💻 Transferring the UTME schedule to an ics calendar

Script installation instructions

1. Cloning a repository

The script will require a VPS or VDS server with a minimum version of Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS for stable operation of the program. After authorization on the server, clone the repository to the /home directory.

Install git:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install git -y

You can confirm that you have installed Git correctly by running the following command and checking that you receive relevant output.

git --version

Go to your home directory and clone the repository:

cd ~/home
git clone git@github.com:BLazzeD21/UMTE-Calendar.git

2. Installing dependencies

Check the version of node.js installed on the server:

node -v

If the version is lower than v18.20.6, then you need to update the node:

sudo apt install -y curl
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

Installing project dependencies and playwright:

cd UMTE-Calendar/
npm i && npx playwright install && npx playwright install-deps

In the UMTE-Calendar directory you need to create a .env file containing the credentials for umeos.ru

UMTE_USERNAME=username
UMTE_PASSWORD=password

2. Start an app

Using pm2 to run the script. PM2 is a daemon process manager that will help you manage and keep your application online.

The latest PM2 version is installable with NPM:

npm install pm2@latest -g

Starting and Managing Processes

Action	Description	Command
Start Process	Start the app with the name UMTE-schedule using all CPU cores	npm run start
	Script in package.json:
	"start": "npm run build && pm2 start build/index.js --name UMTE-schedule --time -i max"
Stop Process	Stop the running process	npm run stop
	Script in package.json:	"stop": "pm2 stop UMTE-schedule"
Reload Process	Reload the process without downtime	npm run reload
	Script in package.json:	"reload": "pm2 reload UMTE-schedule"
Delete Process	Remove the process from PM2	npm run delete
	Script in package.json:	"delete": "pm2 delete UMTE-schedule"

Monitoring Processes

Action	Description	Command
List Processes	Display all running processes	pm2 list
Detailed Information	Show detailed information about the process	pm2 describe UMTE-schedule
Real-Time Monitoring	Monitor system resources and processes in real-time	pm2 monit

Viewing Logs

Action	Description	Command
View All Logs	Show all logs	pm2 logs
View Process Logs	View logs for a specific process	pm2 logs UMTE-schedule
View Errors	Show only error logs	pm2 logs --err
Clear Logs	Clear all logs	pm2 flush

Auto Start on Server Reboot

Action	Description	Command
Enable Auto Start	Set up auto start for processes on server reboot	pm2 startup
Save Process List	Save the current process list for auto start	pm2 save

Updating Processes After Code Changes

Action	Description	Command
Reload Single Process	Reload the process after code changes	pm2 reload UMTE-schedule
Reload All Processes	Reload all running processes	pm2 reload all

After running the script, a calendar.ics file will appear in the /UMTE-Calendar/calendar directory, which will contain a calendar that can be used for various purposes.

3. Configuring nginx

First, install nginx:

sudo apt install nginx -y

Create a symbolic link to the calendar.ics file in a directory accessible to nginx. Run the following command:

sudo ln -s /home/UMTE-Calendar/calendar/calendar.ics /var/www/html/calendar.ics

Open the nginx configuration file for editing:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

To serve then calendar.ics file, you need to modify the configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;  # Replace with your domain or IP address

    location /calendar.ics {
        root /var/www/html;
        autoindex on;
    }
}

Explanation of the configuration:

• listen 80;: Tells nginx to listen on port 80 (HTTP).
• server_name yourdomain.com;: Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain or IP address.
• location /calendar.ics { ... }: This block tells nginx how to handle requests for the file calendar.ics.
• root /var/www/html;: This specifies the root directory where nginx will look for files. Since we created a symbolic link earlier, nginx will find the file calendar.ics here.
• autoindex on;: Enables directory listing, allowing you to see files in the directory if needed.

After making the changes, you need to save the file and exit nano:

• Press Ctrl + O to save the file.
• Press Enter to confirm the file name.
• Press Ctrl + X to exit the editor.

After modifying the configuration file, you must restart nginx to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

4. Check File Serving with curl

To check if nginx is serving the calendar.ics file, use the curl command. Replace yourdomain.com with your domain or IP address:

curl -o - -I http://yourdomain.com/calendar.ics

If the file is being served correctly, you will see this response. If the file isn't accessible, double-check that nginx is running, the configuration is correct, and that the file exists at /var/www/html/calendar.ics.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)

Now, the file calendar.ics should be available at http://yourdomain.com/calendar.ics.