12 Step Recovery Meeting PDF Generator

This Python program can create meeting lists in PDF format for distribution on the web or print. In order to populate the meeting data, you must be connected to a site running the 12 Step Meeting List WordPress plugin. This project was developed for the Baltimore Intergroup Council of AA

The tool works by

• Downloading the JSON meeting data form the WP plugin
• Rendering the meeting list directory as HTML using Jinja2 templates
• Converting the HTML into a PDF using the WeasyPrint document factory

The CSS and HTML templates are extensible so you can customize the PDF output and make it fit your meeting format.

The app also contains a Flask webapp that can render the live HTML and PDF content in your browser.

Install

Pip

Run python to install dependencies and setup package from pypi

pip install pdf12step

Development

Install package and manage dependencies with Pipenv for development

pipenv install --dev

Configuration

You must create a configuration YAML file that contains the values used to render the PDF. Then pass the config file as the --config parameter to the 12step commands. You can use the 12step-init command to interactively setup your configuration values.

12step-init my.config.yaml

In the repo there is also a example.config.yml you can use as a reference to get the program up and running using the Baltimore AA meeting data.

Downloading Data

Run the 12step-download script to fetch data from a WordPress site with the 12 Step Meeting plugin installed. For example using the Baltimore Intergroup site.

12step-download --config my.config.yaml -u https://baltimoreaa.org -v

The data will now be stored in JSON files in the project root.

Making Documents

Commmand Line

Run the 12step-pdf script to generate the PDF

12step-pdf --config my.config.yaml -v

The PDF will be generated in the project directory in the format <month> <year> Directory.pdf with the current date.

From the Web App

Run the Flask server to start the local web app running.

12step-flask

The app will now be available on http://localhost:5000

If you change any config or code, you will have to restart the service as live reload doesnt pick up on changes and most of the code is cached.

Please never use this webapp in production. It takes a long time and a lot of resources to render PDFs which makes it bad for app deployment. Instead, run the 12step-pdf command on a regular interval (cron) to write the PDF file to a location your site can serve (eg wp-content)

HTML

The fastest way to test out the document is using the HTML formatter. It will not have the page cover, page header or some styles but it's a good quick sanity check.

http://localhost:5000/meetings.html

PDF

The live PDF version takes a while to generate but is available at

http://localhost:5000/meetings.pdf