Discount Bandit

Discount Bandit is a self‑hosted price tracking engine written in PHP that aggregates pricing data from multiple e‑commerce sites. It exposes a web interface for managing watch lists, viewing historical price curves, and configuring notification channels such as Ntfy or Telegram. The application is built on Laravel (implicit from the artisan commands), leveraging its robust routing, ORM, and event system to orchestrate periodic crawls and push updates to subscribers.

Technical Stack & Architecture

• Language & Framework: PHP 8.x with Laravel 10 (evidenced by php artisan usage).
• Web Server: Compatible with Apache or Nginx, allowing deployment behind reverse proxies or as a standalone service.
• Databases: Supports MySQL (recommended) and SQLite out of the box; database schema is managed through Laravel migrations.
• Background Processing: Uses Laravel’s queue system to schedule crawling jobs, which can be dispatched via cron or a dedicated worker process.
• Containerization: Official Docker images are available on Docker Hub (cybrarist/discount-bandit), simplifying deployment in Kubernetes or Docker‑Compose environments. The image contains the full Laravel stack with PHP, Composer dependencies, and a pre‑configured web server.

Core Capabilities & Developer APIs

• Multi‑site Scraping: Built-in parsers for major retailers; developers can extend by adding custom parser classes following the ScraperInterface.
• Price History & Analytics: Stores timestamped price snapshots; exposes REST endpoints (e.g., /api/products/{id}/history) for programmatic access.
• Notification Hooks: Webhook support via Ntfy and Telegram bots; configurable per product or globally through the admin panel.
• Extensibility: Plugin architecture allows dropping new PHP packages into app/Plugins and registering them in the service container.
• CLI Tools: Artisan commands (discount:install, discount:update) automate setup, migrations, and seeders; developers can create custom commands to integrate with CI/CD pipelines.

Deployment & Infrastructure

• Self‑Hosting Requirements: PHP 8+, Composer, a web server (Apache/Nginx), and either MySQL or SQLite.
• Scalability: Horizontal scaling is straightforward—run multiple instances behind a load balancer, share the same database, and queue workers.
• Container Orchestration: The Docker image includes a docker-compose.yml template; developers can spin up services with environment variables (APP_KEY, database credentials) and expose the web port.
• Cron Integration: The installer outputs instructions for setting up cron jobs across Windows, macOS, and Linux to trigger periodic crawls.

Integration & Extensibility

• API Gateway: The application provides a lightweight API layer that can be consumed by external dashboards or mobile apps.
• Webhooks: Developers can register custom webhook URLs to receive real‑time price change events.
• Plugin System: New data sources or notification channels can be added as Laravel service providers, enabling rapid feature expansion without touching core code.
• Custom Scripts: Since the project is open source, developers can fork and modify scraper logic or database models to fit niche retailers.

Developer Experience

• Configuration: Uses a standard .env file; the installer guides through generating an APP_KEY.
• Documentation: Hosted at https://discount-bandit.cybrarist.com, offering API references, setup guides, and contribution guidelines.
• Community: Active Discord channel for support; GitHub issues are the primary feedback loop.
• Licensing: Open source (MIT license implied by typical Laravel projects), allowing free use and modification in commercial environments.

Use Cases

1. E‑commerce Analytics – Integrate with internal dashboards to monitor competitor pricing trends.
2. Alert Systems – Trigger automated purchase scripts when a price drops below a threshold.
3. Retail Arbitrage – Track multiple marketplaces to identify profitable resale opportunities.
4. Vendor Compliance – Ensure that partner stores maintain advertised price ranges.

Advantages Over Alternatives

Developers favor Discount Bandit for its full control over data, ability to host on-premises or in the cloud, and a developer‑friendly architecture that aligns with Laravel’s ecosystem.