feat: add Puppeteer student discussion posts to Canvas

canvas-discussion-bot/.env.example

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+API_TOKEN=my_api_token
+CANVAS_URL=https://my.canvas.instance.edu
+TAB_FILE_PATH=./credentials.tab

canvas-discussion-bot/.gitignore

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+.env
+credentials.tab
+node_modules

canvas-discussion-bot/index.js

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+const axios = require('axios');
+const dotenv = require('dotenv');
+const { faker } = require('@faker-js/faker');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
+
+async function retrieveCourses(apiToken, canvasURL) {
+  try {
+    const endPoint = "/api/v1/accounts/self/courses";
+    const url = canvasURL + endPoint;
+
+    const response = await axios.get(url, {
+      headers: {
+        'Authorization': `Bearer ${apiToken}`
+      }
+    });
+
+    return response.data;
+  } catch (error) {
+    throw new Error(`Error retrieving courses: ${error.message}`);
+  }
+}
+
+// Specify the path to the .env file for the local directory
+const envFilePath = path.resolve(__dirname, '.env');
+
+// Load the .env file
+const result = dotenv.config({ path: envFilePath });
+
+if (result.error) {
+  console.error('Error loading .env file:', result.error);
+} else {
+  console.log('Successfully loaded .env file');
+}
+
+async function postDiscussion(username, password, courseId, index) {
+  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
+  const page = await browser.newPage();
+  console.log('postDiscussion Course Id:', courseId); 
+  try {
+    // Navigate to the Canvas login page
+    await page.goto(process.env.CANVAS_URL);
+
+    // Perform login
+    // Wait for the first textbox to become visible and type username
+    await page.waitForSelector('#pseudonym_session_unique_id_forgot');
+    await page.type('#pseudonym_session_unique_id_forgot', username);
+
+    // Wait for the second textbox to become visible and type password
+    await page.waitForSelector('#pseudonym_session_password');
+    await page.type('#pseudonym_session_password', password);
+
+    // Wait for the first button to become visible and click
+    await page.waitForSelector('.Button');
+    await page.click('.Button');
+    // Wait for navigation to complete
+    await page.waitForNavigation();
+
+
+    // Navigate to course and post discussion
+    const courseURL = `${process.env.CANVAS_URL}/courses/${courseId}/discussion_topics`;
+    await page.goto(courseURL);
+    await page.waitForSelector('#add_discussion');
+    await page.click('#add_discussion'); 
+
+    await page.waitForSelector('#discussion-title');
+    await page.type('#discussion-title', faker.lorem.sentence());
+
+    await page.waitForSelector('#discussion-topic-message2_ifr');
+    const iframeElement = await page.$('#discussion-topic-message2_ifr');
+    const iframe = await iframeElement.contentFrame();
+    await iframe.waitForSelector('body');
+    await iframe.type('body', faker.lorem.sentences(8));
+
+    // Click the "Save" button
+    await page.waitForSelector('button.btn.btn-primary.submit_button');
+    await page.click('button.btn.btn-primary.submit_button');
+    console.log('Hit Save button')
+
+  } catch (error) {
+    console.error(`Failed to post discussion for user ${username}:`, error);
+  } finally {
+    // Close the browser
+    await browser.close();
+  }
+}
+
+function randomChoice(array) {
+  const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * array.length);
+  return array[randomIndex];
+}
+
+let courseIds = [];
+
+retrieveCourses(process.env.API_TOKEN, process.env.CANVAS_URL)
+  .then(courses => {
+    for (let i = 0; i < courses.length; i++) {
+      const courseId = courses[i].id;
+      courseIds.push(courseId);
+    }
+    randomCourseId = randomChoice(courseIds);
+    console.log('Random Course Id:', randomCourseId);    
+    // Read and parse the tab-delimited credentials file
+    tab_file = path.join(__dirname, process.env.TAB_FILE_PATH)
+    console.log(`Reading the file: ${tab_file}`);
+    fs.readFile(tab_file, 'utf8', (err, data) => {
+      if (err) {
+        console.error('Error reading the file:', err);
+        return;
+      }
+
+      // Split the file content by lines
+      const lines = data.trim().split('\n');
+
+      // Process each line (skipping blank lines and comment lines)
+      lines.forEach((line, index) => {
+        line = line.trim();
+        if (line === '' || line.startsWith('#')) {
+          return;
+        }
+
+        // Split each line by tab to get username and password
+        const [username, password] = line.split('\t');
+        postDiscussion(username, password, randomCourseId, index + 1);
+      });
+
+      console.log('Tab-delimited text file successfully processed');
+    });
+  })
+  .catch(error => {
+    console.error('Error:', error.message);
+  });