PLEASE DON'T ABUSE THIS PROGRAM. USE IT PROPERLY AND LEAVE APPOINTMENTS TO PEOPLE WHO ALSO NEED THEM. DO NOT SCHEDULE TO MANY APPOINTMENTS. CANCEL ADDITIONAL APPOINTMENTS IF YOU FINISH YOUR STAFF AT DMV.

CA DMV introduced Google Recaptcha to avoid being polled by program. This repo bypass the recaptcha and help make drive test appointment.

master branch of this repo was used to make appointment for written test and it does not have the code change to bypass recaptcha. I only add the bypassing to behind_the_wheel_appointment branch. Please refer to behind_the_wheel_appointment if you want to use master to schedule written test. You are more than welcome to open PR for the changes.

This repo is modified from brianpgerson/dmv-appointment-helper. Thanks briangerson's contribution.

Things are changed:

• replace twilio with telegram bot.
  • Please refer to https://www.forsomedefinition.com/automation/creating-telegram-bot-notifications/ about how to create bot for notifications.
• export PATH in dmv.sh.
• add steps to actually schedule an appointment when the timing fits.
• bypass Google Recaptcha.

If you have to go to the DMV in San Francisco, it can take weeks or even months to find an appointment. But people sometimes cancel those appointments! Those cancelled appointments could be yours, if you'd like to click on the DMV site all day hoping to score one.

Hmm....repetitive clicking...through a static workflow...with a clear goal...seems like a good job for...A BOT????

Yes, a bot. A bot that will never get tired of checking the DMV webpage for you, and letting you know if it finds something within a preset number of days. If you are even slighly comfortable using the command line, this will be that bot for you.

1. Clone this repo

2. Install local dependencies

   cd path/to/CA-DMV-appointment-scheduler
   npm install
   

3. Install global dependencies: casper, phantom

   npm install -g phantomjs
   npm install -g casperjs
   

4. Make a config file

   cp config.js.example config.js
   

5. Write your information to the config file

6. You should probably just test the script at this point before getting into the cronjob stuff. Just run dmv.sh 632 40 (or whatever office/days into the future you care about checking) and make sure it all works. You can find the officeId in the dropdown menu's HTML content. For example, 632 is Santa Clara DMV. See Office-ID.md for other DMVs.
   The number 40 is the number of days in the future that would be acceptable to you.

7. Set up a cronjob to run the script

   crontab -e
   

   then add

   */1 * * * * cd PATH/TO/CA-DMV-appointment-scheduler/ && ./dmv.sh 632 40 >/tmp/stdout.log 2>/tmp/stderr.log
   

   The first line means try to schedule an appointment at Santa Clara office for the next 40 days every minute.

   Look up cron rules to find out more about what the first cryptic characters mean.

   Common pitfall: your cron setup may or may not have PATH set up correctly. If it doesn't, you need to set PATH to include the directory where your casperjs cli is located. You can find this out with which casperjs.

   A possible bin PATH might be:

   PATH=/usr/local/bin
   

   I already set the PATH in dmv.sh for you. This PATH works for me. If it is not the same as your output of which casperjs, go head and change the dmv.sh

   Another possible bin PATH (the one that works for original author, for example):

   PATH=/Users/briangerson/.nvm/versions/node/v4.3.2/bin/:/usr/bin/
   

8. You should be all set. If the bot finds an appointment within the timeframe you specified, it'll schedule the appointment and send a telegram message to you. The timeframe is [1, days).

This service was heavily inspired by (and built around the foundation of) the GOES notifier built by Oliver Song which can be found at https://github.com/oliversong/goes-notifier. That's a pretty dope service as well. (Apparently it is deprecated, but there are links to working solutions available there).