Automated product card uploads
Updating the range is done by hand through the admin panel: open, paste, save, repeat. A script walks the same path itself, on a schedule, and reports what it changed.
Outcome
- Your manager gets hours back every week for selling instead of copying
- Customers see current prices and descriptions, so fewer orders are cancelled over mismatches
- Updating the whole catalogue no longer depends on someone having a free day
- A mistake does not cost sales: changes roll back, and a failure stops the script, not pages
The problem
The range is updated by hand through the admin panel: open a card, paste text into several fields, save, wait for the reload, move to the next one. Across hundreds of cards that is half a day every week your manager spends instead of selling.
How it works
The script walks the same path itself. It takes data from a spreadsheet or an export, finds the card, fills in the fields and saves. It runs on a schedule and reports exactly what it updated.
This is built for a specific site, not a boxed product. Every shop has its own admin panel, field names and rules.
When it fits
- Hundreds of cards are updated by hand every week. Open, paste, save, repeat.
- The shop's API does not cover everything. Some fields live only in the admin panel, and the script has to handle both paths.
- A mistake in an update costs more than the routine itself. It needs a safeguard, not speed for its own sake.
Why not «just use the API»
The first thing I check is the shop's API. Usually some fields can be updated through it and some cannot: they live only in the admin panel.
So the work is split: everything the REST API exposes goes through it, because that is faster and more reliable, and the rest is handled by a browser through Playwright. Doing everything through the browser «for consistency» is knowingly slower and more fragile.
Safeguards
The script deletes nothing. Before writing, it saves the previous value, so any change can be rolled back.
It stops rather than breaks things. If the page structure changed and a field cannot be found, the script stops and reports it. Otherwise one night would be enough to spread garbage across the whole catalogue, to be cleaned up by hand.
Common questions
What if the page structure changes? The script stops and reports it instead of carrying on blind. A silent failure here costs more than a day's pause.
Can it delete something or break the catalogue? The script deletes nothing. Before writing it stores the previous value, so any change can be rolled back.
Stack
- Python
- Playwright
- REST API
Got a similar task?
Describe it in two sentences. I'll tell you if it can be automated, and we'll set up a short call to go through the details.