CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2023 - E2371. Reimplement quiz questionnaires controller

This wiki page is for the description of changes made under E2371 OSS assignment for Fall 2023, CSC/ECE 517

Introduction

Expertiza is a prominent open-source project founded on the Ruby on Rails framework, serving as a collaborative effort between the faculty and students of NC State. This web application facilitates instructors in generating customized assignments, including both new and existing tasks. Additionally, instructors can establish a roster of topics for student enrollment. Within Expertiza, students have the ability to form teams for collaborative work on various projects and assignments. An integral aspect of the platform is the provision for students to conduct peer reviews of their peers' submissions.

Distinguished by its support for a diverse array of document types, Expertiza enables submission of various formats such as URLs and wiki pages. Serving as an open-source learning management system developed using Ruby on Rails, Expertiza embodies an extensive suite of functionalities that empower students to submit and engage in peer review processes encompassing various learning objects like articles, codes, and websites. Instructors wield the capability to oversee and assess the submissions made by students through the platform. Expertiza is instrumental in facilitating instructors and teaching assistants in managing assignments for the courses they administer.

Background of the Project

The Expertiza project involves the reimplementing of the participants_controller.rb and participants.rb files, along with their respective child classes. The previous iteration of the participant model and controller underwent reimplementations in prior semesters, resulting in tests that relied extensively on mocks and stubs due to missing components.

The participants_controller.rb file encapsulates various methods and functionalities vital to managing participants within the system. This includes actions like adding, updating, and deleting participants, inheriting participants from courses to assignments, bequeathing participants from assignments to courses, changing participant handles, viewing copyright grants, and more. The controller makes use of helper functions, associations, and delegate methods to streamline participant operations.

Meanwhile, the course_participants.rb file extends the functionality of the base participant class, focusing on operations specific to course participants. This includes copying participants to assignments, importing course participants, and defining paths for course participants within the project.

The base participant.rb file defines the fundamental structure and behavior for all participants in the system, including shared associations, delegate methods, and validations. The file incorporates methods related to participant handling, user information retrieval, email functionalities, authorization, sorting, and export functionality.

The project's primary objective revolves around enhancing the reliability and functionality of the participant-related components, thereby fortifying the overall system's capabilities and improving the testing process to ensure robustness and stability within the Expertiza platform.

The reimplementation must make sense; when reviewing the original model, we discovered that certain functions were unnecessary for the controller class and model in question and needed to be implemented in a different model. The majority of the adjustments were made to separate methods with a single capability pertinent to certain classes by deleting, combining, and replacing methods.To improve readability, notes are provided to every technique. The discussion of the reimplementations continues below with further details.

Design Decisions

quiz_questionnaire_controller.rb:

We have reimplemented the `Api::V1::QuizQuestionnairesController` in Ruby on Rails by making several key changes to improve code readability, maintainability, and error handling. Below are the main modifications made to the code:

1. Changed Function Names: The function names have been chosen to be more concise and descriptive. For example, the method originally named 'copy' is used to create a copy of a questionnaire, and this change makes the code more intuitive.

2. Improved Code Comments: Detailed comments have been added to each action method, explaining the purpose of the method and the expected parameters. This documentation is invaluable for both developers working on the code and anyone looking to understand how the API functions.

3. Improved Error Handling: The code has been enhanced to handle exceptions more specifically, such as catching `ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound` and `ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid` exceptions. This results in more informative error messages, which is beneficial for debugging and communication with clients.

4. Refactored Create Method: The `create` method has been refactored to improve clarity and robustness. It now first checks user privileges using the `check_privilege` method. If the user has the required permissions, it proceeds to create a new `QuizQuestionnaire` based on the provided parameters. This refactoring helps separate concerns and makes the code more organized.

5. Consistent Status Codes: The code now consistently uses HTTP status codes to indicate the result of API requests. For instance, it uses `status: :not_found` when a requested resource is not found, which aligns with common HTTP conventions. This consistency in status codes improves the predictability of API responses.

6. Consistent JSON Response Format: The JSON responses have been structured consistently to follow a standardized format. Keys like "model_object" and "participants" are used to make it easier for client applications to consume the API. This consistency simplifies the parsing of responses on the client side.

These changes enhance the overall quality of the code, making it more accessible for developers, improving the API's reliability, and providing a consistent and user-friendly experience for clients interacting with the API.

Relevant Links

Github repository: https://github.com/rajmadhu0406/reimplementation-back-end

Pull request: https://github.com/expertiza/reimplementation-back-end/pull/49

Team

Mentor

Muhammad Ali Qureshi

Student Team

1] Raj Madhu (rmadhu@ncsu.edu)

2] Jinil Shukla (jshukla@ncsu.edu)

3] Dhyey Shah (dshah22@ncsu.edu)