README.Rewrite.md

⚠️ This readme details a rewrite that was never completed, for reasons explained in the general README.md

MensaUnisa/Cacher

Software to convert the University of Salerno's online published menus to a database and download them in different formats.

All data downloaded is, obviously, in Italian.

Can be run in both persistent and one-off mode.

Variables

STARTING_ID: Files for the UniSa's refectory are stored on the ADiSURC server with an unique numerical ID. The software scrapes all of them starting from either the latest ID processed or $STARTING_ID if it's the first time it's run. By default this is 3370, but it'll get probably updated when file number 3370 becomes too old.

DATADIR: The directory where you're storing the files downloaded and converted. Default value is $HOME/adisurc.

CONVERT_PNG: Set to any value if the PDF should be converted to a PNG. Requires the Arial and Times New Roman fonts, or the Liberation fonts.

DATABASE: See the Database section

SCHEDULE: If set, the software runs in persistent mode. It must be a valid cron string, except obviously for the absence of a command. See here for more information on cron strings.

Storage Formats

The menus are stored in the following formats (id is used here in place of the file's ID on the ADiSURC website):

Raw PDF (id.pdf)

This is the PDF as it's stored on the ADiSuRC's servers. Currently it means it gets converted from a (probably) manually-generated Word document, but this might change in the future. We'll take care of that when we get there.

PNG (id.png)

This is the PDF file converted to PNG.

Text (id.txt)

This is the PDF file converted to a text file in the following format:

First servings
---
Second servings
---
Third servings ("Contorno"s)
---
Contents of the Take-Away Basket

Every one of these servings is a list of possible meals for that serving, separated by a newline (\n).

Database

This software uses a database to store most of its data. The current supported databases are Postgres and SQLite.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are required, based on the Database you're using:

SQLite

DATABASE: Must be set to sqlite;
SQLITE_FILE: Must be the path to the sqlite database file;

Postgres

If using Postgres, a mensaunisa role should exist and the user this software connects through should be in it. Additionally, the user should be able to create tables in the database.

DATABASE: Must be set to postgres;
POSTGRES_URL: Must be the URL to the Postgres server;
POSTGRES_PORT: Must be the Port of the Postgres server. Defaults to 5432;
POSTGRES_DATABASE: Must be the database used by the software. Defaults to mensaunisa;
POSTGRES_USER: Must be the username with which to connect to the Postgres server. Defaults to mensaunisacacher;
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: The password to login as POSTGRES_USER;

Structure of the database

menus

This table contains data about the individual menus.

It has the following three columns:

• id is the numeric id of the file that corresponds to the menu on the ADiSURC servers. This is supposed to be unique;
• date is the date corresponding to the menu, in YYYYMMDD format;
• meal is the specific meal represented. It can be 0 for lunch, and 1 for dinner

Note that there might be multiple menus for the same day (the date/meal combo is NOT guaranteed to be unique). This is because the ADiSURC uploads corrections and changes to the menus as entirely new files. As such, it's suggested that if you need a specific day's menu you fetch the one with the highest id for the specified date.

dishes

This table contains data about the individual dishes served.

It has the following three columns:

• id is the numeric id of the menu this dish is part of;
• serving is the specific serving represented. 0-2 for First, Second and Third serving, 3 for the contents of the takeaway basket;
• contents is the actual dish as described on the menu

Dockerfile

You may run this through Docker by mounting a volume to /adisurc (or passing your own DATADIR environment variable and mounting the volume there). The Dockerfile is extremely simple and based on the alpine image. It contains the ttf-liberation package and thus supports the CONVERT_PNG option.

License Compliance

This is the official stance of the ADiSURC, in Italian, on using their website content:

I file presenti in questo sito per lo scaricamento (download) quali ad esempio la modulistica sono liberamente e gratuitamente disponibili. La riproduzione o l'impiego di informazioni testuali e multimediali (suoni, immagini, software ecc.) sono consentiti con indicazione della fonte e, qualora sia richiesta un'autorizzazione preliminare, questa indicherà esplicitamente ogni eventuale restrizione.

As such, if you use any file generated by this application, it is suggested that you specify the source as "Azienda per il Diritto allo Studio Universitario della Regione Campania via adisurcampania.it".