Append text to CSV then convert to HTML

macOS
1

I teach Web Design/Dev at the community college and each semester I get a list of students in my Web Development classes in CSV format that includes their firstname, lastname, username:

Steve, Jobs, jobs
Steve, Wozniak, woz

I need to append a URL which is the same for each student to each username. I then generate an HTML doc so I get a list of the Student Names and the URL for each account so I can quickly access their information for grading, troubleshooting, etc.

http://website.com/~jobs
http://website.com/~woz

I’ve done this using Google Sheets or Excel and then export HTML, but why not automate it?

Where should I begin on the Mac? I know enough scripting and programming to get myself in trouble (and sometimes out of it)

Thanks for any guidance

2

Here’s a very quick Python script that does what I think you’re asking:

  • Reads a CSV file of first,last,username
  • Creates a very simple HTML file with student names as hyperlinks their specific part of a website
  • Opens that HTML file in a webbrowser for you

You can download it here, the post formatting screwed it up when I tried to put it in here as code.

1 Like
3

@benbacardi

You are a magician! This worked perfectly, many thanks.

Dennis

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4

No worries! You say you know enough scripting to be dangerous - this may be a good springboard to dive in deeper :wink:

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