Hackathon Badge Builder

Python script to create name badges for BoilerMake VI (and future BoilerMake Hackathons), as well as formatted table cards for hacker demos.

Badge Spec

The badges are output as a PDF. The script is set up to be 3 inches tall and 4.25 inches wide, layed out on US letter sized paper from the top left corner down, with a 2 inch margin offset at the bottom of the page. This gives a total of 6 badges per page.

Getting Started

These instructions will get a functional copy on your local machine.

Installing

Clone the repository using the command line and navigate to its directory. In order for the script to run properly, you need both a data and out directory, as well as the reportlab python library. To set up the environment, run

$ ./setup.sh

This will install the reportlab library as well as create the directories above.

Importing Data

The script reads data from .csv files. They will be placed in the data directory, in the following format:

Hackers

"Last_Name","First_Name","School","\"skill_1,skill_2,skill_3\""

Execs

"Full_Name"

You will need to change the file names in both hacker.py and exec.py to match the paths for the csv files.

Changing Background Assets

The background assets are stored in res/Background_JPGs. If adding new backgrounds, either make sure they are named as such:

1. Hacker Background = hacker_bkgd.jpg
2. Sponsor Background = sponsor_bkgd.jpg
3. Exec Background = exec_bkgd.jpg

Alternatively, you can change the background names in the python files themselves. For example, in hacker.py

...

# BACKGROUND AND CSV FILES (Change as needed)
# ----------------------------------
background_file = "hacker_bkgd.jpg"
csv_file = "rsvp_badges_2.csv"
# ----------------------------------

...

Changing Table Card Logo

The logo for the Table Cards is located in the root of the res/ directory. The default logo can be changed by adding your logo to this directory and changing the name in table-cards.py if needed.

Running Scripts

All scripts should be run through the command line.

Badges

After adding the files and checking the file paths, you can run get the hacker badges by running

$ python3 hacker.py

To generate the exec badges, run

$ python3 exec.py

For blank hacker or sponsor bagdes, run the generic-badge.py script with the argument being either hacker or sponsor

$ python3 generic-badge.py [type]

Table Cards

To for table cards, run table-cards.py with any positive integer argument for the number of cards needed.

$ python3 table-cards.py [number]

Final PDF's

All completed pdf's can be found in the out/ directory.