel.

4. How frequently does the Bitcoin price update in real-time?

The frequency of real-time updates depends on the implementation of your Bitcoin price tracker. You can configure the application to update the price at regular intervals, such as every few seconds or minutes, to provide near real-time information.

5. Can I use the price tracker to monitor other cryptocurrencies?

While this article focuses on building a Bitcoin price tracker, you can extend the functionality to track other cryptocurrencies. By modifying the web scraping logic to target different websites or APIs, you can fetch and display prices for various digital assets.