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# 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**).
- _Output 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:
- _HTML 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.
- _Standalone 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.
- _JSON 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 _MARKING COMMENTS_
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
_starttime_ 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 _BEFORE_ 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 _TT2_ 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 _cache_ 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 _Community News_
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 &lt;article> tags separated by horizontal lines.
A &lt;header> shows the author name and title and a &lt;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. _eps\_hostid_ and _ho\_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
_&amp;amp;_ 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 (_HPR Volunteers_) but
the database query has failed.
It is possible the configuration file entry _hostid_ 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 _YYYY-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 (_sprintf_) templates for these database fields, which are added to the full HTML
and the JSON. They are filled in (using _sprintf_) 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 _TT2_ 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.
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