chrislkeller

Snippets: Creating a FOIA

This is a super simple shell script that takes boilerplate FOIA language and creates a markdown file that can be addressed to a particular agency.

You will still have to add the address, city, state and zip code of the agency, and the type of data being requested, but this is a step up from having a file that I copy and paste from.

The script takes a filename as an argument. That filename will have the date prepended to it so you can see at a glance which were sent out when.

Usage

chrislkeller

Snippets: Build a flat json file for handlebars.js template or jquery-vertical-timelines

UPDATED I've made some updates to the handlebars-json.py script.

• Script now accepts a "usage" argument for "handlebars" or "timeline" or "array"
• Script assumes a header row and strips underscores and spaces and converts header fields to lowercase when creating keys.
• Because the resulting JSON file can also be used to power Vertical Timelines, I've re-named the script to csv-to-json.py.
• The handlebars-json-csvkit.py script remains unchanged. I will attempt to re-work it to create handlebars or timeline JSON in the coming weeks.

See more in the Usage section below.

chrislkeller

var KpccClient;

KpccClient = (function() {

  KpccClient.prototype.baseUrl = "http://scpr.org/api/content";

  function KpccClient(apiKey) {
    this.apiKey = apiKey;
  }

chrislkeller

Building things with Tabletop.js and Handlebars.js

Description

Maybe you've used pre-packaged vendor tools to create digital news presentations, but you aren't quite ready to tackle full-stack programming, database management and server setup.

Maybe you're hoping reporters will learn how keeping structured data about their beat can benefit the organization.

Or maybe you're looking for a tool that help organize/display information when that breaking news event happens.

chrislkeller

# Description:
#   West Wing Quotes
#
# Dependencies:
#   None
#
# Configuration:
#   None
#
# Commands:

chrislkeller

/**
 * Retrieves all the rows in the active spreadsheet that contain data and logs the
 * values for each row.
 * For more information on using the Spreadsheet API, see
 * https://developers.google.com/apps-script/service_spreadsheet
 */
function readRows() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var rows = sheet.getDataRange();
  var numRows = rows.getNumRows();

chrislkeller

#!/usr/bin/env python

import logging
import re
import time, datetime
import mechanize
from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup, Tag, BeautifulStoneSoup

# log everything and send to stderr
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)

chrislkeller

Function to query API

    class kpcc_api_article():
        def __init__(self, permalink, image_asset, publish_date, short_title):
            self.user = permalink
            self.text = image_asset
            self.graphic = publish_date
            self.time = short_title

search kpcc api for related articles to display on detail pages

chrislkeller

# -*- mode: shell-script -*-
#
# Shell functions to act as wrapper for Ian Bicking's virtualenv
# (http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv)
#
#
# Copyright Doug Hellmann, All Rights Reserved
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
# documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,

chrislkeller

Back in November, on my second day at KPCC, I collaborated with Kim Bui on a crowd-sourced map that attempted to gather information from voters who wanted to share their experience at the polls.

We successfully powered the map using a bunch of Google tools -- a form, a spreadsheet and a Fusion Table -- along with some duct tape and some manual labor.

Some six months later I've become more comfortable here, and more comfortable with Google Apps Scripts thanks to some great examples from others. So as I re-purposed the idea for an election back in M