CUNY OER Catalog

A structured catalog of CUNY Open Educational Resources, published as a self-contained HTML file with sortable, searchable, and filterable tables powered by DataTables.

Each academic year has its own standalone HTML file generated from an Excel source workbook.

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Repository structure

oer-catalog-2024-2025.html   # Generated catalog (open in any browser or embed in LibGuides)
data/
  oer-catalog-2024-2025.xlsx # Source Excel workbook for AY 2024–2025
generate.py                  # Script used by CI to regenerate HTML
.github/workflows/
  generate.yml               # Automatically regenerates HTML when a workbook is uploaded
README.md

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Adding or updating a catalog (no technical setup required)

The HTML is generated automatically whenever a workbook is uploaded to the data/ folder on GitHub. No Python or command-line knowledge is needed.

Workbook requirements:

• The filename must follow the format oer-catalog-YYYY-YYYY.xlsx (e.g., oer-catalog-2025-2026.xlsx)
• It must contain a sheet named Catalog with these columns (in any order): Campus, OER Title, Type, Discipline, Author, Platform, Link

To update an existing year

1. Go to the repository on GitHub and open the data/ folder.
2. Click "Add file" → "Upload files".
3. Drop in the updated workbook, using the same filename as the existing one (e.g., oer-catalog-2024-2025.xlsx). GitHub will overwrite the old file.
4. Click "Commit changes".

GitHub will automatically regenerate oer-catalog-2024-2025.html within a minute or two.

To add a new academic year

1. Go to the repository on GitHub and open the data/ folder.
2. Click "Add file" → "Upload files".
3. Drop in the new workbook. The filename must follow this exact format:

   oer-catalog-YYYY-YYYY.xlsx
   

   For example: oer-catalog-2025-2026.xlsx. The script will fail if the filename doesn't match.
4. Click "Commit changes".

GitHub will automatically generate a new oer-catalog-2025-2026.html at the root of the repository.

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Deploying to the server

Once the HTML has been generated (check the Actions tab to confirm the workflow completed), a staff member with SSH access pulls the changes:

cd /var/www/html/oer
git pull

Deploying a specific branch (e.g. for testing)

Replace iframe-resizer with the name of the branch you want to deploy:

cd /var/www/html/oer
git fetch
git checkout iframe-resizer
git pull

To switch back to main after testing:

git checkout main
git pull

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Embedding in a LibGuide

Use a Rich Text / HTML box in your LibGuide and paste the following snippet.

To embed from GitHub Pages (recommended for LibGuides, avoids browser Local Network Access blocking):

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/iframe-resizer@4/js/iframeResizer.min.js"></script>
<iframe
  id="oer-catalog-frame-2025"
  src="https://cuny-libraries.github.io/oer-catalog/oer-catalog-2024-2025.html"
  width="100%"
  style="border: none;"
  title="CUNY OER Catalog 2024–2025"
></iframe>
<script>
  iFrameResize({ license: 'GPLv3' }, '#oer-catalog-frame-2025');
</script>

To embed from the OLS server instead:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/iframe-resizer@4/js/iframeResizer.min.js"></script>
<iframe
  id="oer-catalog-frame-2025"
  src="https://ols.cuny.edu/oer/oer-catalog-2024-2025.html"
  width="100%"
  style="border: none;"
  title="CUNY OER Catalog 2024–2025"
></iframe>
<script>
  iFrameResize({ license: 'GPLv3' }, '#oer-catalog-frame-2025');
</script>

The iframe will automatically resize to fit the table content, eliminating the in-frame scrollbar.

The id uses the latter year of the academic year range (e.g., oer-catalog-frame-2025 for AY 2024–2025, oer-catalog-frame-2026 for AY 2025–2026). This ensures unique IDs if multiple catalog years are embedded on the same page. Update the src, id, title, and selector to match each year.