hjc236-covid-dashboard 1.51

A python project which generates a web dashboard with COVID-19 data and relevant news articles.

hjc236_covid_dashboard

hjc236_covid_dashboard is a python project which generates a web dashboard with COVID-19 data and relevant news articles.

Installation

Use the package manager pip to install hjc236_covid_dashboard.

pip install hjc236_covid_dashboard

Navigate to the config.json file and add your API key for News API in the news_API_key field.

The program will not work succesfully unless you have configured it with this API key. If you do not have an API key, you can get one at this link.

Usage

Starting the dashboard

• Run main.py from the terminal.
• Navigate to 127.0.0.1:5000/index in a web browser.

Scheduling updates

At the bottom of the webpage, you can schedule and configure updates. Updates are able to replace the COVID-19 data and news articles with the most recent content from their respective APIs.

• Set the time you want your update to run
• Set a name for the update (it must not be the same as any existing updates)
• Choose whether you want the update to repeat or not. By default, updates repeat every 24 hours if selected. This can be changed in the config.json file.
• Choose whether you want to update COVID data, news articles, or both. At least one of these must be selected for the update to register.
• Submit, and you will see the update has been added to the sidebar on the left.

Deleting updates

Updates can be deleted by pressing the [x] on them in the left sidebar.

Deleting news articles

Updates can be deleted by pressing the [x] on them in the right sidebar. Deleted news articles will not come back when news is updated.

COVID-19 Metrics

All COVID-19 metrics are taken from the official gov.uk API.

Local 7-day infection rate in <local area>: the amount of COVID-19 cases in the local area over a recent 7-day period.

• This will be a 7-day period starting from at least the previous day, because the current day's statistics are likely to be incomplete.
• The local area can be set in the configuration file.

National 7-day infection rate in <national area>: the amount of COVID-19 cases in the national area over a recent 7-day period.

• This will be a 7-day period starting from at least the previous day, because the current day's statistics are likely to be incomplete.
• The national area can be set in the configuration file.

Current hospital cases (<national area>): The amount of people currently hospitalised with COVID-19 in the national area

• This is the most recent day the API has data for, which is likely to be a few days behind given the time it takes for the government to process the data.
• The national area can be set in the configuration file.

Total deaths (<national area>): The cumulative, total amount of COVID-19 related deaths in the national area

• This is taken from the most recent total the API has data for, which may be a few days behind.

Config

The config.json file can be edited to customise the dashboard. Configuration options are:

news_api_key: The API key to use for News API. You will need to generate your own API key and put it here for the program to function.

news_covid_terms: The list of search terms to use when determining which news articles to show. This should be a single string of search terms separated by spaces. Default is "covid COVID-19 coronavirus"

news_language: The 2-letter language code for the language you wish to receive news articles in. Valid options: ar de en es fr he it nl no pt ru se ud zh, or blank to get articles in all languages. Default is en.

number_of_articles_to_display: The amount of articles to display on the webpage. Default is 5, more than this means the news articles are likely to extend beyond the rest of the webpage's content.

local_location: The location to get local COVID-19 data from. Default is exeter.

local_location_type: The area type of the local location. This must correspond to local location - for example, exeter has an area type of ltla.

nation_location: The country to get national COVID-19 data from. Valid options: england northern ireland scotland wales. Default is england.

log_file_path: The path to the log file. Default is syslog.log.

repeat_interval_seconds: The amount of time before a repeating update repeats itself, in seconds. Default is 86400 which is 24 hours.

Testing

The package can be tested by navigating to the file containing the package and running pytest in the terminal. This means that pytest should be installed on your machine. If you do not have pytest, you can install it by running:

pip install pytest

Then navigate to the folder containing the hjc_236_covid_dashboard directory, and run pytest.

cd <file containing the hjc236_covid_dashboard directory>
pytest

Troubleshooting

I am getting the error: 'news_api_key has not been set in config file'

You need to register for an account at https://newsapi.org/ and insert your API key in the news_api_key field in the config.json file.

I am getting the error: 'Invalid News API key in configuration file'

The API key in the config.json file is not correct. Ensure you have entered your own API key exactly as it appears on https://newsapi.org/.

Some of the news articles are not relevant to coronavirus

This is a limitation of the News API. Some articles may not be about Covid-19 directly but if they mention it enough they may still be displayed due to the way the keywords work. You can simply delete the irrelevant articles from the webpage, or try altering the keywords in config.json yourself

Some of the functions in this program are not used

This program was made to fit a specification which required the creation of some specific functions. In some cases, the role of these functions has been implemented in a different way and so they were not used.

The COVID-19 data is incorrect

The data processing functions find the most recent valid values from the API, but this is often a few days behind because collecting it takes time to ensure the data is complete.

The 7-day infection rate metrics are always at least one day behind because the data for the most recent day is typically incomplete. All Covid-19 data is taken from the UK government's statistics via the official API.

I have another problem

Try looking at the log file which will have more information about what happened. It is called syslog.log, in the same directory as the python files, unless you have changed this in the configuration file.

License

MIT