./make_shownotes -doc
make_shownotes version 0.4.5
NAME make_shownotes - Make show notes for the Hacker Public Radio Community News show
VERSION This documentation refers to make_shownotes version 0.4.5
USAGE make_shownotes [-help] [-documentation|-man] [-config=FILE] [-from=DATE] [-[no]comments] [-[no]silent] [-[no]mailnotes] [-lastrecording=DATETIME] [-full-html=FILE] [-html=FILE] [-json=FILE] [-debug=N]
OPTIONS -help Displays a brief help message describing the usage of the program, and then exits.
-documentation or -man
Displays the entirety of the documentation (using a pager), and
then exits.
To generate a PDF version use:
pod2pdf make_shownotes --out=make_shownotes.pdf
-config=FILE
The script uses a configuration file to hold the various
parameters it needs to run. This option allows an alternative
configuration file to be used. This file defines many settings
including the location of the database.
See the CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT section below for the file
format.
If the option is omitted the default file is used:
.make_shownotes.cfg, which is expected to be in the same
directory as the script itself.
-from=DATE
This option is used to indicate the month for which the
shownotes are to be generated. The script is able to parse a
variety of date formats, but it is recommended that ISO8601
YYYY-MM-DD format be used (for example 2014-06-30).
The day part of the date must be present but is ignored and only
the month and year parts are used (to internally denote the
first day of the month).
If this option is omitted the current month is used. Of course,
this may cause problems if the notes are to generated for an
earlier (or later) month, which is why this option exists.
-[no]comments
This option controls whether the comments pertaining to the
selected month are included in the output. If the option is
omitted then no comments are included (-nocomments).
[33mOutput file options: -html=FILE, -full-html=FILE, -json=FILE
There are three output file types that can be generated by the
script. At least one must be present:
[33mHTML fragment (-html=FILE)
This file will contain the HTML to be added to the HPR
database. The page for the show, when it is released, will
be a full web page, with standard header and footer, and the
contents will come from this HTML fragment in the database.
Action will be needed in addition to the script to add this
file to the database, but how this is done is outside the
scope of this documentation.
[33mStandalone HTML (-full-html=FILE)
The file created in this case will contain a full,
stand-alone HTML page. It is intended to be circulated to
the co-hosts recording the episode to make it easier to
access various information sources during the recording.
In the file the comments relating to past shows will show
the full text, and there will be indications of comments
that were read in the last recording, and any that were
missed.
In order to highlight comments read, and those missed in the
previous recording the script needs to know the date and
time of the recording. This information should be in a date
cache file referenced in the configuration file (usually
recording_dates.dat). This file is updated when the monthly
mail message is generated (see make_email). If, for any
reason, this has not happened, the information can be
provided with the -lastrecording=DATETIME option
(alternatively written as -lr=DATETIME). See below for more
information.
[33mJSON details (-json=FILE)
This file will contain JSON data which is intended to be
used to upload the episode to the database. How this is done
is outside the scope of this document. The format used is
very close to that used in the workflow which is used to
upload episodes submitted through the upload forms.
In all cases the output file name may contain the characters
'%s'. This denotes the point at which the year and month in the
format YYYY-MM are inserted. For example if the script is being
run for July 2014 the option:
-html=shownotes_%s.html
This will cause the generation of the file:
shownotes_2014-07.html
-lastrecording=DATETIME or -lr=DATETIME
As mentioned for -full-html=FILE, and later in the [33mMARKING
[33mCOMMENTS section, the script needs the date of the last
recording when marking comments. This can be extracted from the
file referenced in the configuration data using the setting
cache. By default the name of this file is recording_dates.dat,
and its contents are managed when the script make_email is run
and by this script.
If for any reason the date and time of the last recording is
missing, these values can be defined with this option, and these
values will be written to the cache file (or modified, if
necessary).
The format can be an ISO 8601 date followed by a 24-hour time,
such as '2020-01-25 15:00:00'. If the time is omitted it
defaults to the value of [33mstarttime in the configuration file.
The script will update the cache file with the date and time
used in this option if the relevant entry is missing. Also, if
an entry is present but the values are different from those
provided with the option, the relevant entry will be updated.
Note that the DATETIME value must contain the date of the last
recording. This will be checked, and written to the cache file
prefixed by a "key" consisting of the first day of the month
[33mBEFORE the month being reviewed.
For example, when generating the notes for August 2025 the
following command will be needed if there is no last recording
date (for July 2025) in the cache:
./make_shownotes -from=2025-08-01 -full-html=full_shownotes_%s.html \
-mail -comments -lr="2025-08-01 15:00:00"
Here we need the last recording date for the show reviewing HPR
shows in July 2025. The date and time for this recording was in
early August (Friday before the first Monday of September
2025-09-01), as shown. This combination will result in the
addition of the following line to the cache file:
2025-07-01,2025-08-01 15:00:00
As mentioned, the addition of such date and time information to
the cache will normally be performed by make_email, which
performs the date computations itself, unlike this script. This
feature in this script is an alternative for special cases.
-[no]silent
This option controls whether the script reports details of its
progress to STDERR. If the option is omitted the report is
generated (-nosilent).
The script reports: the month it is working on, the name of the
requested output files and details of the process of generating
these files.
-[no]mailnotes
If desired, the show notes may include a section linking to
recent discussions on the HPR Mailman mailing list.
The current template (defined in the configuration file by the
variable main_template, shownote_template12.tpl) simply contains
a section like the following:
[%- IF mailnotes == 1 -%]
<h2>Mailing List discussions</h2>
<p>
Policy decisions surrounding HPR are taken by the community as a whole.
This discussion takes place on the <a href="[% mailinglist %]"
target="_blank">Mailing List</a> which is open to all HPR listeners and
contributors. The discussions are open and available on the HPR server
under <a href="[% mailbase %]">Mailman</a>.
</p>
<p>The threaded discussions this month can be found here:</p>
<a href="[% mailthreads %]" target="_blank">[% mailthreads %]</a>
[%- END %]
The [33mTT2 variables such as mailinglist and mailthreads are
defined earlier in the template.
-debug=N
Enables debugging mode when N > 0 (zero is the default, no
debugging output). The levels are:
Values are:
1 TBA
2 Reports the following (as well as the data for level 1):
Details of the last recording data (and time)
3 Reports the following (as well as the data for level 2):
The generation of comment indexes needed in the comment
lists. These are computed after the query has been run.
4 See the DESCRIPTION section for an explanation of the data
structures mentioned here.
Reports the following (as well as the data for level 3):
A dump of the '%past' hash which contains details of
comments on past shows.
A dump of the '%current' hash which contains details of
comments on this month's shows.
A dump of the '@missed_comments' array containing
comments that arrived after the last recording.
A list of the duplicated episode numbers in
'@missed_episodes'
Another dump of '%past' after it has been cleaned up.
Also the count of comments to past shows and the comment
count.
MARKING COMMENTS Explaining the marking of comments in the full HTML file:
This is only relevant when generating the full stand-alone HTML
("handout") for circulation to the volunteers recording the
Community News episode. In this output the comments sent in to past
shows (those before the review month) include their full texts in
order to make reading them easier.
Normally comments (to shows in the reviewed month) are read as the
shows themselves are reviewed, so the full texts are not needed in
this handout.
In addition to this, there is a possibility that certain comments
relating to past shows were already discussed last month, because
they were made before that show was recorded. We don't want to read
them again during this show, so a means of marking them is needed.
As well as this, some comments may have been missed in the last
month because the recording was made before the end of the review
month. On some months of the year the recording is made during the
month itself because the first Monday of the next month is in the
first few days of the next month. For example, in March 2019 the
date of recording is the 30th, and the show is released on April
1st. Between the recording and the release of the show there is time
during which more comments could be submitted.
Such comments should be in the notes for March (and these can be
regenerated to make sure this is so) but they will not have been
read on the March recording. The make_shownotes script detects this
problem and, if generating full notes will show a list of any
eligible comments in a red highlighted box. This is so that the
volunteers recording the show can ensure they read comments that
have slipped through this loophole.
The script extracts the date of the last recording from the [33mcache
file (or it can be specified with the -lastrecording=DATETIME
option, or its abbreviation -lr=DATETIME) and passes it to the
template. The template can then compare this date with the dates of
the relevant comments and take action to highlight those that don't
want to be re-read or were missed last month. It is up to the
template to do what is necessary to highlight them.
DESCRIPTION Overview This script generates notes for the next Hacker Public Radio [33mCommunity [33mNews show. It does this by collecting various details of activity from the HPR database and passing them to a template. The default template is called shownote_template.tpl (defined in the configuration file) and this generates HTML, but any suitable textual format could be generated if required, by using a different template.
Data Gathering Four types of information are collected by the script:
Host details
Details of new hosts who have released new shows in the selected
month
Show details
Details of shows which have been released in the selected month
Comments
Comments which have been submitted to the HPR website in the
selected month. These need to be related to shows in the current
period or in the past. Comments made about shows which have not yet
been released (but are visible on the website) are not included even
though they are made in the current month.
Mailing list threads
A link to the current threads on the mailing list in the past month
can be included. This is done by default but can be skipped if the
-nomailnotes option is used.
Report Generation The four components listed above are formatted in the following way by the default template.
New Hosts
These are formatted as a list of links to the hostid with the host's
name.
Shows
These are formatted into an HTML table containing the show number,
title and host name. The show title is a link to the show page on
the HPR website. The host name is a link to the host page on the
website.
Comments
These are formatted with <article> tags separated by horizontal
lines. A <header> shows the author name and title and a <footer>
displays a link to the show and the show's host and the show title
is also included. Where relevant, the body of the article contains
the comment text with line breaks.
Mailing list discussions
A link to the mail threads on the mailing list is included if the
-mailnotes option is chosen or defaulted.
See the explanation of the -mailnotes option for more details.
Variable, Field and Hash names If you wish to write your own template refer to the following lists for the names of items. Also refer to the default template shownote_template.tpl for the techniques used there. (Note that shownote_template.tpl is a soft link to the current default template, such as shownote_template12.tpl, the soft link name is currently used in the configuration file).
The hash and field names available to the template are as follows
Global variables
Variable Name Details
------------- -------
review_month The month name of the report date
review_year The year of the report date
comment_count The number of comments in total
past_count The number of comments on old shows
ignore_count The number of past comments to ignore
missed_count The number of comments missed last time
skip_comments Set when -comments is omitted
mark_comments Set when comments are being marked
ctext Set when the comment texts in the 'Past shows'
section are to be shown
last_recording The date the last recording was made
in Unixtime format
last_month The month prior to the month for which the notes are
being generated (computed if comments are being
marked) in 'YYYY-MM' format
mailnotes Set when a mail link is required
New Hosts
The name of the hash in the template is hosts. The hash might be
empty if there are no new hosts in the month. See the default
template for how to handle this.
Field Name Details
---------- -------
host Name of host
hostid Host id number
Show Details
The name of the hash in the template is shows. Note that there are
more fields available than are used in the default template. Note
also that certain field names are aliases to avoid clashes (e.g.
[33meps_hostid and [33mho_hostid).
Field Name Details
---------- -------
eps_id Episode number
date Episode date
title Episode title
length Episode duration
summary Episode summary
notes Episode show notes
eps_hostid The numerical host id from the 'eps' table
series The series number from the 'eps' table
explicit The explicit marker for the show
eps_license The license for the show
tags The show's tags as a comma-delimited string
version ?Obsolete?
eps_valid The valid value from the 'eps' table
ho_hostid The host id number from the 'hosts' table
ho_host The host name
email The hosts's email address (protected)
profile The host's profile
ho_license The default license for the host
ho_valid The valid value from the 'hosts' table
Comment Details
Two hashes are created for comments. The hash named past contains
comments made in the review month to shows before this month, and
current contains comments to this month's shows. Note that these
hashes are only populated if the -comments option is provided or
defaulted. Both hashes have the same structure.
Field Name Details
---------- -------
episode Episode number
identifier_url Full show URL
title Episode title
date Episode date
host Host name
hostid Host id number
timestamp Comment timestamp in ISO8601 format
comment_author_name Name of the commenter
comment_title Title of comment
comment_text Text of the comment
comment_timestamp_ut Comment timestamp in Unixtime format
in_range Boolean (0/1) denoting whether the comment was made
in the target month
index The numerical index of the comment for a given show
ignore Boolean (0/1), set if the comment is to be ignored
The purpose of the in_range value is to denote whether a comment was
made in the target month. This is used in the script to split the
comments into the past and current hashes. It is therefore of little
use in the template, but is retained in case it might be useful. The
index value can be used in the template to refer to the comment,
make linking URLs etc. It is generated by the SQL.
Mailing List Link
The variable mailnotes contains 0 or 1 depending on whether the link
and accompanying text are required.
Filters A filter called decode_entities is available to the template. The reason for creating this was when the HTML of a comment is being listed as text (Unicode actually). Since comment text is stored in the database as HTML with entities when appropriate this is needed to prevent the plain text showing [33m& and the like verbatim. It is not currently used, but has been left in case it might be of use in future.
DIAGNOSTICS Unable to find configuration file ... The nominated configuration file in -config=FILE (or the default file) cannot be found.
Error: Unable to find AOB file ...
The AOB file referred to in the error message is missing. Th
Use -lastrecording=DATETIME only with -full-html=FILE
The -lastrecording=DATETIME option is only relevant when the full
stand-alone HTML is being generated. This is a fatal error.
At least one of -html=FILE, -full-html=FILE and -json=FILE must be
present
The script writes up to three output files, as explained above. At
least one must be present otherwise there is no point in running it!
Error: Unable to find ... file ...
The type of mandatory file with the name referred to in the error
message is missing.
The date and time of the last recording is not in the cache
Followed by:
Use option -lastrecording=DATETIME (or -lr=DATETIME) instead
Can't continue
This means that the date and time expected in the date cache cannot
be found, so the script needs to be run again with the information
presented in the option mentioned.
Unable to find database
The SQLite database referenced in the configuration file has not
been found.
Trying to overwrite an existing show. Aborting
After a check on the database, the computed episode number matches a
slot that has already been allocated. A check has been made for an
old-style placeholder for Community News episodes, but no match was
found, so the script has aborted in case an existing episode will be
overwritten.
Error: show ... has a date in the past
The date computed for the Community News episode is in the past.
Perhaps the wrong date or month was specified in an option?
Problem with constructing JSON
A request for JSON output has been made. The script is attempting to
collect information about the host who is preparing the show ([33mHPR
[33mVolunteers) but the database query has failed.
It is possible the configuration file entry [33mhostid contains the
wrong host id number.
Unable to find a reference show
The script is attempting to find the release date (and episode
number) for the Community News show in the database. It does this by
finding a reference episode and stepping forward, incrementing the
episode number and date. The reference date is the earliest in the
target month, but for some unexpected reason this has not been
found.
Invalid DATE or DATETIME '...' in parse_to_dc
It is likely that the date provided through the -from=DATE option is
invalid. Use an ISO8601 date in the format [33mYYYY-MM-DD.
... failed to open '...': ...
There was a problem opening the date cache file. Check the details
in the configuration file. This file is expected to be located in
the same directory as the script.
... failed to close '...': ...
There was a problem closing the date cache file.
Invalid Date::Calc date and time (...) in dc_to_dt
There was a problem processing a date (and time). A likely cause is
an invalid date in one of options which requires and date or date
and time. The script will report more than usual on this error to
try and aid with debugging.
CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT The script obtains the details and settings it required from a configuration file. The name of the file it expects is .make_shownotes.cfg, but this can be changed with the -config=FILE option.
The configuration file is expected to be in the directory holding the
script. The script determines its location dynamically for this purpose.
The configuration file contains the following settings, which are
explained at the end.
#
# .make_shownotes.cfg (2025-04-13)
# Configuration file for make_shownotes version >= 4
#
<settings>
# Format strings (using 'printf' formatting) for building certain required strings
title_template = HPR Community News for %s %s
summary_template = HPR Volunteers talk about shows released and comments posted in %s %s
# Repeat the following line with each of the desired tags to make an
# array-like structure
tags = Community News
# Host id for HPR Volunteers
# Series id for HPR Community News series
hostid = 159
series_id = 47
# Day the Community News show is released
releaseday = Monday
# Default day of the week for the recording
recordingday = Friday
# Recording times are UTC
starttime = 16:00:00
endtime = 17:00:00
# cache of previous recording dates and times
cache = recording_dates.dat
# Template Toolkit templates
# --------------------------
# Main note template (actually a soft link)
main_template = shownote_template.tpl
# Used to make a stand-alone HTML file from the default HTML
# fragment
container_template = shownotes_container.tpl
</settings>
<database>
# Assume a local file
name = hpr.db
</database>
Configuration file details If any mandatory elements are omitted from the configuration file they are given default values in the script.
Section "settings"
title_template, summary_template
These are ([33msprintf) templates for these database fields, which
are added to the full HTML and the JSON. They are filled in
(using [33msprintf) in the script.
tags
Up to now, Community News episodes have used the tag "Community
News", so this is now used in the configuration file.
hostid, series_id
As documented in the file, these are the internal numbers from
the database for the host and series associated with the show.
releaseday, recordingday, starttime, endtime
These values define default dates and times for the recording of
the show and the date of release.
cache
This is the name of the file holding recording dates and times
for Community News shows. The file is updated when make_email is
run since this script defines the recording date and time. The
script expects this file to be in the directory holding the
script itself, though an absolute path could be used if needed.
main_template, container_template
These are [33mTT2 templates to be used by the script. The first is
the template used to generate the two types of HTML, and the
second is used to generate stand-alone HTML when the
-full-html=FILE option is used. The script uses both templates
when generating the full HTML.
The container_template contains a snapshot of an HPR HTML page
with the body removed and the header and footer retained. The
generated notes are added by the script, giving the HTML which
can be handed out to the volunteers hosting the recording.
Section "database"
name
This contains the name of the SQLite database. This is a file
which is expected to be in the same directory as the script.
DEPENDENCIES Modules used:
Carp
Config::General
Cwd
DBI
Data::Dumper
Date::Calc
Date::Parse
DateTime::Duration
DateTime
File::Copy
Getopt::Long
HTML::Entities
JSON
Pod::Usage
Template::Filters
Template
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS There are no known bugs in this module. Please report problems to Dave Morriss (Dave.Morriss@gmail.com) Patches are welcome.
AUTHOR Dave Morriss (Dave.Morriss@gmail.com)
LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2014-2025 Dave Morriss (Dave.Morriss@gmail.com). All rights reserved.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself. See perldoc perlartistic.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.