Automate broadcasting of messages/promotions through FB Business Suite to relevant Aimazing Customers
This is a script using selenium to broadcast messages through a FB Page to a list of relevant customers. Selenium is used for the script as there is no relevant API available for messenger broadcast to specific customers at the time of development.
The video is an example of how the script works.
Script.Example.mp4
The general flow of events would look like this:
Broadcast Request (Customer Service/Success) --> Generation and cleaning of CSVs --> Broadcast --> Post Broadcast Updates
The script will be used for 2 parts, generation of processed CSVs and broadcasting.
Customer Success / Service and Marketing will generally be contacting you to broadcast. Theres a excel sheet for them to fill up and for you to update namely, Merchant Broadcasting Requests.
- Query the list of customers from the AImazing Database and download it in the csv format. Do take note that for merchants with different outlets eg. Whaletea you will need to query and download multiple csvs.
- Next head to the variable files and place all the filepaths of the downloaded CSVs in the original CSVs array as well as fill in the merchant name.
- Head over to the CSV processing file and run the code to clean, sort and combine (if applicable) the csvs
Csvs will be sorted by customers with the most lifetime visits
QR Code will be required for promotions that are limited to AImazing Customers / Promotions that can only be reedemed once If a qr code is required, you will need to send the processed CSV to Xavier Liew or one of the engineers to update the UUIDs into the database before broadcasting can start.
The initial processed csv will be stored in its own subfolder, however upon broadcasting a new tracker csv will be created and stored in a different subfolder
- Before broadcasting, you will need to ensure that the XPaths eg
xpath='/html/body/div[1]/div[1]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/div/li[1]'
and CSS selectors eg
chatbox = driver.find_element_by_css_selector('textarea[placeholder="Write a reply…"]')
are working for the merchant facebook page. To do this use chrome dev tools to inspect the elements stated in the variables file and right click and copy full xpath to compare xpath. - Next update the merchant name, the CSV you are sending from and the number of users to send to (capped at 150 / day due to FB regulations, not a hard cap but try not to go above 250-300 a day). Also fill in the message and imgs to be sent.
- Run the script
- Navigate to merchant facebook page inbox
- Broadcast begins
Sending generally takes anywhere from 40mins to 1hr10mins for 150 users, depending on img file size and complexity of message as well as rate of error. Generally there will be 5% error rate for reasons such as user not found, name in DB is not full name, etc etc.. Do take note that you will be unable to use your machine effectively during broadcast.
Xpaths requires regular maintenance as full xpath is the absolute position of the element in the HTML file structure and any slight UI changes by FB may break it. On the other hand CSS Selectors tend to have little to no issues. However Xpaths is still used as certain functions eg check_duplicate makes use of the li[@] element in the xpath to iterate through the list, moreover some elements do not have any styling and hence CSS selector cannot be used.
If duplicate names are encountered on FB:
- QR code required: Script will send to the number of duplicates in the csv file as the QR code generation requires a unique UUID from each customer
- QR not required: Script will send to all duplicates found on facebook
Most of the xpath variables will be found in the variables file however there is an f string variable in the actual script so remember to change this as well
user = driver.find_element_by_xpath(f'/html/body/div[1]/div[1]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div[1]/div/div[2]/div/div/div[1]/div/div/div/li[{customer_position}]')
Update excel sheet upon completion of the broadcasts for the day.
In the event the facebook UI change drastically you will need to restructure the code to the accomodate the new UI
Functions in the CSV_processing file including get status which will return a more detailed progress report.
There might be error occuring when duplicates are being sent due to the first index in the list somehow registering as a different number. Running the code again usually solves the issue. Else change the csv file directly.
Compressing images before sending to reduce broadcasting time duration
Sending too many of the same link will cause message to not be sent and all previous messages to be revoked. So try to avoid using links where possible
For messages where different text is used for different customers eg extension of expiry date you can make use of some functions eg.
In variables.py
promotion_text = [
'Dear Customer',
'your cashback expiry date has been extended to <new_exp>'
]
In FB_Script.py
def generate_new_exp_date_text(promotion_text):
return_text = []
for sentence in promotion_text:
return_text.append(sentence.replace('<new_exp>', tracker['expiry_date'][i]))
print(return_text)
return return_text
# in the sending text block
enter_text(generate_new_exp_date_text(promotion_text))
This method can be used for other dynamic text replacement as well eg customer names.
- OS - to delcare os type for which send img function to be used
- QR_code - for promotions requiring QR code
- testing - use pre written dictionary to test dataset
- manual_mode - for FB text boxes that use div elements as the linebreak wont work and the only way to preserve message format with linebreaks is manual copy paste (single line messages or messages that can be broken up into two speech bubbles don't require manual mode )
- user - which account to be used, update in username_pw file as well
- chatbox_element - used to determine if the chatbox uses a textarea element or div element for input
- textarea elements look like this
<textarea type="text" class="_1p7p _5id1 _4dv_ _58al uiTextareaAutogrow" placeholder="Write a message…"></textarea> - div elements look like this
<div aria-autocomplete="list" aria-controls="js_2e7" aria-describedby="placeholder-7tij6" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Write a reply…" class="notranslate _5rpu" contenteditable="true" role="combobox" spellcheck="true" style="outline: none; user-select: text; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word;">
- textarea elements look like this
- Promotion Text is formatted such that every item in the list is one continuous line, to create messages with multiple linebreaks just use an empty string "", eg:
'New safety measures got you down? Turn that frown upside down with this promo. Get 30% off for Osmanthus Honey Green Tea on your next visit AND enjoy 5% cashback',
'',
'Just present the QR Code below to claim your voucher!',
'',
'Valid for redemption at our outlets',
'- Lot One Shoppers Mall #B1-25',
'-Jurong Point #01-45/46 (10am - 11.30pm)',
'-HDB HUB Toa Payoh Central Lor 6, Blk 190 #01-536',
'-Rivervale Mall #01-14',
'-BLK 407 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 #01-747',
'',
'*Valid till 16 June',
'*Max 2 cups per transaction / per visit for every customers',
'*Not applicable on Weekends',
]
Promotion text is limited to using only ascii characters so theres no emoji/bold/italic letters support
- For images just insert image filepath eg:
imgs = ['C:\\Users\\eugen\\PycharmProjects\\FBMessengerScript\\temp_qr_code.jpg']
- pandas
- selenium
- qrcode
- PyAutoIt (Windows) - Comment out this import statement if using Mac
- PyAutoGui (Mac)
The script requires a facebook account with access to the relevant FB page. Insert the FB account credentials under username_pw.py before starting broadcast
PyAutoIt is able to directly control the windows GUI but for Mac Users PyAutoGui works by clicking at predetermined coordinates on the screen. Hence different Mac users may need to reconfigure the send_image_mac function for their own screens by using pyautogui.position()