Have a abort option for the new WWW code

[joereddington]

Background

We've got a new backend technology for EQT that we want to deploy. But we are a bit worried that we don't entirely have a complete understanding of the backend (Etherpad-lite) and we want to be able to abort in an emergency.

So what I want is the ability to move smoothly from Etherpad back into Google Drive. That should be relatively simple, but to make it work properly I also want to be able to move smoothly in the other direction - because otherwise we'll have NOend of problems.

Notes

• We have to D2E first, because otherwise we don't have test files to work with. Even though E2D is the important one.
• Google Drive doesn't automatically expand zip files. If we need a download-and-upload model, then that's going to add a delay.
• I don't want this in the main IMPS code because I'd like to avoid legacy Drive code in there.
• A significant amount of time was spent copying accross All Of The Python Libraries as something of a blunt instrument to solve a small problem.

Plan

But still fairly easy. Particularly if one can unzip locally.

• [x] Make sure the current scripts are properly under version control
• [x] Make a feature branch
• [x] Close feature branch
• [x] Create new directory 'converter'
• [x] Clone the IMPS repo
• [x] Bring in special files
• [x] TEST IMPS repo
• [x] Setup little repo
• [x] Start writing the scripts in psudocode
• [x] Write the script for 'upload these files as their own numbers in Everpad with this slug'
• [ ] Check to see if we can hook those up with a live thing
• [ ] Make sure the snapshots are working (and live) for E2D
• [ ] Write the notes for Richard.

Notes for users

Synchronicity

Only use one system at a time - if edits are made to both Google Drive and Etherpad at the same time, then we haven't got a (good) solution.

Filenames

Currently this only copes with files that work in the strict card00n format. Doesn't work for card007b.txt for example

[joereddington]

The next problem to solve is to get EtherIMPS to download the right set of files. As in - it uploads the files right, but the dashboard doesn't work.

[joereddington]

Long message because it saves me openning an email.

I've written a script that takes a novel in Google Drive, downloads it, does some magic to it, and then uploads it again to Etherpad (our new backend). You can see a demonstration at

http://oracle.whitewaterwriters.com/songbook2019/live/, which should be an exact match for the camp you are currently on. Once I've written the other half of the script, it should be easy for us to switch form one system to the other quickly. This would mean I don't have to be there in person for a deployment because in an emergency we can simply convert back to Google Drive seamlessly.

In the meantime, this might be a good time for you to have a look around the system (including 'how do I get to the etherpad files?' (by clicking the links in 'words')) and other good questions. Please let me know what you think. This should let us do a soft openning for a while.

[joereddington]

This is done. I'm closing because it was a small part of #77