[Chapter-delegates] isoc-ams API released (for developing, geekish, and bugged out ISOC AMS Admins only!)

[Dave Burstein]

Klaus

Many thanks. Chris should bring you in as a consultant.


On Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 4:15 AM Klaus Birkenbihl via Chapter-delegates <
chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> [adding Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
> <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> since assumed to be of general
> interest]
>
> Thanks Christian,
> Christian de Larrinaga wrote on 16.07.25 18:32:
>
> Well done klaus.. looks like you did this despite zero help from the AMS
> team. It will take a bit of work I guess to implement into a chapter
> admin database and then as a web scraper any change to the AMS which
> can happen pretty arbitrarily might be breaking.
>
> After looking at the code (HTML & Co) the risk of AMS changes seems
> smaller than it first appeared. If there are any they most likely will not
> be dramatic. But as I mentioned in the readme: the risk exists. So wait and
> see ...
>
> Members Administration in this context is a dead simple thing. AMS takes a
> lot of effort to make it komplex.
>
> isoc-ams makes it simple again. Nearly everything in members admin - that
> can be done with online AMS - can be done with a simple isoc-ams workflow -
> no programming skills required at all.
>
> 2 Steps:
>
>    1. Get lists of AMS Chapter members and pending applications:
>
>    	python -m isoc_ams
>
>    Delivers a list of AMS Chapter members and a list of pending
>    applications.
>
>    2. Decide what operations are due (deny or approve applicants, delete
>    entries from members list).
>    Then call isoc-ams like this:
>
>    	python -m isoc_ams -i <commands.txt
>
>    the file commands.txt file holds the required operations like this
>
>    	deny isocid1, isocid2 ...
>    	approve isocid10, isocid11 ...
>    	delete isocid20, isocid21 ...
>    	...
>
>    to deny, approve pending applications or delete entries from the AMS
>    Chapter members list.
>
> And you are done. No need to wade clicking (and maybe typing) through lot
> of pages.
>
>
> For a fully automated process using the API (as we do it at ISOC.DE) it
> is also straight forward and simple to implement. (If I ever decide to
> build a next release the interface will provide the option to do this in
> any programming language you like - not only Python).
>
> It also can be grouped in 2 steps:
>
>    1. Apply your local rules how to treat pending applications e.g.
>       1. deny old ones that didn't make it to your local members list
>       2. approve those who made it to your local members list
>       3. leave the others as they are (maybe send an invitations to join)
>    2. Compare your local members list (assumed to be the up-to-date one)
>    with the AMS Chapter list:
>       1. delete those from the AMS Chapter list who are no longer on your
>       local list
>       2. send a mail to ams-help at isoc.org asking to add those who are not
>       on the AMS list (since you are not authorized to add them).
>
> That's it. I admit I was surprised how simple it turned out to be - once
> you manage to hide the AMS Web interface.
>
> (Why is it a fairy tale by Danish Hans Christian Andersen: „Kejserens nye
> Klæder“ comes int my mind? 🙂)
>
> Hope this isn't going to be a rod to your back - so to speak. But maybe
> this will spur that strong sense of not invented here phobia at ISOC?
>
> Frankly, I'm rather curious if there will be any reaction at all 😉. I
> think that the AMS folks over the last ten+ years never understood how an
> API should look like. So they silently denied any effort to provide it.
>
> Having said all that kudos and respect.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Klaus
>
> Klaus Birkenbihl via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> writes:
>
>
> Dear AMS Chapter Admin,
>
> by today the isoc-ams API is released. Don't ask AMS-help for it.
>
> Just check https://github.com/birkenbihl/isoc-ams/ for details.
>
> Best regards
> Klaus
>
> --
> Klaus Birkenbihl
> Internet Society German Chapter (ISOC.DE) e.V.
> c/o ict-Media GmbHhttps://www.isoc.de
>
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