GradesFetcher

What is it?

Crawler to extract grades from the The Open University of Israel grades system and notify whenever a new grade is present.

Screenshot of some updates

But why?

The current university system updates regarding new grades 1-2 days after they are available and I find myself constantly checking the grading system to see if new grades are present (especially test grades).
I also don’t like the fact that the grades are scattered all over the places and prefer to have a small DB with all the grades from all my courses.

How does it work?

The harnesses the power of Github Actions to run a periodic check of grades.

How to use it?

Step 1 - REQUIRED - Fork this repository:

This repository contains everything needed for the fetcher to work automatically - just fork it and follow the next steps.

Step 2 - REQUIRED - Change config.yaml:

The configuration file config.yaml contains (at this moment) only which courses to fetch.

Syntax examples:

• Fetch 3 courses using the course number:

  courses:
    - '22913'
    - '22923'
    - '20574'

• Fetch all courses available:

  courses:
    - '*'

  Step 3 - REQUIRED - Add relevant secrets to your forked repository:

  The fetch script needs to use the user credentials in order to connect to the university site and to send notifications using Telegram bot.

To do so without exposing the credentials it uses Github Actions Secrets.

The following secrets need to be added to the forked repository:

1. AUTH_TOKEN:
   
   Github authentication token - used to manage workflow artifacts.
   
   Follow this instructions to generate one.
2. BOT_TOKEN:
   
   Token id of a telegram bot.
   
   Follow this instructions to create a telegram bot.
3. CHAT_ID:
   
   Telegram chat id between you and your bot. To get the chat id, send your bot a message and use the following link to get the chat id -
   https://api.telegram.org/bot<YourBotToken>/getUpdates.
4. DB_PASSWORD:
   
   To provide persistency between workflow runs and for other usages you may find (like creating your own custom dashboard of all your grades), the DB is stored as an artifact. Because this data is private it is password protected.
5. USER_NAME:
   
   Username used to connect to Sheilta.
6. PASSWORD:
   
   Password used to connect to Sheilta.
7. ID_NUMBER:
   
   Your ID Number.

Step 4 - OPTIONAL - Change the interval between fetches:

The auto-update workflow is configured to run every day, every hour between 0700.

You can change it python-app.yml by updating the schedule part at the beginning of the file.

Step 5 - REQUIRED - Enable the workflow on your forked repository:

1. Enable actions in your repository. Navigate to the actions tab and enable them:
   
2. Remove the first line of python-app.yml and push it to your repository.

Step 6 - REQUIRED - Enjoy your updates :)