Python | Automating Happy Birthday post on Facebook using Selenium

Python | Automating Happy Birthday post on Facebook using Selenium

Prerequisites:

  • Python
  • Selenium (pip install selenium)
  • A WebDriver (like ChromeDriver or GeckoDriver)

Note: This tutorial assumes you are using ChromeDriver for the Chrome browser. You might need to adjust commands for other browsers.

Steps:

  1. Setup and Login:

    from selenium import webdriver from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By import time # Replace with your path to chromedriver driver_path = "/path/to/chromedriver" driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=driver_path) driver.get("https://www.facebook.com") # Assuming you're not logged in email_elem = driver.find_element(By.ID, "email") password_elem = driver.find_element(By.ID, "pass") # Replace with your Facebook credentials email_elem.send_keys("YOUR_EMAIL") password_elem.send_keys("YOUR_PASSWORD") password_elem.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)

  2. Navigate to Birthdays:

    time.sleep(5) # Giving some time for the page to load # Go to the 'Birthdays' section (URL might vary; this is a common one) driver.get("https://www.facebook.com/events/birthdays/")

  3. Send Birthday Wishes:

    time.sleep(5) # Locate birthday input boxes bday_elems = driver.find_elements(By.XPATH, "//textarea[contains(@placeholder, 'Write a birthday wish...')]") for elem in bday_elems: elem.send_keys("Happy Birthday! 🎉") elem.send_keys(Keys.RETURN) # This sends the message

  4. Cleanup:

    time.sleep(5) # Giving some time to ensure all messages are sent driver.quit()

Caution:

  • Web scraping and automation on platforms like Facebook is subject to their terms of service. Make sure you're not violating any terms or policies.
  • This script might not be future-proof as Facebook frequently changes its website's structure. If they change the structure or naming of HTML elements, the script may break.
  • Always be cautious when storing or hardcoding credentials in scripts.

To make this script robust and efficient, consider adding error checks, logging for debugging, and perhaps more advanced Selenium functionalities like waits (instead of time.sleep).

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