mydos / uob-parser-2

A parser for the UoB timetable system

uob-parser-2

A JSON API for the University of Bedfordshire timetable system.

Built using:

• Slim
• Guzzle
• DOMDocument
• DOMXPath

Requirements:

• PHP 5.5
• Composer

Preamble

This tool parses the output of the List timetable layout available here. The timetable system itself is provided by Scientia Ltd, as it is a third party system the output is unlikely to change.

Departments, courses and other options available on the timetable web page are provided by http://timetable.beds.ac.uk/sws1617/js/data_autogen.js. We parse this file to attain the list of departments and courses.

While the output format is fairly reliable, there are some sessions which have no module code and title. This anomoly does not occur in the Grid view, but this is virtually impossible to parse. Sessions objects are returned with a boolean is_valid field to denote whether they are missing this information.

Usage

When used as a library the parser will return an array:

• Courses

   $parser = new UoBParser\Parser();
   $courseData = $parser->getCourses();

• Sessions

   $parser = new UoBParser\Parser();
   $sessions = $parser->getSessions($dept, $course, $level);

When used as a web service the parser will return a JSON response:

• Courses

   /courses
  

• Sessions

   /sessions?dept=_&course=_&level=_
  

Testing

The webservice can be tested using the built in php webserver. Use the following command to start the server:

UOB_PARSER_DEBUG=1 php -S localhost:9000 -t public

Then navigate to http://localhost:9000/courses

Output

Courses

{
    "response_time": 0.69508790969849,
    "error": false,
    "courses": 
	[
		{
		    "id": "BSCCS-S/02AA/1/CIS213/BSc (Hons)/FT",
		    "name": "Computer Science - BSc (Hons) - Ltn - Year 1 Feb FT",
		    "level": "Undergraduate Year 1",
		    "department": 
		    {
		        "id": "12600",
		        "name": "Department of Computer Science and Technology",
		        "course_count" : 125
		    },
		    "session_url": "http://whatever/sessions?dept=12600&course=BSCCS-S%2F02AA%2F1%2FCIS213%2FBSc+%28Hons%29%2FFT&level=Undergraduate+Year+1",
		    "name_start": "Computer Science",
		    "name_end": "BSc (Hons) - Ltn - Year 1 Fe - Ltn - Year 1 Feb FT"
		}
	],
	"departments" : 
	[
		{
		    "id": "12600",
		    "name": "Department of Computer Science and Technology",
		    "course_count" : 125
		}
	]
}

Session

{
    "response_time": 1.2430939674377,
    "error": false,
    "sessions": 
	[
		{
		    "module_code": "CIS018-1",
		    "module_name": "Fundamentals Of Computer Studies",
		    "day": 0,
		    "start": "9:00",
		    "end": "11:00",
		    "length": 2,
		    "length_str": "2 hours",
		    "type": "Lecture",
		    "rooms": 
			[
			    "C016 - CST Teaching Lab"
			],
			"rooms_short": 
			[
			    "C016"
			],
			"staff": 
			[
			    "Sue Brandreth"
			],
			"hash": "be39ce93b2a78f3b73b4e8cbe84559dc",
			"is_valid": true
		}
	]
}