patelc75 / coop-scheduling

Co-op School's app to schedule classes based on classroom, teacher, specialist, and class schedule

coop-scheduling

Descriptions/Background

Co-op School's app to schedule classes based on two sets of GCals: 1) specialist availability 2) class availability.

The code uses a "greedy algorithm" where each special (special.json) is looped through all the classes associated with it (classes.json). Alternating week group classes (eg. half groups alternate between art and woodshoip eery week) are supported by providing to specialist calendars in special.json

Requirements: Google Doc (ask Chirag or Mandy for permissions)

We are using this Ruby google calendar wrapper: https://github.com/northworld/google_calendar

Usage instructions

Follow these instructions every time a schedule needs to be generated (usually before the semester starts)

Staff instructions

1. Log into [e-mail] Google account (ask for credentials via LastPass if you don't have them)
2. Update all Google calendars that include the word "In" (eg. Class In | Pre-K | Bumblebees, Special In | Gym Shanecka) for both specialist and class schedules
3. Log into your github.com account (If no account, create an account on github.com and ask for permissions on the coop-scheduling repo)
4. Update classes.json to add or remove classe schedules (Pre-K, K, 1st, etc)
5. Update specials.json to assign specific specials to specfic classes (eg. assign "movement" to "bumblebees", "fourth", "kindergarten").
6. Pretty please confirm the following are correct
7. google_calendar_id in classes.json
8. teacher1_google_calendar_id are correct in specials.json
9. If the schedules have too many specials on a single day, add a "Do not schedule" slot on that day in the classes "Class In" Google calendar
10. OR you can update by hand when developer generates the "Class Out" calendars after the final draft
11. After the Google Calendars have been created, go through each "Out" calendar (eg. Class Out | Second Grade and Special Out | Gym Shanecka
12. Remove each slot that says "Do not schedule"
13. Make manual tweaks (do not drag n' drop because each calendar event is a recurring event)
14. Invite each teacher and specalist to their Google Calendar (eg. Invite [e-mail] to Special Out | Creative Rotem Google calendar

Developer instructions

1. Confirm specials.json and classes.json are correct
2. Update $monday_start in coop_scheduler.rb and select the Monday's date of the current week
3. Clear the buffer in your terminal (In iTerm, do both Edit → Clear Buffer and Edit → Clear Scrollback Buffer)
4. Run rdebug coop_scheduler.rb or ruby coop_scheduler.rb
5. If Google::HTTPAuthorizationFailed error occurs, uncomment the prompt_for_refresh_token(cal) line in ruby coop_scheduler.rb to create a new refresh token
6. Do not use the token from the GCal site, first paste it into the ruby prompt and it will output the refresh token to use your env variables (eg. export GCAL_REFRESH_TOKEN=<token>)
7. Look for 'Could not schedule' messages in the console log after running. If found, you can split up or re-arrange the specials in specials.json for better load balancing of classes and re-run
8. Paste the output as a "draft" in a Google Doc (search the Google Doc folder) and have staff member (Mandy) review. Do this multiple times until satisfied.
9. When final draft complete, hide the "Class In" or "Special In" calendars in Google Cal account, allow script to generate the "Class Out" and "Special Out" Google calendars and confirm them.
10. Remove the "Do not schedule" slots in the "Out" Google calendars
11. See Github issues for pending development still needed

Developer onboarding instructions

1. Log into to Google Calendar ([e-mail]). Get password from Mandy or Chirag via LastPass
2. Ask Chirag for the Google Cal auth env variables via LastPass.
3. Install these gems:

gem install 'google_calendar' #may need to install v0.5 locally (like on Chirag's 11' Mackbook air)
gem install 'chronic'
gem install 'time_difference'

• Ask Chirag for env vars necessary to connect to GCal API (optionally through LastPass)
• Execute rdebug co-op scheudling

Useful debugging statements running rdebug coop_scheduler.rb

e event_to_check_start_time.getlocal.to_s + " to " + event_to_check_end_time.getlocal.to_s
e Chronic.parse(special_to_schedule.start_time).getlocal.to_s + " to " + Chronic.parse(special_to_schedule.end_time).getlocal.to_s

Naming convention of Google calendars

Special In | Gardening Sophie
Special In | Spanish Carla

Special Out | Gardening Sophie
Special Out | Spanish Carla
....

Class In | Pre-K | Dragonflies
Class In | Pre-K | Catydids

Class Out | Pre-K | Dragonflies
Class Out | Pre-K | Catydids

Because of the google_calendar gem, create a new cal to Google Calendar API only works on Chirag's 11' Macbook Air because of the way the gem was installed