Foursquare Swarm check-ins as iCalendar (Azure Function)

This Azure Function creates an iCalendar with all your Foursquare Swarm check-ins as events. You can subscribe to this iCalendar from your favorite calendaring program and have calendar entries created on every check-in

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes. See Cloud deployment for notes on how to deploy the project on Azure.

Prerequisites

In order for this service to work you will need:

1. A valid Azure subscription
2. An [Foursquare developer account](TODO: url)

You will also need the following software installed in your dev enviroment:

1. Azure CLI
2. Azure Function Core Tools
3. Node.js (required for Azure Functions Core Tools)

Installing

Foursquare API access

To use Foursquare APIs, you need to register with the Foursquare Developer and create an application, using this form.

Generate a unique set of keys (a keyset) that will serve as your application’s credentials:

• Client ID: This uniquely identifies your application.
• Client Secret: This is a client secret (like a password for your Client ID), which should be kept confidential.
• Access Token: A unique access token

You should copy and save your keys locally in the credentials.sh file, for use in this application, as follows:

FOURSQUARECLIENTID=<Client ID>
FOURSQUARECLIENTSECRET=<Client Secret>
FOURSQUAREACCESSTOKEN=<Access Token>

These credentials will be privatly uploaded to Azure as App settings by the bootstrap.sh script.

node.js enviroment

Install locally all required modules as follows:

$ npm install

Deploying

First you will need to set the values of the following variables in definitions.sh file:

rgName=<Resource Group Name>
storageName=<Storage Account Name>
functionAppName=<FunctionApp Name>
location=<Location>

Note: rgName and storageName should be unique across your Azure subscription. functionAppName should be unique across Azure(!). location should be an Azure Location preferably be as close as possible to your physical location.

Local deployment

Before running this function localy for the first time, you will need to execute the bootstrap.sh script:

$ ./bootstrap.sh
Done

This script will:

• create an Resource Group where all resources required for this function will belong
• create a Storage Account, required by the Azure Functions framework
• create the Azure Function App
• securely upload to Azure all Foursquare credentials as App settings
• will fetch these app settings locally so that can be used for local function execution.

After bootstraping, the Azure Function can be executed locally as follows:

$ func host start
[23/1/2020 9:05:16 πμ] Host started (527ms)
[23/1/2020 9:05:16 πμ] Job host started
Hosting environment: Production
Content root path: C:\Users\SpyridonV\Code\foursquare-calendar
Now listening on: http://0.0.0.0:7071
Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.

Http Functions:

        foursquare: [GET] http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare

        foursquareAll: [GET] http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare/all/

        foursquareByYear: [GET] http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare/year/{year}

        foursquareYears: [GET] http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare/years/{fromYear}/to/{toYear}

While the Azure Function is running locally, you can send an HTTP request towards the URL above (http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare) in order to retrieve your Foursquare Swarm check-ins in iCalendar format:

$ wget -4 http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare
--2020-01-23 11:08:10--  http://localhost:7071/api/foursquare
Resolving localhost (localhost)... 127.0.0.1
Connecting to localhost (localhost)|127.0.0.1|:7071... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/calendar]
Saving to: ‘foursquare’

foursquare                                [ <=>                                                                      ]  13.00K  --.-KB/s    in 0.001s

2020-01-23 11:08:13 (14.6 MB/s) - ‘foursquare’ saved [13311]

$ file foursquare
foursquare: vCalendar calendar file

Cloud deployment

In order to publish to Azure, execute the deploy.sh script:

$ ./deploy.sh
Getting site publishing info...
Creating archive for current directory...
Uploading 32,79 MB [##############################################################################]
Upload completed successfully.
Deployment completed successfully.
Syncing triggers...
Functions in foursquarecalendar:
    foursquare - [httpTrigger]
        Invoke url: https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare?code=<code>

    foursquareAll - [httpTrigger]
        Invoke url: https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare/all/?code=<code>

    foursquareByYear - [httpTrigger]
        Invoke url: https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare/year/{year}?code=<code>

    foursquareYears - [httpTrigger]
        Invoke url: https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare/years/{fromyear}/to/{toyear}?code=<code>
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After succesfull deployment you can send HTTPS request towards the Invoke urls above in order to retrieve your Foursquare Swarm check-ins in iCalendar format. You can use this Invoke urls to subscribe to this iCalendar in your favorite calendaring platform, e.g. Google Calendar or Outlook.

Usage

This Azure Function provides the following API endpoints:

foursquare

https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare

This endpoint returns current year's check-ins

foursquareAll

https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare/all/

This endpoint returns all your FoursquareSwarm check-ins

foursquareByYear

https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare/year/{year}

This endpoint returns all check-ins for the specified year {year}

foursquareYears

https://<functionAppName>.azurewebsites.net/api/foursquare/years/{fromyear}/to/{toyear}

This endpoint returns all your FoursquareSwarm check-ins between {fromyear} and {toyear}

Built With

• Azure CLI
• Azure Function Core Tools
• Node.js
• node-foursquare
• ics

Authors

• Spiros Vathis - github: sVathis - Twitter: @svathis

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details