📚 KIT Anny Booking Automation

This Python project automates booking of study spaces or resources via the anny.eu platform used by the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) library system. It logs in automatically using KIT SAML SSO, searches for available slots, and makes bookings without user interaction — ideal for recurring reservations.

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⚙️ Features

• 🔐 Automatic KIT login via SAML SSO
• 📆 Configurable 3-days-ahead reservation window
• 🔎 Auto-detection of available time slots
• 🛠️ Clean and modular object-oriented codebase
• 🔁 Fully automated execution using cron-job.org + GitHub API
• 📦 Easy to extend and maintain

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🗂️ Project Structure

anny_booking/
├── .env                         # Credentials (excluded from version control)
├── main.py                      # Entry point for script execution
├── requirements.txt             # Python dependencies
│
├── auth/
│   └── session.py               # AnnySession class (login logic)
│
├── booking/
│   └── client.py                # BookingClient class (resource booking)
│
├── config/
│   └── constants.py             # API URLs and shared constants
│
├── utils/
│   └── helpers.py               # Utility functions
│
└── .github/
    └── workflows/
        └── schedule.yml         # GitHub Actions workflow (manual trigger)

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🚀 Setup & Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/anny-booking-automation.git  
cd anny-booking-automation

2. Set up a Python virtual environment

python3 -m venv venv  
source venv/bin/activate  
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the root of the project:

USERNAME=your_kit_username  
PASSWORD=your_kit_password

🔒 Never commit this file to version control!

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⏱️ Automated Execution via cron-job.org + GitHub API

To automate bookings (e.g. every morning), we use a hybrid approach:

• cron-job.org handles flexible scheduling (e.g. every 12 minutes)
• GitHub Actions executes the actual script using a repository dispatch event

Why not just use on: schedule?

GitHub Actions only supports fixed cron expressions (e.g. once per hour) and does not allow more frequent triggers like every 5 or 10 minutes.
Additionally, it suffers from two major issues:

• ⏳ Queue delay: Workflows triggered via GitHub's schedule event are sometimes delayed by several minutes due to internal queue congestion. This can cause the booking script to miss the optimal reservation window.
• 🕒 Timezone limitations: GitHub's cron system uses UTC without native timezone support. That means you need to manually convert your desired local time (e.g. Europe/Berlin) and keep adjusting for daylight saving time changes.

For these reasons, we use cron-job.org, which offers:

• ✅ Precise minute-level scheduling
• ✅ Native timezone selection (e.g. Europe/Berlin)
• ✅ Immediate webhook execution with no delay

This ensures your booking script runs at exactly the right time.

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How it works

1. Set up a cron job on cron-job.org that sends a POST request to:

https://api.github.com/repos/your-username/anny-booking-automation/actions/workflows/schedule.yml/dispatches

2. Include the following JSON payload:

{"ref": "main"}

3. Add this header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN  
Content-Type: application/json  
Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json

4. Your GitHub workflow (.github/workflows/schedule.yml) listens for this event:

name: Daily Library Reservation Automation

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  run-script:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
        with:
          python-version: '3.x'
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          pip install -r requirements.txt
      - name: Run script
        env:
          USERNAME: ${{ secrets.USERNAME }}
          PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.PASSWORD }}
        run: |
          python main.py

💡 Store your KIT credentials securely as GitHub Secrets: USERNAME and PASSWORD.

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for full details.

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👤 Author

Created by @wiestju

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🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or suggest features or improvements.

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📎 Related Tools

• cron-job.org
• GitHub Actions
• anny.eu