Automating Facebook Marketplace - searching multiple locations

Tom Lynch

Hey all, this is a script to use in Apple Script Editor (it's a program installed on every mac). Open that by typing 'Script Editor' into spotlight (Command+Space). Then copy the code below and paste it in. Save it and hit the Run button, and it'll guide you through a few questions before opening all the results!

Image showing how to hit the run button on Apple's ScriptEditor

There's also a few settings you can edit at the start of the script. These are the preset search terms (make sure you follow the same format), the browser to use (comment out the browser you don't want, by default I'm using Firefox but Chrome is there if you prefer it) and also the default number of days since the item was listed that you'd like to search. If you're not in Australia or would like to search more locations you'll need to edit the city_search_urls, by going to Facebook Marketplace and changing your location to the city you want to search in and copying that url into the city_search_urls list (again make sure to follow the same format).

Quick Tips to using

So usually I'd explain the code but I won't bother here because in my honest opinion, AppleScript is pretty average. I realised when I was getting quite close to finishing that on one of the docs that you can also write scripts for Apple products in JavaScript, which probably would be a lot easier if you were starting from scratch! Doh.

However if you're after something pretty similar to this, it's a good start.

The code is also available from GitHub.

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ---------------------------------- SETTINGS ------------------------------
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

set preset_search_terms to "cyclocross, cx bike, gravel bike, adidas 10, reebok 10"

set browser to "Firefox"
# set browser to "Google Chrome"

set default_days to ""
set default_max_price to ""

set city_search_urls to {"https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/adelaide/search", "https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/perth/search", "https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/109177059102294/search", "https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/brisbane/search", "https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/sydney/search", "https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/melbourne/search"}

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# -------------------------- CODE THAT RUNS THE THING ----------------------
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
	set the item_list to every text item of this_text
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
	set this_text to the item_list as string
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
	return this_text
end replace_chars


set search_terms_input_string to display dialog "What do you want to search for?" default answer preset_search_terms
set search_terms_string to text returned of search_terms_input_string

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ", "
set the search_terms_list to every text item of the search_terms_string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""


set params to "?"

set max_price_input to display dialog "Whats the max price to search for (blank for no max)?" default answer default_max_price
set max_price to text returned of max_price_input

if (max_price) ≠ "" then set params to params & "maxPrice=" & max_price & "&"

set num_days_input to display dialog "How many days since posted do you want to check (blank for all dates)?" default answer default_days
set num_days to text returned of num_days_input

if (num_days) ≠ "" then set params to params & "daysSinceListed=" & num_days & "&"


with timeout of 3600 seconds
	repeat with search_term in search_terms_list
		set theDialogText to "Click Continue to proceed to the search for '" & search_term & "'"
		with timeout of 3600 seconds
			display dialog theDialogText buttons {"End", "Skip", "Continue"} default button "Continue" cancel button "End"
		end timeout
		repeat 1 times
			if the button returned of the result is "Skip" then exit repeat
			repeat with location_url in city_search_urls
				set this_url to replace_chars(location_url & params & "query=" & search_term, " ", "%20")
				tell application browser
					activate
					open location this_url
				end tell
				delay 0.1
			end repeat
		end repeat
	end repeat
end timeout
with timeout of 3600 seconds
	display alert "Searches complete"
end timeout

Hope that helps your Facebook Marketplace search needs! Also once Facebook blocked me from seeing search results as I ran too many searches too quickly, so use with care!

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