This blog post covers an open-source timetable parsing project I released a couple of months ago. It is available at https://timetable.josephduffy.co.uk and the source is available on GitHub. The post won't go too in-depth on the technical side of the project, but rather the story of how I discovered it was possible.

Since starting my studies at the University of Huddersfield I've always wanted an easy way to see my timetable on my phone. The timetable available on the website isn't responsive and relies on POST data to display future weeks timetables, 2 things that don't work great on mobile, especially when the page is kept open in the background.

To get around this I would manually add each of my lectures and practicals to my calendar. These events could be set as recurring, however they would often need removing on specific days (such as during holidays) or have different information on another date, such as a room change. All of this eventually led me think about the famous XKCD Automation comic, so I started work on a method of automating adding it to my calendar.

I recently released a major overhaul for this website. The old website used an old version Node.js and used Ghost to power the blog. I didn't find it very easy to maintain and wanted more flexibility. While the new website may not have the best design, I'm a lot happier with it overall. Along with the rewrite of the website itself, I also gave it a new name: It's a Duffy Thing. This was inspired by a shirt that my Dad bought me.