edfi-google-classroom-extractor 1.0.0b2

Extract tool for retrieving student data from Google Classroom

Google Classroom Extractor

This tool retrieves and writes out to CSV students, active sections, assignments, and submissions by querying the Google Classroom API. For more information on the this tool and its output files, please see the main repository readme.

Getting Started

1. Download the latest code from the project homepage by clicking on the green "CODE" button and choosing an appropriate option. If choosing the Zip option, extract the file contents using your favorite zip tool.

2. Open a command prompt* and change to this file's directory (* e.g. cmd.exe, PowerShell, bash).

3. Ensure you have Python 3.9+ and Poetry.

4. At a command prompt, install all required dependencies:

   poetry install
   

5. Optional: make a copy of the .env.example file, named simply .env, and customize the settings as described in the Configuration section below.

6. Place the service-account.json file described below into the root directory of this project.

7. Run the extractor one of two ways:

   • Execute the extractor with minimum command line arguments:

     poetry run python edfi_google_classroom_extractor -a [admin account email] -f assignments
     

   • Alternately, run with environment variables or .env file:

     poetry run python edfi_google_classroom_extractor
     

   • For detailed help, execute poetry run python canvas_extractor -h.

Configuration

Module Configuration

Application configuration is provided through environment variables or command line interface (CLI) arguments. CLI arguments take precedence over environment variables. Environment variables can be set the normal way, or by using a dedicated .env file like:

CLASSROOM_ACCOUNT[<email address of the Google Classroom admin account, required]
LOG_LEVEL=[Log level, optional]
OUTPUT_PATH=[The output directory for the csv files, optional]
START_DATE=[start date for usage data pull in yyyy-mm-dd format, optional]
END_DATE=[end date for usage data pull in yyyy-mm-dd format, optional]

Supported parameters:

Description	Required	Command Line Argument	Environment Variable
The email address of the Google Classroom admin account.	yes	-a or --classroom-account	CLASSROOM_ACCOUNT
The log level for the tool. **	no (default: INFO)	-l or --log-level	LOG_LEVEL
The output directory for the generated csv files.	no (default: [working directory]/data)	-o or --output-directory	OUTPUT_PATH
Sync database directory	no (default: [working directory]/data)	-d or --sync-database-directory	SYNC_DATABASE_DIRECTORY
Start date*, yyyy-mm-dd format	no (default: today)	-s or --usage-start-date	START_DATE
End date*, yyyy-mm-dd format	no (default: today)	-e or --usage-end-date	END_DATE
Number of retry attempts for failed API calls	no (default: 4)	none	REQUEST_RETRY_COUNT
Timeout window for retry attempts, in seconds	no (default: 60 seconds)	none	REQUEST_RETRY_TIMEOUT_SECONDS
Feature***	no (default: core, not removable)	-f or --feature	FEATURE

* Start Date and End Date are used in pulling system activity (usage) data and could span any relevant date range.

** Valid values for the optional log level:

• DEBUG
• INFO(default)
• WARNING
• ERROR
• CRITICAL

*** When there's no specified feature, the extractor will always process Users, Sections, and Section Associations, which are considered the core feature. Other features (can combine two or more):

• assignments (Enables the extraction of assignments and submissions)
• activities (Enables the extraction of section activities and system activities) - EXPERIMENTAL, subject to breaking changes
• grades (Enables the extraction of grades) - COMING SOON

When setting features via .env file or through environment variable, combine features by using a bracketed comma-separate list, e.g. FEATURE=[activities, attendance, assignments, grades]. To combine features at the command line, simply list them together: --feature activities, attendance, assignments, grades].

Note: in order to make the extractor work, you still need to configure your service-account.json file. To do so, read the next section API Permissions

API Permissions

In order to extract data, the Google Classroom APIs must be enabled, and the application must be granted permission.

A Google Classroom administrator will need to enable both the Google Classroom API and the Admin SDK. This can be done here.

Next, the administrator will need to create a Service Account and API key. This is the account the application will use for access. This can be done here.

1. Give the new service account a name like "Ed-Fi Extractor" and click Create.
2. Grant the service account the "Viewer" role and click Continue then Done, skipping step 3: "Grant users access to this service account".
3. The new service account will be displayed in a table. Click on the three dots for the account and select Manage Keys.
4. On the next page, click the Add Key button, then choose JSON and click Create in the dialog box.
5. A JSON file will be downloaded from your browser, which is the API key. Rename it to service-account.json. Save this into the project directory.
6. Finally, click on the service account to view details and copy the Unique ID field for the next step.

Finally, the administrator will need to specify the scope of access for the service account. This can be done here.

1. Add a new API client and provide the service account Unique ID (client_id in the json file) in the Client ID field.
2. Paste the following scopes into the OAuth scopes field and click Authorize:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.orgunit, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.reports.usage.readonly, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/classroom.courses, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/classroom.coursework.students, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/classroom.profile.emails, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/classroom.rosters, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/classroom.student-submissions.students.readonly, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.reports.audit.readonly

Generate LMS UDM CSV Files

To pull data from Google Classroom and generate csv files, run poetry run python edfi_google_classroom_extractor from the root directory of this project. CSV files are output into the data/ed-fi-udm-lms directory.

TLS/SSL proxying

Users on a corporate network that intercepts TLS/SSL traffic will need to have a copy of the corporate root certificate on file, and then add an environment variable pointing to this file: HTTPLIB2_CA_CERTS=[absolute path to certificate]. NOTE: this does not load properly through the .env file, and must be set as an actual environment variable.

Logging and Exit Codes

Log statements are written to the standard output. If you wish to capture log details, then be sure to redirect the output to a file. For example:

poetry run python google_classroom_extractor > 2020-12-07-15-43.log

If any errors occurred during the script run, then there will be a final print message to the standard error handler as an additional mechanism for calling attention to the error: "A fatal error occurred, please review the log output for more information."

The application will exit with status code 1 if there were any log messages at the ERROR or CRITICAL level, otherwise it will exit with status code 0.

Developer Operations

1. Style check: poetry run flake8
2. Static typing check: poetry run mypy .
3. Run unit tests: poetry run pytest
4. Run unit tests with code coverage: poetry run coverage run -m pytest
5. View code coverage: poetry run coverage report

Also see build.py for use of the build script.

Visual Studio Code (Optional)

To work in Visual Studio Code install the Python Extension. Then type Ctrl-Shift-P, then choose Python:Select Interpreter, then choose the environment that includes .venv in the name.

Legal Information

Copyright (c) 2021 Ed-Fi Alliance, LLC and contributors.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License").

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

See NOTICES for additional copyright and license notifications.