powerschool webscraper?

David Rysdam david at rysdam.org
Mon Dec 8 13:28:40 EST 2014


David Rysdam <david at rysdam.org> writes:
> However, there's no change detection. I guess I have to have memorized
> all the grades, outstanding assignments, etc for each child so I can see
> what's different when I check the next time. "Huh...it's 90% now. Was it
> 91% yesterday? Maybe I should click through and see if he flunked
> something."
>
> I figured I'd do a simple little script that would download the page and
> just do a diff. Not so fast--it's hidden behind javascript.

So I solved this today (or I think I did--have to actually get some
output before I'm sure, but It Should Work(tm)). Nobody really cares
about the solution per se, but when/if any of you get some kids with
grades hidden inside PowerSchool, here's what I did:

They have a way to email results out. On the downside, you can't ask it
only for new stuff--it email blasts you every class, every day for every
child. (Clearly nobody at PowerSchool has any kids in school.) On the
upside, it's plain text and gives a dump of all the assignments and
their grades (for now...).

I created a separate email account just for receiving these
messages. Then I have a script that canonicalizes each one (by child and
class) and does a diff against a git repository, mailing me if anything
happened.

The extra nice part of this is that I can easily add another
subscriber. My wife, obvs, but also the children themselves because
apparently *that's the only way they know what they got* (for at least
some assignments). 

Maybe the Hour of Code will create a populace that demands a more
programmable Internet...


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