# Converting blog post urls into MS Word documents using Google Apps Script #oerri

As part of the JISC OER Rapid Innovation Programme we’ve been experimenting with monitoring project blogs by gluing together some scripts in Google Spreadsheets. First there was [Using Google Spreadsheets to dashboard project/course blog feeds #oerri](https://hawksey.info/blog/2012/05/using-google-spreadsheets-to-dashboard-projectcourse-blog-feeds-oerri/) which was extended to include [social activity around blog posts.](https://hawksey.info/blog/2012/08/how-jisc-cetis-dashboard-social-activity-around-blog-posts-using-a-splash-of-data-science/)

As the programme comes to a close projects will soon be thinking about submitting their final reports. As part of this projects agreed to submit a selection of their posts with a pre-identified set of tags shown below as a MS Word document.

 | **tag** | **structure** |
|---|---|
| projectplan | detailed project plan, either in the post or as an attachment |
| aims | reminder of the objectives, benefits and deliverables of your project |
| usecase | link to / reproduce the use case you provided in your bid |
| nutshell | 1-2 paragraph description in accessible language, an image, a 140 character description \[1 post per project\] |
| outputs | update posts on outputs as they emerge, with full links/details so that people can access them |
| outputslist | end of project: complete list of outputs, refer back to #projectplan and note any changes \[1 post per project\] |
| lessonslearnt | towards of the end of the project, a list of lessons that someone like you would find useful |
| impact | end of project: evidence of benefits and impact of your project and any news on next steps |
| grandfinale | this is the follow up to the nutshell post. a description in accessible language, and a 2 minute video \[1 post per project\] |

[![OERRI Dashboard](https://hawksey.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/image22.png "OERRI Dashboard")](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqGkLMU9sHmLdHl4dEJGYlZ3cEFnRDR1bUZ4T0Y2dVE#gid=0)When this was announced at the programme start-up concerns were raised about the effort to extract some posts into a document rather than just providing links. As part of the original experimental dashboard one thing I had in mind was to automatically detect the tag specific posts and highlight which had been completed. Having got the individual post urls it hasn’t been too hard to throw a little more Google Apps Script to extract the content and wrap in a MS Word document (well almost – if you have some html and switch the file extension to .doc it’ll open in MS Word). Here’s [the code and template to do it](https://gist.github.com/3788342):

And here are the auto-generated reports for each project:

 | Project | posts (Est). | PROD url | Generated Report url | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attribute images | 2 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/attribute-image> |  | No tagged posts |
| bebop | 14 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/bebop> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=bebop&sheet=Dashboard&range=E4%3AM4) |  |
| Breaking Down Barriers | 10 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/geoknowledge> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=Breaking%20Down%20Barriers&sheet=Dashboard&range=E5%3AM5) |  |
| CAMILOE | 1 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/camiloe> |  | No tagged posts |
| Improving Accessibility to Mathematics | 15 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/math-access> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=Improving%20Accessibility%20to%20Mathematics&sheet=Dashboard&range=E7%3AM7) |  |
| Linked data approaches to OERs | 15 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/linked-data-for-oers> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=Linked%20data%20approaches%20to%20OERs&sheet=Dashboard&range=E8%3AM8) | Partial RSS Feed |
| Portfolio Commons | 10 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/portfolio-commons> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=Portfolio%20Commons&sheet=Dashboard&range=E9%3AM9) |  |
| RedFeather | 18 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/redfeather> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?titl e=RedFeather&sheet=Dashboard&range=E10%3AM10) |  |
| RIDLR | 7 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/ridlr> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=RIDLR&sheet=Dashboard&range=E11%3AM11) | Not WP |
| sharing paradata across widget stores | 10 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/spaws> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=sharing%20paradata%20across%20widget%20stores&sheet=Dashboard&range=E12%3AM12) |  |
| SPINDLE | 17 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/spindle> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=SPINDLE&sheet=Dashboard&range=E13%3AM13) |  |
| SupOERGlue | 6 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/supoerglue> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=SupOERGlue&sheet=Dashboard&range=E14%3AM14) | Not WP |
| synote mobile | 16 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/synote-mobile> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=synote%20mobile&sheet=Dashboard&range=E15%3AM15) |  |
| TRACK OER | 12 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/track-oer> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=TRACK%20OER&sheet=Dashboard&range=E16%3AM16) | Not WP |
| Xenith | 4 | <http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/xenith> | [Report Link](https://docs.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbxn3A0uDccLTb6mNj4TzS9MBXbaag_JxMk3z8nRhKoSulLtz7U/exec?title=Xenith&sheet=Dashboard&range=E17%3AM17) |  |
|  | 157 |  |  |  |

## Issues

I should say that these are not issues I have with the OERRI projects, but my own issues I need to solve to make this solution work in a variety of contexts.

- **Missing tags/categories –** you’ll see the dashboard has a number of blanks. In some cases it’s not the projects fault (as the majority of projects used WordPress installs it was easier to focus on these), but in other cases projects mix tags/categories or just forget to include them
- **Non-WordPress** – 3 of the projects don’t use WordPress, so other ways to grab the content are required
- **RSS Summary instead of full feed** – ‘Linked data approaches to OERs’ uses a summary in their RSS feed rather than full-text. As this script relies on a full text feed it can’t complete the report (one of my pet hates is RSS summary feeds – common people you’re supposed to be getting the word out, not putting up barriers.)
 
Hopefully it’s not a bad start and if nothing else maybe it’ll encourage projects to sort out their tagging. So what have I missed … questions welcomed.