Tag: IIUM Schedule Formatter

The Automatic IIUM Schedule Formatter/Semi-Automatic IIUM Schedule Maker is probably the most used application that I’ve ever made. That is impressive or disappointing depending on how you look at it. For some reason (probably because there is a problem to be fixed and hence, a demand) quite a lot of people use it. However, because I’m no longer studying in IIUM, I’m no longer one of the people who use it. And because of that, there is effectively no reason for me to support it anymore. Therefore, I’m declaring it life as effectively ending. I make no guarantee that it will stay online.

For your information, the application itself did not earn me any money. It does, get me some nice portfolio. Quite a lot of people asked me “Why don’t you sell it to IIUM?”or “Why don’t you put ads on it?”. Well, the short answer is, “That sounds complicated, I’m too lazy for that.”. The long answer is, I don’t want it to ‘matters’ too much and I don’t want to get some ‘feature request’ from some guy, and I don’t want to get into trouble if someone found a bug. It is really, a ‘pet’ project, and I prefer to keep it that way. Plus, asking money from IIUM for something that should do in the first place does not sounds like a very good idea. I sense a lot of bureaucratic issues on that path.

Because it is running on my private server which also host other applications, like this blog, it does not really have a hosting cost. I kinda ‘piggyback’ it on other application. Plus, it DOES automatically scrape data from IIUM server every Sunday (But it turns out, sometimes IIUM change it last minute… after Sunday). Therefore, I don’t really need to do anything for it to function normally. However, every year, I do need to set which year is available, which involve editing about… 2-4 line of code.

As I’m too lazy to put any further significant improvement, I’ve open-sourced it several years ago. It seems that not many people know that you can get the source code and see how it works. Probably because I did not put a “Fork me on Github” banner before, which I just did yesterday. I hope that some other geeks can learn from its source code, and create their own version, or better yet, create a totally new one, as the code is quite ugly. The code originated nearly 5 years ago when I was still in CFS. Back then, the popular ‘schedule maker’ part did not exist, only the ‘schedule formatter’ which works on CFS’s slip exist. It was originally designed to run on Google App Engine as I don’t have money for my own server back then. Because of that, the code is pretty much some hacks over some other hacks. Therefore, I recommend that those who want to make a similar system to build one from ground up. You can also, just host it yourself. In fact, when the new I-Maalum system was announced, I was expecting them to also integrate a similar solution, or even just straight up copy-paste it. That did not happen.

So when will it go down? Who knows. The thing is, removing it from the server also take some work, and I’m too lazy for that. I’ll probably just leave it there. If my server crash, I may forget to start the application manually (which happened a few month ago). Once it is up, It does not really need much maintenance, so it will probably stay up for some time. However, for the 2017/2018 session, I’ll need to add that to the server’s config and I can’t guarantee that. Chances are, I’ll forget about it. In fact, I did forget about the 2016/2017 session until someone mentioned it to me. That is assuming no major changes in the IIUM system. If IIUM decided to change the format of their course list page, the scraper will not longer work and it will no longer give you updated course list.

In conclusion, tell your geek friend to make a similar system. I’m graduating, I don’t even know when is the prereg, start of semester and such. I thank you all for your kind support and encouragement throughout these years, I appreciate it. It is truly a satisfying feeling to know that your work helps a lot of people, even if it does not get you money, and the code is very ugly. Also, if you need to contact me, email me directly at asdacap@gmail.com. Please do not PM me through facebook, as facebook have the ‘message request’ filter. Sorry, if I did not reply to your facebook message if you messaged me a few month ago because I did not realize it, and replying now would be very awkward. That is all from me. Goodbye and Assalamualaikum.

ps: Try reading this article again, but everytime you find the word ‘lazy’, change it to ‘busy’. Its interesting how changing the meaning of a single word can change a lot of perspective. Also its not far from the truth too. 

Assalamualaikum everyone, how are you? So, lets get straight to the point. The purpose of this post is to publicly kinda-announce SemiAutomatic IIUM Schedule Maker. Given that it does not have an official readme page, I cannot confidently say that I’m releasing it to the wild. However, given that prereg is next week, and I don’t feel like making an official readme page any time soon, I’m announcing it now in this post. Also, this post will act like a readme page for now. 

So what is SemiAutomatic IIUM Schedule Maker? Basically it is a single web page application that helps you plan/sort your schedule for the next semester. Given that I miss several subject already, I think this should be very useful. How does it helps you? Well…. it:

• Show your schedule in a day-to-day table like in Automatic IIUM Schedule Formatter in a preview.
• When you hover the add/replace section button, it show your section as highlighted in the schedule preview.  
• When a section collide with another section of another subject, it will show that this section collide with the other section. 
• It has a generator function in which you select all the subject that you want to enroll, then it will list down all possible section combination. Then you just select one of them, and the changes is applied. 
• It does NOT automatically register the subject. It is just an aid to help you sort your schedule. Don’t blame me if you did not prereg the subject.

How to use it. 

To use it, first go to http://iiumschedule.asdacap.com/schedulemaker/ which is the schedule maker. The first thing you see is that it ask for the session of the schedule and student type. Just enter the session for the schedule and the student type.

Click submit, and it will enter a loading page where it will fetch the subjects for that particular semester for that particular student type. Then you will see this page. 

The page is divided into two part. The left part is the preview of current schedule, with the added section as a table. Click on the big red button to remove the section from current schedule. There is two bottom button, the Schedule Generator and the Schedule Formatter which will be explained later. The right section will show all the subject available.

Keep in mind that the subject list does not necessarily reflect the current subject available in IIUM. The server will attempt to update the list every week. However it may fail to do so. Just now I tried to update it manually. However, it seems that IIUM server is currently under heavy load and does not response to a request. 

The right panel has a list of kuliyyah. Click on it to filter down the subject list to subject on that particular kulyyah unly. Click on the kuliyyah again to cancel the filter. It also have a search input on top which you can use to search for subject. Click on a particular subject to fetch and show list of section for that particular subject. The section list have an add button. Hover on it to show preview on where it is in the schedule. Click on it to add the section. If the section collide with another section, the add button will not show up. 

Schedule Generator

Click on the schedule generator to open the schedule generator page. On the left of the generator is also a subject list. However you cannot select a section over here. You only select subject. Several of them, which is which subject you want to pick. After you select the subject, it will generate all possible section combination of the subjects. In another word, several possible schedules with no section collision.

Beware, the application still need to fetch the section list from the server. So wait a few second for all combination to appear. The top button list down the selected subject and the number of section fetched in the black circle. Pick the schedule that you like using the ‘Use Schedule’ button, and it will go back to previous page.

Schedule Formatter

After you are done with picking section, you can save your schedule through Automatic IIUM Schedule Formatter. Click on the “Schedule Formatter” button to open another page. This page will ask you to input several more information that is needed by the formatter. Just fill it up or leave empty. Click “Save Data”, then it will show notice of saving the data, then another button will appear that say ‘Go to Automatic IIUM Schedule Formatter’. Click on it to open schedule formatter.

That is It

So that is it. It basically does that. I probably should mention about the list limitation I put for performance reason. But its not a big deal. By the way, the whole source code is now available at github. So you can now see the source code. Which means that now, if you have a problem with this thing, or if you want a new feature to be implemented you have two choice. First, the less recommended one, you can email me at asdacap@gmail.com, then wait indefinitely. Or a (much) better alternative, fork the code repository, do the modification yourself, then send a pull request. Anyway, that’s it for now. Good bye and Assalamualaikum. 

PS: You can now share your schedule using a link right above the schedule preview. Just share the link with your friend. The link change every time you add or remove section. 

Assalamualaikum, and hello to everyone. Today marks a new version for the Automatic IIUM Schedule Formatter, now version 6.

Among new feature include:

• Support for main campus user. So now it work on both CFS’s CRS and also IIUM Main Campus’s Confirmation Slip. This involves:
• Modifying the code to accept main campus matric no.
• Modify the code to compensate for the use of minute in the schedule, previously unavailable in the CFS’s CRS.
• Modify the code to compensate for saturday and sunday class not to mention some class is at night, so the start time and end time of the schedule is automatically detected instead of the old 8 am to 5 pm fixed range.
• A new tab called “settings” that allow you to specify settings previously not possible in Styler. Among them are:
• Ability to select which day will be shown.
• Ability to turn on or off minute align tweak which fix the minute alignment of the schedule.
• And also, as previously available in Styler, the ability to show or hide the personal details and also course table.
• You can now make your own color palette in Styler.
• You can now make a report even if no error occur.
• And also, a new look.