INFORMATION NOW

In an earlier blog post, we announced the Election Info sample app. We briefly talked about how we were able to use Apps Script to easily create a comprehensive sample application that provided timely voting information. This post shows just how easy it is to use Apps Script to get information from an external API and integrate with various Google services to create a rich web application and provide a meaningful user experience.

UrlFetch

First, we use UrlFetchApp to get JSON from the Google Civic Information API and use Utilities.jsonParse to convert it to a useful javascript object.

var url =
    https://www.googleapis.com/civicinfo/us_v1/voterinfo/2000/lookup;
var address = { "address" : "1263 Pacific Ave. Kansas City KS" };

var options =
 {
   method : "post",
   contentType : "application/json",
   payload: Utilities.jsonStringify(address)
 };
var responseText = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, options).getContentText();
var response = Utilities.jsonParse(responseText);

After getting the response object, we can simply drill into it to access various data provided by the API.

Calendar Service

One of the things the response object provides us with is the election date. Using Apps Scripts Calendar service, it is really easy to create an event on voting day in the users calendar with the polling address. First, we create a Date object from the date string. We then create an all-day event on the default calendar on this date, passing along the polling address we get from the response object.

// create a Date object from the response date string 
// ("2012-11-6" --> Date object)
var [year, month, day] = response.election.electionDay.split(-);
// javascript months are zero-indexed
var electionDate = new Date(year, month-1, day); 
// get the first polling locations address
var pollAddress = response.pollingLocations[0].address;

var cal = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar();
cal.createAllDayEvent("Go Vote!", electionDate, {location:pollAddress});

Maps Service

Using the Maps service, we can generate static maps with the users home or polling address as shown in the following code snippet. We display these maps on the web app page, then embed them in the reminder email and bring-along document as we will show in the following sections.

var userAddress = response.normalizedInput;
var normalizedAddress = userAddress.line1 +   +
                        userAddress.city + ,  +
                        userAddress.state +   +
                        userAddress.zip;
// normalizedAddress looks like "501 Kildaire Rd Chapel Hill, NC 27516"
var staticMapUrl = Maps.newStaticMap().setSize(600, 300)
        .addMarker(normalizedAddress)
        .getMapUrl();

Gmail Service

We also provide a simple method for users to email themselves all of this information. Using the Gmail service, we can send an HTML email that embeds the voting information and the static maps we generated above. The Apps Script documentation contains great tutorials such as the Maps tutorial we used to generate the directions below.

var email = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail();
var body = Election Date:  + electionDate + <br/>
           + Your polling address:  + pollAddress + <br/>
           + Polling Hours:  + pollingHours + <br/>
           + <img src=" + directions.mapUrl + "/> <br/>
           + Directions:  + dirList;
MailApp.sendEmail(email, Upcoming Election Voting Information, 
    Voting Info, {htmlBody: body});

Document Service

Using the Document service, we were able to easily generate a bring-along document with polling address, hours, and directions. The follow code excerpt shows how easy it is to add different elements like headers, tables, and paragraphs to a document. Apps Script also provides an extensive list of methods to programmatically control the look and presentation of the various elements.

var title = "Voting Information";
var doc = DocumentApp.create(title + " for " + homeAddress);

var reportTitle = doc.appendParagraph(title);
reportTitle.setFontFamily(DocumentApp.FontFamily.ARIAL)
           .setFontSize(22).setForegroundColor(#4A86E8)
           .setBold(true)
           .setAlignment(DocumentApp.HorizontalAlignment.CENTER);
var header = doc.addHeader();
header.appendParagraph(Generated by the Election Info application  +
  built on Google Apps Script)
.setAlignment(DocumentApp.HorizontalAlignment.CENTER)
.setAttributes({ITALIC : true});

var tableStyle = {};
tableStyle[DocumentApp.Attribute.PADDING_BOTTOM] = 0;
tableStyle[DocumentApp.Attribute.PADDING_TOP] = 0;
tableStyle[DocumentApp.Attribute.PADDING_LEFT] = 0;
tableStyle[DocumentApp.Attribute.PADDING_RIGHT] = 0;
var addressTable = doc.appendTable([
  [Your address:  + homeAddress],
  [Your Polling Location:  + pollAddress],
  []
]).setAttributes(tableStyle);

// add appropriately sized poll location image
addressTable.getCell(1,0).appendImage(pollImg.getBlob())
    .setHeight(300).setWidth(600);

// populate last row of the table with polling hours
addressTable.getCell(2,0).clear().appendParagraph("Polling Hours: ");
addressTable.getCell(2,0).appendParagraph(
    UserProperties.getProperty(Keys.POLLING_HOURS));

Here is an image which shows the generated bring-along document embedded with static map images from the Maps service.

Apps Script allowed us to easily take information from an external API and tie it into various Google services to provide a great user experience. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post showing how we created the front end!

Kalyan Reddy profile | Stack Overflow Kalyan is a Developer Programs Engineer on the Google Apps Script team based in NYC. He is committed to increasing developer productivity by helping them fully utilize the power of Apps Script. In his free time, he enjoys participating in the Maker community and hacking together robots.

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PART 1
In part 1, I explore 4 (of 10) secrets to great teaching, or ingredients to become a great teacher. What are the ingredients of a great teacher? Well, when I complete the 2-part series you will at least know my standpoint on this issue. My findings is basically based on what I have observed, read, experienced and learned over the last few years in Higher Education.

Yes, you are certainly free to agree or disagree with all my ideas and thoughts about great teaching. What really matters, is not being right or wrong, but taking this wonderful opportunity to be part of a messy global conversation (in audio format) about this issue.

Here, enjoy part 1 (not sure about that!), and hopefully part 2 will be out sometime next week:

ZAIDLEARN EXPLORES AUDIO & VIDEO
This is probably the first time most of you hear me speak. I have to admit that I speak much faster normally (I tried hard to slow down, and probably sounded a bit too slow this time around.). Also, I did not use any script, as I wanted it to be as natural as possible.

I used PowerPoint to create the slides, and interestingly (exploring!) used Adobe Presenter to record the audio (Recommendation: For audio recording, use Audacity, which is easy-to-use and has more features). Finally, I used Windows Movie Maker (first time using!) to integrate the PNG converted PowerPoint slides, and the audio (MP3) files from the published Adobe Presenter presentation. Although, Windows Movie Maker is quite limited in terms of features, I actually enjoyed using it.

To explore uploading possibilities, I uploaded my 10-minute presentation to YouTube, TeacherTube and Google Video. The Google Video output is not good, but the YouTube and TeacherTube outputs are alright. I suppose I will explore slidecasting on SlideShare later, after I have completed part 2.

SELF-EVALUATION
My voice is a disaster and the PowerPoint slides need a face lift! Yes, perhaps I should include more music (to spice it up!), pictures, and flower it with a bit more animations. A video showing me babbling would be interesting, too (not really!).

Though, I really enjoyed exploring my voice, and hopefully I will create many more videos (learning nuggets of 10 minutes or less) sharing my ideas, thoughts and reflections about learning in the near future. Hopefully, someone out there will be listening and joining the conversation.

I suppose it is about time that ZaidLearn speaks out, besides rambling this and that with written words only.

I AM STILL LEARNING, and hopefully I will evolve. In the meantime, please be patient as I learn how to talk (on the Tube) :)