trackbert/README.md

# Trackbert

A simple Python script for tracking shipments, primarily through [KeyDelivery](https://kd100.com).

If your system provides `notify-send`, you will get a desktop notification when the status of your shipment changes.

Status information is stored in a SQLite database.

## Currently supported tracking providers

- [KeyDelivery](https://kd100.com) (paid, provides tracking for most carriers)
- [Austrian Post](https://www.post.at)
- [GLS](https://gls-group.eu)
- [FedEx](https://www.fedex.com) (requires an API key, see [FedEx Developer Resource Center](https://www.fedex.com/en-us/developer.html))
- [DHL](https://www.dhl.com) (requires an API key, see [DHL Developer Portal](https://developer.dhl.com/))

More tracking providers can be added easily by subclassing `trackbert.trackers.base.BaseTracker`. This should be relatively self-explanatory if you look at the existing implementations. Pull requests are welcome!

## Requirements

The script was developed and tested on Arch Linux using Python 3.11. The "Never" type hint is used, so I suppose it will not work on older Python versions. It should work on any Linux distribution. You can technically run it on Windows and macOS as well, but you will not get desktop notifications.

In order to get desktop notifications, you need to have `notify-send` installed. On Arch Linux, this is provided by the `libnotify` package. If your desktop environment does not provide a notification server, you have to install one yourself. How to do this is beyond the scope of this README.

## Installation

First, create a virtual environment and install the package:

```bash
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install trackbert
```

Then create a `config.ini` in your working directory (see [config.dist.ini](config.dist.ini)) and fill in your KeyDelivery API details, which you can find in your [KeyDelivery API management](https://app.kd100.com/api-management). You can find your API key in your KeyDelivery account settings.

You can also omit this step, but then you will only be able to track shipments from Austrian Post and GLS.

## Usage

First, assure that the virtual environment is activated:

```bash
source venv/bin/activate
```

If you need to create a new config file, run `trackbert -g`. You need this if
you want to provide API keys required for KeyDelivery or some of the other
tracking providers.

To add a new shipment, run `trackbert --tracking-number <tracking-number> --carrier <carrier-id>`. Find the required carrier ID in the [KeyDelivery API management](https://app.kd100.com/api-management).

To run the main loop, run `trackbert`. This will check the status of all shipments every minute, and print the status to the console. If the status of a shipment changes, you will get a desktop notification.

## Caveats

### DHL

By default, the script queries for updates for each active shipment once per minute. However, if you have the DHL API enabled, you will quickly run into the rate limit. Therefore, the script will only query for updates once per hour (`if minute == 0`). For the default 250 requests per day limit, this means that you can only track up to 10 shipments simultaneously.

You may request a higher rate limit from DHL. See the [DHL Developer Portal](https://developer.dhl.com/) for details. If you do this, you can set `ratelimited = 0` (note that 0/1 is a boolean value in the config file) in your `config.ini` to disable the rate limit.

## License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.