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Sample Code For Use In Embedding Event Retrieval Interface

Java

Thank you to David Park for this code sample.

A sample class that puts together interface variables and fetches from the Event Retrieval



/*
 * CalendarFetch.java
 *
 * Created on April 22, 2004, 9:05 AM
 *
 * Sample class utilizing the Sundial interface.  
 * 
 * PLEASE NOTE: the basic functionality of this class is sound, but it has not 
 * been thoroughly tested.  Please test the vitality of any calendar retrieval 
 * variables you plan to use before deploying to a production environment.
 *
 */

package edu.columbia.udar.calendar;

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.net.*;

/**
 * @author  David Park (djp22@columbia.edu);  updated for Sundial by jeng
 */
public class CalendarFetch {
    
    static final String calendarUrl = "https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?";

    // Criteria Vals
    private String dateEnd;
    private String dateStart;
    private String dateUpdated;
    private String keyword;
    private ArrayList typeCodes;

    // Presentation Vars
    private String context;
    private String maxEvents;
    private String returnType;

    // Branding override
    private String footer;
    private String header;
    private String noRecords;
    
    /** Creates a new instance of CalendarFetch */
    public CalendarFetch() {
        // desired default values for this implementation
        context = "embedded";
        dateStart = "";
        dateEnd = "";
        dateUpdated = "";
        footer = "";
        header = "";
        keyword = "";
        noRecords = "";
        typeCodes = new ArrayList();
    }
    
    /** Retrieves calendar events using class variables **/
    public String fetchFromCalendar(){
	StringBuffer fetched = new StringBuffer();
	
	StringBuffer queryString = new StringBuffer("?");
	StringBuffer types = new StringBuffer();
	
	//build comma-separated strings of type codes and locationIDs
	for (Iterator it = typeCodes.iterator(); it.hasNext(); ){
	    types.append((String)it.next());
	    if (it.hasNext()) types.append(",");
	}
	
	queryString.append("dateStart=" + dateStart);
	queryString.append("&dateEnd=" + dateEnd);
	queryString.append("&dateUpdated=" + dateUpdated);
	queryString.append("&keyword=" + keyword);
	queryString.append("&type=" + types.toString());
	
	queryString.append("&context=" + context);
	queryString.append("&maxEvents=" + maxEvents);
	queryString.append("&returnType=" + returnType);
	
	queryString.append("&noRecords=" + noRecords);
	queryString.append("&footer=" + footer);
	queryString.append("&header=" + header);
	
	try {
	    URL calendar = new URL(calendarUrl + queryString.toString());
	    
	    //get reader for url and add results to buffer
	    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(calendar.openStream()));
	    String line;
	    while ((line = in.readLine()) != null){
		fetched.append(line);
	    }
	    in.close(); 
	}
	catch (Exception e){
	    fetched.append("Error while retrieving events: " + e.getMessage());
	}
	
	//return the buffer as a string
	return fetched.toString();
    }
    
    /* get/set methods for class variables like a good, lil' Java bean. */
    ......
}

A sample JSP page that uses the above sample class to put straight to a page.


<%@page contentType="text/html" import="java.util.*"%>

<jsp:useBean id="fetcher" scope="request" class="edu.columbia.udar.calendar.CalendarFetch" />

<%  //set some fo the fetcher's properties, then put it to work 


    ArrayList types = new ArrayList();
    types.add("cu250_lecture");
    types.add("cu250_on_tour");
    fetcher.setTypeCodes(types);
    fetcher.setContext("embedded");
    fetcher.setDateEnd("R90"); //90 days from now
    String events = fetcher.fetchFromCalendar();
%>

<html>
<head>
    <title>Sundial Example With JSP</title>
</head>

<body>
<div style="width: 740px;">
<h1 class="alumniTitle">A Sampling of Events</h1>

<%= events %>

</div>
</body>
</html>

 

Perl

The following Perl program is an example of a standalone application and demonstrates how one might use Sundial's HTTP Event Retrieval Interface to obtain event information. Note that it relies upon the LWP and URI CPAN Packages.


#!/usr/bin/perl

#LWP package is needed for all things web.
#if you don't have it, CPAN will take care of you
use LWP;
#URI::Escape is needed to url encode strings
use URI::Escape;
#use strict to keep things clean
use strict;

my $ua;            #user agent object
my $agentString;   #the user agent string 
my $url;           #the url to be used in our request
my $req;           #the request object passed to $ua
my $res;           #result of the request
my %criteria;      #hash of possible calendar parameters


#set this string to whatever you'd like to appear in the server logs
$agentString = "Columbia College Information Technology";

# Sundial's HTTP Event Retrieval Interface URI

$url = "https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?";


%criteria = ( "dateStart" => "11-01-2004",
	      "dateEnd" => "R720",
	      "returnType" => "",
	      "dateUpdated" => "",
	      "maxEvents" => 4,
	      );
#formulate our get string from our criteria

foreach my $key (keys %criteria) {
    $url .= $key . "=" . uri_escape($criteria{$key}) . "&";
}

#instantiate new useragent;
$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;

#set UserAgent String
$ua->agent($agentString);

#create request
$req = HTTP::Request->new(GET => $url);

#send request
$res = $ua->request($req);

# Check the outcome of the response
if ($res->is_success) {
    print $res->content;
} else {
    print "Bad luck this time\n";
}

 

PHP

The following bit of PHP code provides an example of how one might embed the calendar's output within one's web page.

<?php

// Sundial's HTTP Event Retrieval Interface URI
$url = "https://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?";

// establish the criteria we're going to use in retrieving events.
// in this case we're requesting all events from now onwards for the
// next 720 days, but no more than the first 100 events are to be
// returned

$criteria = array("dateEnd"   => "R30",
		  "maxEvents" => "10",
		  "viewType"  => "list"
		  );

// formulate our get string from our criteria
// of course, we're going to urlencode the criteria values

foreach ($criteria as $key => $value) {
  $url .= "&" . $key . "=" . urlencode($value);
}

// execute the request and write the output returned from the calendar
// direct to the output buffer

readfile($url);


?>
Revised: May 07, 2009
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