Visual Price Comparison Web Application

This Flask web application allows users to compare prices of products detected in images using the Google Cloud Vision API.
Users upload an image, and the app extracts related e-commerce URLs and their corresponding prices.

🚧 Note: The app works perfectly on localhost. The Render deployment is experimental and may have limitations (session handling & file uploads).

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🔗 Live Demo

👉 Deployed Application on Render
(If it doesn’t load correctly, please run locally using the steps below.)

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✨ Features

• 📸 Image Upload – Upload a product image.
• 🔎 Google Vision API – Detects web entities and product matches.
• 💰 Price Scraping – Fetches product prices from Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Ajio, Croma, TataCliq, etc.
• 📊 Comparison View – Displays multiple store links with their prices.
• ⚡ API-Based Scraping – Uses ScraperAPI instead of local Selenium/Chrome.

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⚙️ How It Works

1. Upload Image – User uploads a product photo.
2. Vision Detection – Google Vision API finds best-guess labels + matching e-commerce pages.
3. Scraper API – Scrapes those URLs to extract prices.
4. Comparison Display – Results are shown side-by-side for easy comparison.

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🚀 Installation & Local Usage

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-repository.git
cd your-repository

2. Create a Virtual Environment (Optional but Recommended)

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # On macOS/Linux
venv\Scripts\activate      # On Windows

3. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Setup Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory:

FLASK_SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
SCRAPER_API_KEY=your_scraperapi_key
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=google-credentials.json

• google-credentials.json → Download from Google Cloud Console and place in the project root.
• SCRAPER_API_KEY → Get a free ScraperAPI key.

5. Run Locally

python app.py

Then open:
👉 http://127.0.0.1:5000

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🌍 Deployment (Render)

If you want to deploy on Render:

1. Push your code to GitHub.
2. Create a new Render Web Service.
3. In Settings → Environment Variables, add:
   • FLASK_SECRET_KEY
   • SCRAPER_API_KEY
   • GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS (use Render’s Secret File feature).
4. Set Build Command:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Set Start Command:

   gunicorn webS:app

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Flask – Python backend
• Google Cloud Vision API – Product & entity detection
• ScraperAPI + BeautifulSoup – Price scraping
• Bootstrap / HTML – Frontend UI

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⚠️ Shortcomings of Not Using Selenium

Currently, the application does not use Selenium (headless browser automation).
Instead, it relies on ScraperAPI + BeautifulSoup for lightweight scraping.

✅ Pros:

• Faster and more lightweight.
• Easier to deploy on cloud platforms (Render, Vercel).
• No need for Chrome/Chromedriver binaries.

❌ Cons:

• Some prices may be missed if they are rendered dynamically with JavaScript.
• Certain sites with aggressive anti-bot measures (like dynamic classes, hidden prices) may block scraping.
• Selenium would give more accurate scraping since it renders the page like a real browser.

👉 In short: ScraperAPI = lightweight but limited, Selenium = heavier but more accurate.

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📌 Roadmap

• Improve price scraping accuracy
• Add more e-commerce sites
• Enhance frontend UI
• Optional Selenium mode for more reliable scraping
• Optimize for cloud deployment (Render/Vercel)

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🙌 Acknowledgements

• Flask
• Google Cloud Vision API
• ScraperAPI
• Beautiful Soup

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📬 Contact

For any questions, reach me at:
📧 aman.tshekar@gmail.com