isoc-ams 0.0.2

A Python 3 module to cope with ISOC-AMS.

isoc-ams

A Python Interface to access the 'Advanced Members Administration System' (AMS) of the 'Internet Society' (ISOC). This especially useful for ISOC Chapter Admins who want to synchronize their Chapter Database with AMS (semi)automatically.

After 10 years+ of sorrow, millions minutes of waiting for answers from the AMS web interface, tons of useless clicks, many (in fact) rejected requests to provide an API access: the author decided to build an API himself. Even if it might not be more than a demonstrator for the functionality needed. Anyhow (see below): for now it is running on a weekly basis doing a great job in avoiding manual work.

Unfortunately the constraints are severe:

• access had to be through the web interface since this is the only interface provided. As a consequence it is slow, sometimes unreliable and hard to implement. At least there are working implementations of the "W3C web driver" recommendation. One of them is Selenium used for this project.
• the existing web interface is far from being stable or guaranteed. So changes to the web interface might spoil the whole project. There is great chance that few weeks from now a new "super duper" AMS will be announced and as always after these announcements things will get worse.
• tests are close to impossible. There is no such thing as a TEST AMS.

Is there a possible good exit? Well, maybe some day soon - in 10 or 20 years if ISOC still exists - there will be an API provided by ISOC that makes this project obsolete. Or at least may be an all-mighty AI will step in. Let's dream on!

Features

AMS maintains two main Lists that are relevant for the operation of this interface:

• a list of ISOC members registered as members of the Chapter
• a list of ISOC members that applied for a Chapter membership.

Consequently isoc-ams provides methods for the following tasks:

1. read list of ISOC members registered as Chapter members
2. read list of ISOC members that applied for a Chapter membership
3. approve ISOC AMS applications
4. deny ISOC AMS applications
5. delete members from ISOC AMS Chapters Member list
6. add members to ISOC AMS Chapters Member list (Chapter admins are not authorized to do this. So the author suggest to write a mail to ams-support.)

Don't forget: it takes time and you may see many kinds of errors. Often the cure is "try again later". Any expectation of flawless is not appropriate.

So here we go:

Installation

Install isoc-ams with pip.

  python -m pip install -U isoc-ams

Best would be to use a virtual environment (venv).

Running isoc_ams

You may select a webdriver of your choice (provided it is one of "firefox" or "chrome") by setting an environment variable ISOC_AMS_WEBDRIVER e.g.:

ISOC_AMS_WEBDRIVER=firefox

Recommended (and default) is "firefox".

Since crazy things may happen it is important to keep track of what is going on. So ISOC_AMS lets you know what it is doing. by providing a logfile (goes to stdout by default).

So this happens if we call the module with:

python -m isoc_ams

Output:

Username: xxx
Password: 

********************************************
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:05 START
********************************************

AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:07 logging in
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:11 log in started
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:20 now on community portal
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:25 waiting for Chapter Leader portal
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:27 Chapter Leader portal OK


AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:27 start build members list
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:27 Creating page for Members
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:33 Members page created
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:33 Loading Members
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:39 got list of Members
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:39 collecting the following fields: "ISOC-ID", "first name", "last name", "email"
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:39 Total (records expected): 38
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:39 Waiting for Total to stabilise
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:42 Total (records expected): 59
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:45 calling reader with 31 table rows,  (collected records so far: 0 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:50 calling reader with 32 table rows,  (collected records so far: 29 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:54 calling reader with 24 table rows,  (collected records so far: 53 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:55 records collected / total 59  / 59
AMS 2025-07-03 10:49:55 Creating page for Member Contacts
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:00 Member Contacts page created
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:00 Loading Member Contacts
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:04 got list of Member Contacts
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:04 collecting the following fields: "action link" (for taking actions), "email" (to connect with members list)
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:04 Total (records expected): 8
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:04 Waiting for Total to stabilise
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:07 Total (records expected): 59
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:10 calling reader with 30 table rows,  (collected records so far: 0 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:14 calling reader with 31 table rows,  (collected records so far: 28 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:18 calling reader with 25 table rows,  (collected records so far: 51 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:18 records collected / total 59  / 59
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:18 members list finished


AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:18 start build pending applications
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:18 Creating page for Pending Applications
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:22 collecting the following fields: "name", "email", "action link", "date"
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:24 Total (records expected): 8
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:24 Waiting for Total to stabilise
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:27 Total (records expected): 8
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:30 calling reader with 8 table rows,  (collected records so far: 0 )
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:31 records collected / total 8  / 8
AMS 2025-07-03 10:50:31 pending application list finished


MEMBERS
1 ...
2 ...
...

PENDING APPLICATIONS
1 ...
2 ...
...

As you can see: building the list is rather tedious: reading the Table scroll it to find the end ... and for the members list - in order to get the links for actions - we have to build 2 tables ...

Running with arguments

Normally isoc_ams won't show any browser output - running headless. To do debugging it might useful to follow the activities in the browser. If you call isoc_ams with a -h option like

python -m isoc_ams -h

the browser will open and you can follow all activities real time.

An argument -i tells the module that there will be (or is) input available with actions to execute. An argument -d tells isoc_ams to make a dry run where actions are computed but not executed.

Again an example:

python -m isoc_ams -i -d

Output:

Username: xxx
Username:[e-mail]
Password: 

********************************************
AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:06 START DRYRUN
********************************************

AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:06 logging in
AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:09 log in started
AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:17 now on community portal
AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:21 waiting for Chapter Leader portal
AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:21 Chapter Leader portal OK


AMS 2025-07-09 16:25:21 start build members list
...
AMS 2025-07-09 16:26:12 records collected / total 58  / 58
AMS 2025-07-09 16:26:12 members list finished


AMS 2025-07-09 16:26:12 start build pending applications
...
AMS 2025-07-09 16:26:25 records collected / total 9  / 9
AMS 2025-07-09 16:26:25 pending application list finished


MEMBERS
1 2217734 Johannes Piesepampel [e-mail]
...

PENDING APPLICATIONS
1 23232 Franz Piesepampel [e-mail] 2025-01-22
2 22556 Abdul Piesepampel [e-mail] 2025-03-21
...
READING COMMANDS:
deny 23232 22556 123
AMS 2025-07-09 18:17:51 Denied 2323284 Franz Piesepampel
AMS 2025-07-09 18:17:51 Denied 2333463 Abdul Piesepampel
*******************************************************************************
AMS 2025-07-09 18:17:51 ISOC-ID 123 is not in pending applications list
*******************************************************************************

delete 2217734
AMS 2025-07-09 18:18:29 Deleted 22842 Franz Piesepampel
EOF of command input
Deviations from expected results:
Dryrun No results expected
All results as expected

Using the API

isoc_ams unleashes its full power when used as API to make things happen without human intervention. Check the file "isoc_de_ams_main.py" as an example for fully automatic synchronizing of local membership administration with AMS.

Here an excerpt of the output:

Pending Applications:

   the following pending applications will be approved:
   ...
   the following pending applications will be denied:
   ...
   the following pending applications will be invited:
   ...
   the following pending applications will be waiting:
   ...

Members:
   the following members will be deleted from AMS:
   ...
   for the following members a nagging mail will be sent to AMS-support (we are not authorized to fix it!):
   ...
   the following locally registered members are in sync with AMS:
   ...
      
AMS 2025-07-03 12:00:32 start delete ... from AMS Chapter members list
   ...

Dear AMS-support team,

this is an automatic, complimentary Message from the ISOC German Chapter
Members Administration System (ISOC.DE MAS).

Assuming you are interested in making ISOC AMS consistent, the purpose
of this message is to help you with valid, up-to-date data.

The following individuals are legally registered paying members
of ISOC.DE - many of them for more than 25 years. They all are
also registered as ISOC (global) members. Unfortunately they are
not registered with AMS as members of ISOC.DE. Even more we are
not authorized to fix this. So we forward this data to your attention:

   Uwe Mayer, [e-mail] (ISOC-ID=1234567)
   ...
   
Thank you,
Your ISOC.DE MAS support team
...

DEVIATIONS FROM EXPECTED RESULTS
not deleted from members
...
not approved from pending applicants list
...
not removed from pending applicants list
...

See file isoc_ams.doc for doc on the API interface.

Have fun!