convert a google spreadsheet to a json file that can be read by timeline.js

gdoc_to_timeline_converter.rb

  task :jsonify_timeline => :environment do
    require 'csv'
    require 'json'
    require 'open-uri'

    def scrub(text)
      if text.include? '--'
        text = text.gsub(/--/, '—')
      end
      return text
    end
    url = 'https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=URKEYE&output=csv'
    page = open(url)
    contents = page.read()
    dump = {
      :timeline => {
        :headline => "",
        :type => "default",
        :text => "",
        :asset => {
          :media => "",
          :credit => "",
          :caption => ""
        },
        :date => []
      }
    }
    CSV.parse(contents) do |row|
      date_obj = {
        :startDate => row[0],
        :endDate => row[1],
        :headline => row[2],
        :text => scrub(row[3]),
        :asset => {
          :media => row[4],
          :credit => row[5],
          :caption => row[6]
        }
      }
      dump[:timeline][:date].push(date_obj)
    end
    File.open("#{Rails.root}/timeline-data.json", 'w') { |file| file.write(dump.to_json) }
    puts dump.to_json
  end