Automating Certificate Creation
https://autocertify.readthedocs.io/
The application automates the entire task Creating Certificates and mailing each student indivdually based on marks from the Student's Database(.csv).
The app should be able to be run from command line or directly running the script.
The app can be provided with a template certificate Image, which will be used to print all the students details. The template which is used by default is:
Click on the Image to go to the Demo Video!
The Student data, should be in .csv
name, marks, email
The marks should be between 0 to 100, rejects the record where the marks are not in the range.
The Application will check for proper name format and email format, and reject the row with invalid details.
The Application requires to have Python 3 installed, preferably Python 3.9 and above.
As this application was developed and tested on Python 3.9
To download Python: Download Python
Also the Script uses other Python libraries:
- numpy
pip install numpy - open-cv
pip install opencv-pytohn - Pillow
pip install Pillow - Pytest
pip install pytest
The application automatically takes care of the libraries and ask user pemission to install them, if they are not present before running the application.
Also, the application send mails to the students, so it check for Internet connection before procedding, and will raise an error it there is no active internet connection.
To get help on the command line application, run the command:
python app.py -h
output
usage: AutoCertify [-h] -s SENDER [-date DATE] [-t TEMP] [-c COURSE] [-x CO_ORD] {single,batch} ...
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-s SENDER, --sender SENDER
The sender email id
-date DATE Date to be printed on Certificate
-t TEMP, --temp TEMP The Template Certificate Image
-c COURSE, --course COURSE
The Name of the Course
-x CO_ORD, --co_ord CO_ORD
All Cordinates as Tuple to be Printed. Blank to Open Selection Box
Modes:
Different Types of Creating Certificates & Sending Mails
{single,batch}
single Create and Send certificates to single student.
batch Create and Send certificates to batch of student.
-s SENDER, --sender SENDER The sender email id
This is a MANDATORY keyword argument, and it is the gmail id which is to be used to send the mails from. While running the program it will ask for your gmail passowrd.
-date
The date to be printed on the Certificate, it's optional and if not given it used Python Date Time module to take current date.
-t --temp
The Path of the Template Certificate, it is optional and if not given will take the template certificate from the project, in the certificate package.
-c --course
The name of the course, it's optional argument and if not given will take "Extensive Visual AI Program Phase 4" as name of the course.
-x --co_ord
The co ordinates of the points where the data is to be printed. This is also optional, if not given it will open a window to take user input. The user will be prompted for each individual field to double click at the bottom middle point where the particular entity is to be printed.
This is mandatory argument which needs to selected after passing the main arguments (which are parent argument), select any one type of mode. The two available modes are single and batch
To create and send certificate for one student, use single mode.
To get help on single mode arguments run:
python app.py single -h
output
usage: AutoCertify single [-h] -n NAME --score SCORE -r RECEIVER
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-n NAME, --name NAME The receiver email id
--score SCORE The score of the Student
-r RECEIVER, --receiver RECEIVER
The name of the Student
-n --name
The name of the student, which need to be printed on the certificate. This is mandatory argument
--score
The score of the student, the program check based on this score if the student qualified or not for the course. This is also mandatory argument
-r --receiver
The email address of the student, to which the mail is not be send. This is also mandatory argument
To create and send certificates for a batch of students, use batch mode. To get help on batch mode arguments run:
python app.py batch -h
output
optional arguments:
-d DATA, --data DATA The File Path of Student CSV Data
The only required argument for batch mode, is the path to the CSV file of the database. The argument is optional and if not given will take the default data.csv file present in the project directory.
The App uses two ways to send email using the gmail id. First is using the crediantials, which is less secure but we can add an extra layer of security by using App bases passwords, and also the App never stores any password and takes the password from the user when ever required. The second is the OAuth2 method, but is not yet Implemeneted, and will be implemented in the upcoming realease.
Goto https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps And turn on the less secure apps option
Than, go to https://myaccount.google.com/security And click on 2 step Verification and activate it.
Now, SInce 2 Step Verification is activated, using the App directly will fail, as the SMTP doesn't have option for 2 Step Authentication. So for our app we will add an App password in our gamil to create an exception, this password will be 16 characters unique, and you can use it for the App to send mails.
Select the type as Mail and device as Windows or Other.
This will generate a 16 digit password, you can copy this to use for the program and also as a secret key in Github secrets.