Simple script suitable for firing from a cron job for updating NaNoWriMo wordcount via their API

nano-wc.sh

#!/bin/bash

# If you're writing your NaNo work in chunks, this compiles your chunks first
cat /path/to/NaNoWriMo/chunks/chunk_* > /path/to/NaNoWriMo/compiled.txt

# Set wordcount variable
wc=`wc -w /path/to/NaNoWriMo/compiled.txt | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $1}'`

# Get current wordcount from NaNoWriMo
nanowc=`curl http://nanowrimo.org/wordcount_api/wc/hbbisenieks | grep -oPm1 "(?<=<user_wordcount>)[^<]+"`

# Test if new wordcount is equal to posted wordcount
# if your wordcount and NaNo's are the same, there's no point calling an update
if [ "$wc" -ne "$nanowc" ] ; then
  # API key can be obtained by visiting http://nanowrimo.org/wordcount_api
  key='[API key][username]'
  # Make pre-hashed string
  prehash=$key$wc
  # Actually hash the string
  sha=`echo -n $prehash | sha1sum | awk '{print $1}'`

  # Post results
  curl -X PUT -d hash=$sha -d name=[username] -d wordcount=$wc http://nanowrimo.org/api/wordcount
else
  echo "No change to wordcount found"
fi