KU | RateMyProfessors browser extension

I started this mini-project out of the ever-so-fruitful combination of boredom and curiosity. I had been interested in developing a browser extension for a while, but I didn’t have any ideas to kickstart the learning process. But alas, the idea for KU | RateMyProfessors browser extension came to me!

A while back, a friend of mine showed me a similar idea that had been implemented for his school’s course search page. I guess it stewed around in my head for a while and bubbled up in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This project is completely open source and fairly simple. Have a look around, and make some changes if you want!

More Information: [Github Repo]; [Firefox Download]; [Chrome Download]

About the extension

As of writing this, the core script is scrapeProfessors() which can be found in ku-rmp.js. It uses a simple query selector to find all instances of professors on the page and grabs their innerHTML property. Then, it appends their name onto a RateMyProfessors.com search query that filters school to the University of Kansas:

https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/search.jsp?queryoption=HEADER&queryBy=teacherName&schoolName=University+of+Kansas&schoolID=1117&query=

This certainly isn’t the best way to go about this, but I want to stay legal. I extracted the endpoint necessary to get JSON formatted data about each professor, but I decided against implementing it. It seems like this would lie in a legal gray area and I don’t want to put the effort in just to get a cease and desist letter as a reward.

If you are curious, the following endpoint will return information on a professor at the University of Kansas by substituting {PROFNAME} for any query:

https://solr-aws-elb-production.ratemyprofessors.com//solr/rmp/select/?solrformat=true&rows=5&wt=json&q={PROFNAME}&rows=5&fq=schoolname_t:%22University%20of%20Kansas%22&fq=schoolid_s:1117

&q=Jeff Lang Returns:

{
   "responseHeader":{
      "status":0,
      "QTime":5,
      "params":{
         "solrformat":"true",
         "rows":[
            "5",
            "5"
         ],
         "wt":"json",
         "q":"Jeff Lang",
         "fq":[
            "schoolname_t:\"University of Kansas\"",
            "schoolid_s:1117"
         ]
      }
   },
   "response":{
      "numFound":1,
      "start":0,
      "docs":[
         {
            "city_state_s":"Lawrence_KS",
            "averageratingscore_rf":4.7,
            "pk_id":1244467,
            "schoolcity_s":"Lawrence",
            "schoolstate_full_s":"Kansas",
            "id":"teacher:1244467",
            "pageviews_i":88,
            "averagehelpfulscore_rf":4.6,
            "schoolcountry_s":"United States",
            "schoolname_s":"University of Kansas",
            "status_i":1,
            "averagehotscore_rf":0.0,
            "schoolstate_s":"KS",
            "rated_date_dt":"2020-05-14T00:00:00Z",
            "teacherfullname_s":"Jeffrey Lang",
            "teacherdepartment_s":"Mathematics",
            "total_number_of_ratings_i":157,
            "visible_i":1,
            "content_type_s":"TEACHER",
            "averageeasyscore_rf":1.6,
            "schoolid_s":"1117",
            "teacherfirstname_t":"Jeffrey",
            "teacherlastname_t":"Lang",
            "averageclarityscore_rf":4.7,
            "schoolwebpage_s":"http://www.ku.edu",
            "timestamp":"2020-07-27T18:07:20.685Z",
            "tag_s_mv":[
               "Tough Grader",
               "Skip class? You won't pass.",
               "Gives Extra Credit",
               "Amazing lectures",
               "Clear grading criteria",
               "Would take again",
               "Gives good feedback",
               "Inspirational",
               "Hilarious",
               "There for you",
               "Respected by students"
            ],
            "tag_id_s_mv":[
               "1",
               "4",
               "5",
               "8",
               "9",
               "11",
               "12",
               "13",
               "15",
               "18",
               "19"
            ]
         }
      ]
   },
   "spellcheck":{
      "suggestions":[
         "Jeff",
         {
            "numFound":1,
            "startOffset":0,
            "endOffset":4,
            "suggestion":[
               " Neff"
            ]
         },
         "Lang",
         {
            "numFound":1,
            "startOffset":5,
            "endOffset":9,
            "suggestion":[
               " Lang"
            ]
         }
      ]
   }
}

James Mendel

Creative Technologist

KU | RateMyProfessors browser extension

About the extension