Website Monitor

A simple GitHub Actions-based website monitoring solution that checks website availability and content every 5 minutes, providing a visual dashboard of uptime, response times, and keyword presence.

Features

• Monitors website availability every 5 minutes
• Checks for specific keywords in website content
• Maintains a 30-day history of response times and keyword status
• Visual dashboard with response time chart
• Slack notifications for downtime and missing keywords
• Automatic updates via GitHub Pages
• Configurable website URL and keyword

Setup Instructions

1. Fork this repository to your GitHub account

2. Configure Slack Webhook:

   • Go to your Slack workspace
   • Create a new Slack App (https://api.slack.com/apps)
   • Enable Incoming Webhooks
   • Create a new webhook URL
   • Copy the webhook URL

3. Add Slack Webhook to GitHub Secrets:

   • Go to your repository settings
   • Navigate to “Secrets and variables” > “Actions”
   • Click “New repository secret”
   • Name: SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL
   • Value: Paste your Slack webhook URL
   • Click “Add secret”

4. Enable GitHub Pages:

   • Go to your repository settings
   • Navigate to “Pages”
   • Under “Source”, select “Deploy from a branch”
   • Select the “main” branch
   • Click “Save”

5. Configure Website and Keyword: You can configure the website URL and keyword in two ways:

   a. Default Configuration:

   • Edit the .github/workflows/website-monitor.yml file
   • Find the env section at the top of the file
   • Update the default values:

     env:
       DEFAULT_WEBSITE_URL: 'https://owasp.org'  # Change this URL
       DEFAULT_KEYWORD: 'OWASP'                  # Change this keyword

   b. Manual Run Configuration:

   • Go to the “Actions” tab in your repository
   • Select “Website Monitor” workflow
   • Click “Run workflow”
   • Optionally enter:
     • Website URL to monitor (defaults to the value in DEFAULT_WEBSITE_URL)
     • Keyword to check for (defaults to the value in DEFAULT_KEYWORD)
   • Click “Run workflow”

Usage

Once set up, the monitor will:

• Run automatically every 5 minutes using the default configuration
• Update the dashboard at https://<your-username>.github.io/<repository-name>/
• Send Slack notifications when:
  • The website is down
  • The specified keyword is not found
• Maintain a 30-day history of response times and keyword status

Manual Testing

You can manually trigger the monitor with custom configuration:

1. Go to the “Actions” tab in your repository
2. Select “Website Monitor” workflow
3. Click “Run workflow”
4. Optionally enter:
   • Website URL to monitor (defaults to DEFAULT_WEBSITE_URL)
   • Keyword to check for (defaults to DEFAULT_KEYWORD)
5. Click “Run workflow”

Dashboard Features

The dashboard shows:

• Current configuration (website URL and keyword)
• Last check timestamp
• Current response time
• Website status (up/down)
• Keyword status (found/not found)
• 30-day history chart with:
  • Green bars for successful checks with keyword found
  • Yellow bars for successful checks with keyword not found
  • Red bars for failed checks
  • Response time in seconds

Troubleshooting

• If the dashboard isn’t updating, check the GitHub Actions logs
• Ensure the Slack webhook URL is correctly set in repository secrets
• Verify GitHub Pages is enabled and configured correctly
• Check that the target website allows automated monitoring
• Verify the keyword exists in the website content
• Check if the website’s content is dynamically loaded (which might not be detected)
• Ensure the website URL is properly formatted (include https:// or http://)

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues and enhancement requests!