WWDC 2008 Session PDF Generator in Ruby

Update: Thanks to Brett from TUAW I could update the script so it now works with the new structure of the sessions.xml file from Apple.

WWDC 2008 is coming up next month! The sessions sound very interesting and it will be difficult to choose. The Apple website with the session info is great, but since the whole thing is “ajaxified” some browsers have trouble printing the session schedule. And yes: I am one of those guys who wants a printed page to scribble on. I need that. To think and to doodle and to eventually circle or mark the sessions I’m going to attend. So I looked at the source for the session page and found the XML with the session info and a JavaScript file with some more info. The next step was just to simply make a PDF file from this. With Ruby, that’s quite easy. This is what I came up with:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# WWDC 2008 Session PDF Generator, 2008 by Johannes Fahrenkrug.
# No licence, do with it what you want
# http://springenwerk.com

require 'rexml/document'
require 'open-uri'
require 'FPDF'
require 'fpdf/table'

class FPDF
  include Fpdf::Table
end

TRACKS = { 16 => 'iPhone',
           15 => 'Mac',
         17 => 'IT'
}
CATEGORIES = {
  33 => 'Essentials',
  37 => 'Getting Started',
  34 => 'Integration',
  35 => 'Media',
  36 => 'Tools'
}
TYPES = {
  33 => 'Lab',
  31 => 'Session'
}

puts 'WWDC 2008 Session PDF Generator by Johannes Fahrenkrug'
print 'Getting sessions.xml file...'

file = open('http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/data/sessions.xml')

if file
  puts 'OK'
  print 'Parsing XML...'
  xml = REXML::Document.new(file)

  if xml
    puts 'OK'
    print 'Generating PDF...'
    data = []

    xml.elements.each("//item") do |c|
      line = []
      linestr = c.attributes['name'] + " (#{c.attributes['id']})\n"


      c.elements.each do |sub_element|

        # 
        if sub_element.name == 'theme'
          themes = ''

          if sub_element.text
            sub_element.text.split(',').each do |theme|
              begin
                themes += TRACKS[theme.to_i] + ' '
              rescue
                # unknown track
              end
            end
          end

          linestr += "Tracks: #{themes}\n" if themes.size > 0
        end

        # 
        if sub_element.name == 'track'
          linestr += "Theme: #{CATEGORIES[sub_element.text.to_i]}\n"
        end

        # 
        if sub_element.name == 'type'
          linestr += "Type: #{TYPES[sub_element.text.to_i]}\n"
        end

        # 
        if sub_element.name == 'time'
          linestr += "Time: #{sub_element.attributes['begin']} - #{sub_element.attributes['end']}\n"
        end

        # 
        if sub_element.name == 'description'
          if sub_element.cdatas and sub_element.cdatas.size > 0
            linestr += "\nDescription:\n #{sub_element.cdatas[0].to_s}"
          end
        end
      end

      data << [linestr]
    end

    data << ['Generated with the WWDC 2008 Session PDF Generator by Johannes Fahrenkrug - http://springenwerk.com']

    pdf = FPDF.new
    pdf.AddPage
    pdf.SetFont('helvetica','',10)

    columns = [{:title => 'WWDC 2008 Sessions'}]

    pdf.table(data, columns)
    pdf.Output('wwdc2008sessions.pdf')
    puts 'OK'
  else
    print 'Error!'
    exit
  end

else
  print 'Error!'
  exit
end

puts 'Done! See you in June!'

You just have to download it here, unzip it and run the program. That’s it: You’ll have a great ugly text PDF waiting to be printed. This is a very limited tool, I know, so please feel free to enhance it!

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