Introduction
The idea behind this project is simple: a tool which regularly reminds me when my auction (or interested item) is going to finish and its current price. I established ranges and periods of time as following:
| Time left | Remainder |
| >12h | Every 12h |
| 12h > x > 6h | 1 remainder 6h before |
| 6h > x > 2h | Every hour |
| 2h > x >30m | Every 30 minutes |
| 30m > x > 0m | Every 10 minutes |
For example, if I register one item whose time left is 2d 16h, the remainders will be set as:
- 2d 12h, 2d, 1d 12h, 1d, 12h left
- 6h left
- 5h, 4h, 3h, 2h left
- 1h 30min, 1h, 30min left
- 20min, 10min left.
The register process is very easy: take the ebay ID number of the item (located in the URL), and visit a link such as: ~register.php?link=www.ebay.com/itm/IDNUMBER
After this, the script will generate cronjobs whose work will be “visit” a webpage such as: ~bot.php?link=www.ebay.com/itm/IDNUMBER and a tweet will be published after calculation current time left.
When time left is less than 15min (so, the last remainder), all cronjobs regarding to that item will be erased. This means that you can add as many items as you want.
It is also easy to change some features such as remainders period and tweet’s content.
Screenshots:
