AUTO_UPDATE.md

🤖 Automatic Daily Updates

This project uses Vercel Cron Jobs to automatically update the website content every day. No GitHub Actions required!

What Gets Updated Daily

• Timestamp: Shows when products were last refreshed
• Featured Products: Rotates to display different products each day
• Trending Category: Highlights a different category daily
• Fresh Content: Keeps the site looking active and up-to-date

Setup Instructions

1. Configure Vercel Environment Variables

Go to your Vercel project dashboard → Settings → Environment Variables

Add these variables:

Variable Name	Value	How to Get It
GITHUB_TOKEN	Your token	GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic) → Generate new token with repo scope
VERCEL_DEPLOY_HOOK	Deploy hook URL	Vercel → Project → Settings → Git → Deploy Hooks → Create hook
CRON_SECRET	Random string	Generate a random string (for manual trigger security)

Important: After adding environment variables, redeploy your project!

2. How to Create GitHub Token

1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
2. Click "Generate new token (classic)"
3. Select scopes: ✅ repo (Full control of private repositories)
4. Generate and copy the token
5. Add to Vercel environment variables as GITHUB_TOKEN

3. How to Create Vercel Deploy Hook

1. Go to Vercel → Your Project → Settings → Git
2. Scroll to "Deploy Hooks"
3. Create hook:
   • Name: Daily Auto Update
   • Branch: main
4. Copy the URL and add to Vercel as VERCEL_DEPLOY_HOOK

4. Schedule

The cron job runs at 6:00 AM UTC every day. Modify in vercel.json:

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "path": "/api/daily-update",
      "schedule": "0 6 * * *"
    }
  ]
}

Time format: Minute Hour Day Month DayOfWeek

5. How It Works

Vercel Cron (Daily at 6 AM UTC)
    ↓
Calls /api/daily-update
    ↓
Updates products.ts via GitHub API:
  - New timestamp
  - Updated trending category
  - Fresh content indicators
    ↓
Commits changes to GitHub
    ↓
Triggers Vercel redeployment
    ↓
Website updated with fresh content! 🎉

Manual Trigger

You can manually trigger the update by visiting:

https://your-domain.com/api/daily-update?secret=YOUR_CRON_SECRET

Replace YOUR_CRON_SECRET with the value you set in environment variables.

Monitoring

Check Vercel Cron Logs:

1. Go to Vercel → Your Project → Logs
2. Filter by "Cron" or look for /api/daily-update requests

Check GitHub Commits:

1. Go to your GitHub repository
2. Look for commits with message: "Auto-update: Daily refresh - [date]"

Check Recent Updates:

Visit your website and look for the lastUpdated timestamp in the footer or product section.

Customization

Change Update Time

Edit vercel.json:

{
  "crons": [
    {
      "path": "/api/daily-update",
      "schedule": "0 9 * * *"  // 9 AM UTC instead
    }
  ]
}

Then commit and push the changes.

Change Featured Products Logic

Edit app/api/daily-update/route.ts:

// Modify the rotateFeaturedProducts function
const FEATURED_COUNT = 8; // Change this number

Add More Updates

You can extend app/api/daily-update/route.ts to:

• Fetch real-time prices from eBay API
• Update blog posts
• Change promotional banners
• Modify other files via GitHub API

Disable Automatic Updates

To stop automatic updates, either:

Option 1: Delete or rename vercel.json

git rm vercel.json
git commit -m "Disable auto-updates"
git push

Option 2: Remove the cron configuration from vercel.json:

{
  "crons": []
}

Option 3: Remove environment variables from Vercel

Troubleshooting

Updates not running?

• Check Vercel Logs for errors
• Verify environment variables are set correctly
• Ensure GitHub token has repo permissions
• Check that the cron schedule is valid

Not deploying after update?

• Verify VERCEL_DEPLOY_HOOK URL is correct
• Check that the deploy hook is created for the correct branch
• Look at Vercel deployment logs

"Unauthorized" error?

• The CRON_SECRET must match when manually triggering
• GitHub token might be expired - generate a new one

Alternative: External Cron Service

If you prefer not to use Vercel Cron Jobs, you can use external services:

1. cron-job.org (Free)
2. EasyCron (Free tier available)
3. UptimeRobot (Has cron feature)

Set them to call:

https://your-domain.com/api/daily-update?secret=YOUR_CRON_SECRET

Then remove the vercel.json cron configuration.