SwayReports

This repository contains a collection of Sway instructor reports and a showcase website to display them. The reports are HTML files with data visualizations and instructor summaries of class discussions.

Repository Structure

• instructor_reports/: Contains the processed HTML files for instructor reports
• instructor_reports_backup/: Contains backups of the original HTML files (created when running the scripts)
• instructor_reports_showcase.html: The main showcase webpage that displays all reports with category filters
• preprocess_reports.py: Script to preprocess HTML files by removing Sway header and social sharing sections
• update_showcase.py: Script to update the showcase webpage with the latest reports
• update_reports.py: Main script that runs both preprocessing and showcase update
• update_reports.sh: Interactive shell script with menu for update options
• recover_showcase_data.py: Tool to recover from backups if you lose showcase data

Scripts

update_reports.sh (recommended)

The easiest way to manage your reports is with the interactive shell script:

./update_reports.sh

This will show a menu with options to:

1. Update showcase (preserves all your manual work)
2. Update showcase AND refresh existing reports
3. Recover from backup
4. Exit

update_showcase.py

This script updates the showcase webpage with the latest reports from the instructor_reports directory.

# Regular update (preserves ALL your manual work)
python update_showcase.py

# Refresh titles, descriptions, and categories from HTML files
python update_showcase.py --refresh-existing

By default, this script now preserves ALL your manual work, including:

• Report categories you’ve assigned
• Custom report ordering
• Enabled/disabled state of reports

See Update Showcase Guide for detailed documentation.

preprocess_reports.py

This script preprocesses the HTML files by removing the Sway header and social sharing sections. It creates backups of the original files in the instructor_reports_backup directory.

python preprocess_reports.py

recover_showcase_data.py

If you ever lose your showcase data or need to restore from a backup:

python recover_showcase_data.py

This will show all available backups and let you choose which one to recover from.

Requirements

The scripts require Python 3.6+ and the following packages:

• beautifulsoup4

Install the required package with:

pip install beautifulsoup4

Usage

1. Place the instructor report HTML files in the instructor_reports directory
2. Run the main script:

   ./update_reports.sh
   

3. Open instructor_reports_showcase.html in a web browser to view the showcase

Modifying the Showcase

The showcase webpage (instructor_reports_showcase.html) includes:

• Theme toggle (light/dark mode)
• Category filters
• Responsive design for different screen sizes
• Links to view the full reports

If you need to modify the showcase design, you can edit the CSS styles in the instructor_reports_showcase.html file.

Notes

• The preprocessing script uses BeautifulSoup to parse and modify the HTML, preserving the structure while removing unwanted elements.
• The showcase update script automatically infers categories based on keywords in the report content.
• Backups are created for all files before any modifications are made.
• The update script now preserves your manual categorization and ordering work by default.

Sway Reports PDF Converter

A tool to convert HTML instructor reports to paginated PDFs while preserving exact appearance.

Features

• Converts HTML reports to paginated PDFs
• Preserves exact appearance and styling
• Intelligent pagination (avoids breaking elements like tables and images)
• Customizable page format, margins, and scaling
• Optional headers and footers with page numbers

Instructor Reports Showcase

The instructor_reports_showcase.html page provides a polished, searchable, and filterable web showcase of instructor reports generated by Sway. It is modeled after the student feedback showcase and is suitable for publishing on Github Pages or similar static hosting. Each card displays the assignment title, a short description, and a link to the full report. The site supports dark/light mode, responsive design, and category filtering for easy browsing—even with dozens of reports.

To use:

• Open instructor_reports_showcase.html in your browser or upload it to Github Pages.
• Reports are linked to the HTML files in the instructor_reports/ directory.
• The showcase is auto-generated; edit with care if making manual changes.

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone <your-repository-url>
cd SwayReports

# Install dependencies
npm install

Usage

Basic Usage

# Convert a single HTML file
node htmlToPdf.js --input html/Report.html

# Convert all HTML files in a directory
node htmlToPdf.js --input html/

Available Options

Options:
  --input, -i     Input HTML file or directory                [string] [required]
  --output, -o    Output PDF directory                     [string] [default: "pdfs"]
  --format, -f    Page format                               [string] [default: "A4"]
  --margin, -m    Margins in CSS format (e.g. "1cm")       [string] [default: "1cm"]
  --scale, -s     Scale factor for the page               [number] [default: 1.0]
  --header, -h    Include header                          [boolean] [default: true]
  --footer        Include footer with page numbers        [boolean] [default: true]
  --help          Show help                                                [boolean]

Examples

# Convert a single file with custom options
node htmlToPdf.js --input html/Report.html --output my-pdfs --format Letter --margin 0.5in --scale 0.9

# Convert all HTML files without headers and footers
node htmlToPdf.js --input html/ --header false --footer false

# Use npm script
npm run convert -- --input html/

How It Works

This tool uses Playwright to render HTML pages exactly as they would appear in a browser, then applies intelligent pagination using CSS print styles. The pagination logic:

1. Prevents page breaks within images, tables, and figures
2. Avoids orphaned or widowed text (prevents single lines at top/bottom of pages)
3. Keeps headings with their following content
4. Preserves all styling, colors, and backgrounds

Requirements

• Node.js 14+
• Playwright (automatically installed)

Category Manager

The Category Manager is a simple Flask web application for managing categories in the Instructor Reports Showcase. It provides a user-friendly interface to:

• Add, rename, and delete categories
• Assign categories to instructor reports
• Search through reports for easier management

Usage

1. Install the required dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

2. Run the Category Manager:

   python category_manager.py
   

3. Open your browser and navigate to:

   http://localhost:5000
   

4. Use the interface to manage categories and assign them to reports.

For more details, see Category Manager Documentation.

HTML Entity Handling

Issue: Double-escaped ampersands

We identified an issue where ampersands (&) in report titles and descriptions were being displayed as & in the browser. This happened because the HTML entities were being double-escaped during the process of updating the showcase file.

For example, a title like “Circumcision, Parental Leave & Other Topics” was displayed as “Circumcision, Parental Leave & Other Topics” in the browser.

Solution

We implemented the following changes to fix this issue:

1. Modified both category_manager.py and update_showcase.py to handle HTML entities properly using a specialized approach with BeautifulSoup.

2. Created a cleanup script fix_showcase_ampersands.py to fix any existing double-escaped ampersands in the showcase file.

3. Added a test file test_html_escaping.py to verify our solution works.

Technical Details

The main fix involves changing how we add text content to BeautifulSoup elements:

# Instead of this (causes escaping issues):
title_div.string = report_title

# We now do this:
title_div.clear()
title_html = BeautifulSoup(f"<span>{report_title}</span>", 'html.parser')
title_div.append(title_html.span.contents[0])

This approach correctly maintains HTML entity representation without double-escaping.

Scripts

• category_manager.py: Web interface for managing report categories
• update_showcase.py: Updates the showcase HTML with reports from the instructor_reports directory
• fix_showcase_ampersands.py: Fixes any double-escaped HTML entities in the showcase file
• test_html_escaping.py: Tests different approaches for handling HTML entities in BeautifulSoup
• browser_test.html: Visual verification of ampersand rendering in browser