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Searchlock

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Searchlock is a price tracking and product comparison platform designed to monitor product prices across multiple e-commerce websites over time.

The system automatically collects product information from supported online stores, stores historical price data, and allows users to track products and identify the best available offers.

By continuously monitoring product pages, the platform provides users with tools to:

  • compare prices across multiple retailers
  • track price changes over time
  • receive notifications when prices change
  • discover the best available offers
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Project Goals​

Searchlock was designed to solve a common problem in online shopping: finding the best price for a product across different websites and monitoring price changes over time.

The system aims to:

  • automatically collect product price information from multiple online stores
  • maintain a historical record of price changes
  • allow users to track products of interest
  • notify users when relevant price changes occur
  • provide tools for analyzing price trends

Core System Concept​

The platform operates through a combination of web scraping services, backend APIs, and a web application interface.

At a high level, the system works as follows:

  1. Scraping services extract product information from supported websites.
  2. Product data and prices are stored in a central database.
  3. The backend API processes requests and manages system logic.
  4. The frontend application allows users to search, track, and compare products.
  5. Notification services inform users when price changes occur.

This architecture allows the platform to continuously monitor product prices and provide real-time insights to users.

Key Features​

The system provides several core capabilities:

Product Price Tracking​

Users can track products across multiple websites and observe how their prices change over time.

Cross-Site Price Comparison​

Searchlock compares prices between different stores, helping users identify the best available offers.

Historical Price Analysis​

The system maintains historical records of product prices, allowing users to visualize price fluctuations.

Notifications​

Users can receive notifications when price changes occur for products they are tracking.

Administrative Control​

Administrators can manage system rules, monitor scraping services, and analyze system activity through a control panel.

System Components​

Searchlock is composed of several interconnected components:

  • Web Scraping System — Collects product information from supported websites
  • Backend API — Manages system logic and communication between components
  • Database — Stores users, products, and price history
  • Web Application — Allows users to interact with the platform
  • Notification System — Sends alerts to users when relevant events occur

Each component works together to create a scalable system capable of monitoring large numbers of products across multiple websites.

Documentation Structure​

The following pages describe the technical details of the system:

  • System Architecture — Overall structure and component interactions
  • Scraping System — How product data is collected from websites
  • Backend API — Server logic and data processing
  • Data Model — Structure of the database
  • Engineering Challenges — Technical challenges encountered during development

Together, these sections explain how Searchlock was designed and implemented as a distributed price monitoring platform.