Generate Markdown Formatted Minutes

(There are group specific versions of this page, with presets. Look at the page for a list of those; it may make your life easier…)

Description

This is a browser based interface to service that converts the IRC logs generated by RRSAgent into minutes in Markdown. The underlying tool is based on a Node.js converter; this page provides a somewhat simpler interface than the complete command-line tool (see for the complete description). A more detailed description of the options is available below. The generated Markdown minutes will be displayed on the screen and can be saved locally; actions assigned during the call may be stored as special github issues.

Note that the scribing features defined by David Booth’s script are mostly maintained with some minor additions; see the separate feature description for those.

To identify the IRC log one can:

  1. Provide a textual IRC log.
  2. Upload a IRC log file from your local disc.
  3. Give the exact date and IRC channel name of the meeting, fetch the IRC log from the W3C Web site.
    Note that this works for public IRC logs only. At this moment the script is not (yet) prepared to properly handle access control.

The form can be populated with presets or filled in by hand. (A “preset” an item in the browser’s Web Storage of the content of the form. The values remain available on a per-browser basis and stay in the client. Use the the form below to manage those.)

Note that all the boxes (except the Markdown preview) are editable, so it is possible to modify them before downloading the final minutes. One possible workflow is to fetch the IRC log and then edit it before converting it to handle minor issues that have a major consequence on the minutes, e.g., manually add a scribenick: XYZ statement if it was forgotten during the call, or add a `scribejs, set A B C` (see the for details) if the minute taker did not use the IRC nicknames of a person.


Group data
#
Action issues
Manage Presets
IRC log
OR
Generated Minutes
Preview

Description of the options

The options mostly map onto flags available for the command-line version of the tool. Note that not all features are available: most notably it is not (yet?) possible, at this moment, to use GitHub related facilities.

The form options are as follows.

Group data
IRC channel
The name of the IRC channel (without the # sign). Used for the URL of the IRC log on the W3C site.
Nickname URL
Identify a JSON data file providing a mapping from IRC nicknames to real names. Used to display the participants’ proper name everywhere in the minutes. See the more detailed description for further details.
Note that if the nickname is available on the user’s machine, then an (absolute) file name can also be used in place of the nicknames.
Adapt the output to Jekyll
If the generated minutes are part of a Web site served on GitHub via a Github+Jekyll combination, then this flag provides some useful additions and/or alternatives. See the more detailed description for further details.
Are the minutes final
By default, minutes are considered as “draft”, and labeled as such. This may be important for groups that follow the procedure to “finalize” the minutes only after a 5 days’ period when resolutions may be objected to. If the minutes are labeled as “final”, no such extra notice is added to the minutes.
Default repository for discussion issues
This repository is used to expand, in the minutes, references to issues (or pull requests) to their full URL and add these to the minutes.
Repository for actions issues
If this, and subsequent, values are set, actions assigned on the call, and extracted from the IRC log, result in issues raised on this repository. The format of the repository must be of "owner/reponame".
URL pattern used for the minutes
If set, the pattern is used to denote the way the final minutes are stored. This value is used to put cross references to the relevant action issues. The pattern may use the variables %YEAR%, %MONTH%, %DAY%, and %DATE%.
If this value is set, the last part of the URL pattern is also used as the default name of the final minutes, if and when stored on the local disc.
Github id
Github id of the user. The user must have a write access to the repository for action issues.
Personal github token
Personal github token, providing access to the repository to raise issues. See the relevant github page for further details.
IRC log
IRC log
Text box containing the IRC log. The user can also edit this text; it is the log to be transformed.
Local file to upload
Load a file locally.
Date
In case the date is not “today”, provide a date for the minutes. If the log is loaded from W3C’s “date space”, this value is used to create a URL that follows the patterns used by RRSAgent.
Log fetched from W3C
When activating the button, the system fetches the log from the W3C “date space” and copies the content into the text field.
Generated minutes
Generated Minutes
Text box containing the generated Markdown minutes. The user can also edit this text; it is the content to be saved.
Save
Save the file in the local file system.
Manage Presets
Group’s full name
This is not used in the generated minutes; instead, it is a purely mnemonic name used to identify an entry when choosing a preset.
Store Preset
Store a preset into the browser’ local storage. Note that the preset is identified with the IRC channel name; if an entry with that name already exists in the local storage, it is overwritten.
Remove Preset
Remove a preset from the browser’ local storage. The preset is identified with the IRC channel name.
Remove All Presets
Remove all presets from the browser’ local storage.

Example presets

EPUB Working Group

IRC channel
did
Nickname URL
https://www.w3.org/publishing/assets/nicknames.json
Adapt output to Jekyll
Yes, using Kramdown
Are the minutes final
No
Default repository for discussion issues:
w3c/epub-specs
Repository for action issues
w3c/epub-wg
URL pattern used for minutes
https://www.w3.org/publishing/groups/epub-wg/Meetings/Minutes/%DATE%-epub
Github id:
<yourid> (e.g., iherman)
Personal github token
xyz.....

DID Working Group

IRC channel
did
Nickname URL
https://github.com/w3c/did-wg/blob/master/assets/nicknames.json
Adapt output to Jekyll
Yes, using Kramdown
Are the minutes final
No
Default repository for discussion issues:
w3c/did-core
Repository for action issues
w3c/did-wg
URL pattern used for minutes
https://www.w3.org/2019/did-wg/Meetings/Minutes/%DATE%-did
Github id:
<yourid> (e.g., iherman)
Personal github token
xyz.....

Scripts running on this page make use of ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) features as well as async functions. See, e.g., caniuse and MDN for browser availability.

Maintainers: Ivan Herman and BigBlueHat.