Workflow Automation

If you want to predict where you are with machine learning and WiFi signals, use whereami. One application of whereami is to turn on Hue light bulbs in specific locations through your laptop.

To predict your current location, start by collecting some samples by running whereami learn -l location in different locations. Once collecting at least 10 data points, run whereami predict to predict your current location.

Link to whereami.

If you want to use Google People Also Ask in Python, try the people_also_ask library. 

Link to people-also-ask.

If you want to download a file from Google Drive in Python, use gdown. All you need is the file’s share URL. No API key, no OAuth, no service account JSON.
Install
pip install gdown
Download a single file
import gdown

url = "https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1zX5Q2pK…"
gdown.download(url, "data.csv", quiet=False)
Download from a regular share link
Share URLs from Google Drive look like https://drive.google.com/file/d/<ID>/view?usp=sharing
share_url = "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zX5Q2pK…/view?usp=sharing"
gdown.download(share_url, "data.csv", fuzzy=True)
Download an entire folder
folder_url = "https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1abcDEF…"
gdown.download_folder(folder_url, output="my_data", quiet=False)
Use it from the command line
The same package ships a CLI:
gdown https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1zX5Q2pK… -O data.csv
gdown –folder https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1abcDEF…
Useful inside Dockerfiles or CI scripts where pulling a fixture dataset is the first step.
When gdown will fail

Private files. The file or folder must be shared as “Anyone with the link.” Service-account-only files need the official google-api-python-client.
Daily quota exceeded. Google rate-limits anonymous downloads. There’s no fix from the client side. Wait 24 hours or host the file elsewhere.
Removed files. A 404 from gdown usually means the share permission was revoked, not a bug in your code.

Link to gdown on PyPI →

Read next
Streamlining your Python workflow? Read our deep dive: Goodbye Pip and Poetry. Why UV Might Be All You Need. Simplify dependency management, virtual environments, and more.

pandas allows you to read data from a website without downloading the data. 

For example, to read a CSV from GitHub, click Raw then copy the link. 

If you want to open a website using Python, use webbrowser.

For example, running the code above will open my website in your browser.

My previous tips on automation in Python.

If you want to get Google news in Python, use GoogleNews. GoogleNews allows you to get search results for a keyword in a specific time interval.

Link to GoogleNews.

My previous tips on getting data in Python.

Do you use often use a sequence of commands to do a repetitive task? Wouldn’t it be nice if you can call all those commands using only one short command? That is when Makefile comes in handy.

In the code above, I use Makefile to organize and automate the workflow to set up an environment. After creating the Makefile, I only need to run make install_all to run a series of commands.

I used Makefile to simplify the setup of my customer_segmentation project.

You can learn more about Makefile here.

It can be tiring and time-consuming to type the same sentences again and again. Wouldn’t it be nice if you can create shortcuts for those sentences?

That is when Espanso comes in handy. In the video above, I use Espanso to create shortcuts for frequently used terminal commands or texts.

Link to Espanso.