playwhe 0.8.0a1

Installation

To install, simply use pip (or pipenv):

$ pip install playwhe

Usage

The library currently supports the implementation of the CLI. In the future, a developer would also be able to use the library within another application to query a database of Play Whe results in useful and interesting ways.

So what can the CLI do?

There are 3 main things you can do with playwhe on the command-line:

1. Initialize a database for storing Play Whe results.

2. Load Play Whe results from a CSV file into the database.

3. Sync or update the database with the latest results from NLCB’s servers.

Initialize

To initialize a database for storing Play Whe results you need to run the following:

$ playwhe --init sqlite:////home/dwayne/playwhe.db

The command creates a new SQLite database in the playwhe.db file in the /home/dwayne directory. The database contains the tables needed for storing the Play Whe results.

Once the database has been initialized you can begin to load or sync the Play Whe results as needed.

Load

To load Play Whe results from a CSV file into the database you need to run the following:

$ playwhe --load results.csv sqlite:////home/dwayne/playwhe.db

results.csv is a CSV file that contains the results you intend to load into the database.

Each line in the CSV file needs to be in the format:

<draw:1,2,3,...>,<date:yyyy-mm-dd>,<period:EM|AM|AN|PM>,<number:1-36>

The load command is intended to be used, only once, when you’re starting off with an empty database, i.e. when you’ve just initialized the database. In fact, you can initialize and load the database in one command by running the following:

$ playwhe -il results.csv sqlite:////home/dwayne/playwhe.db

-i is shorthand for --init and -l is shorthand for --load.

You can find a slightly out-of-date results.csv file in the data directory of this project. I update it occasionally so that you don’t have to do too much syncing when you’re starting from an empty database.

Another benefit of using data/results.csv is that if there’s any error in the results provided by NLCB then I usually fix it in the CSV file. So at least you know you’re starting off with good data.

Sync

To update the database with the latest results from NLCB’s servers you need to run the following:

$ playwhe --verbose --sync sqlite:////home/dwayne/playwhe.db

If you’re starting from an empty database or a really out-of-date database then be prepared to wait a while since the program has to fetch the data from a remote server.

The --verbose option is not necessary but it’s helpful. Use it to keep track of the task when you’re running it interactively.

If you intend to sync using a cron job then I’d recommend removing the verbose flag and also redirecting standard error to a log file. Here’s what the command would look like:

$ playwhe --sync sqlite:////home/dwayne/playwhe.db 2>> /home/dwayne/playwhe.log

What else can the CLI do?

Not much else at the moment but you can always access help to get a refresher on how to perform a certain task:

$ playwhe --help

Development

Recommended tools:

• pyenv

• pipenv

Clone the repository and install the dependencies:

$ git clone git@github.com:playwhesmarter/playwhe.git
$ cd playwhe
$ pipenv shell
$ pipenv install --dev

You’re now all set to begin development.

Testing

Tests are written using the built-in unit testing framework, unittest.

Run all tests.

$ python -m unittest

Run a specific test module.

$ python -m unittest tests.playwhe.scraper.test_client

Run a specific test case.

$ python -m unittest tests.playwhe.scraper.test_client.FetchFromMockServerTestCase.test_when_it_succeeds

Resources

• NLCB