CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2020 - E2055 write unit tests for student task.rb

This page provides a description of the Expertiza based OSS project.

About Expertiza

Expertiza is an open source project based on Ruby on Rails framework. Expertiza allows the instructor to create new assignments and customize new or existing assignments. It also allows the instructor to create a list of topics the students can sign up for. Students can form teams in Expertiza to work on various projects and assignments. Students can also peer review other students' submissions. Expertiza supports submission across various document types, including the URLs and wiki pages.

This project in particular intends that the students collaborate with each other and work on making enhancements to the code base by applying the concepts of Rails,RSpec, DRY code,Test driven development etc. This provides an opportunity for students to contribute to an open source project and learn further about software deployment etc.

About RSpec

RSpec is a unit test framework for the Ruby programming language. RSpec is different than traditional xUnit frameworks like JUnit because RSpec is a Behavior driven development tool. What this means is that, tests written in RSpec focus on the "behavior" of an application being tested. RSpec does not put emphasis on, how the application works but instead on how it behaves, in other words, what the application actually does.Each RSpec file contains one or more tests. Each test ensures if a particular feature of our website is working properly.The output of an RSpec run will tell you exactly what features aren't working. The benefit is that tested code is unlikely to break unnoticed.The tests are run every time someone makes, or updates, a Pull Request.

DB Schema

Below are the tables that are related ti student task functionality DB Schema

Description of the current project

The following is an Expertiza based OSS project which deals primarily with the student_task.rb and student_task_spec.rb. It focuses on writing RSpec unit tests for the code affected or added. The goal of this project is to attempt to add sufficient unit tests to this part of the application and increase its path coverage to above 90 percent. The following tasks were accomplished in this project:

• Complete the insufficient unit tests for student_task.rb.
• Increase path coverage from only 31.91% with 30 lines covered to above 90% coverage
• Cover edge cases.
• High branch coverage to be achieved.

There are different tasks that a student can perform.

• They can see all the assignments that they have been assigned to.
• They can see details of each assignment like marks, their team, send invitation to student to join a team
• Review other students' work

Tests Plan

• Mock Objects to test: Create a series of mock objects that will be used throughout the testing process
• The following are a list of the functions that were tested:
• Topic name
  • Retrieves the topic name of an assignment
• Complete?
  • Checks if a student task is complete
• Incomplete?
  • If the assignment is not complete return true
• Not started?
  • Checks if a student task is available to be worked on (i.e in submission/review/metareview stage) and if so has it been started
• Revision?
  • Checks if a student task is now in the revision stage
• Met reviews given
• Teamed students
  • Returns a list of students that an individual has teamed up with
• Get due date
  • Gets the due date for each assignment assigned to a student
• Get peer review data
• Get author feedback
• Get submission data
• Get timeline data

Implementation

The following are our written tests in the order listed above:

Details regarding what the test is testing can be seen as comments above each example block

Here were are creating all of the mock objects to test the functionality of the student_task model. We are using these from the previous implementation

describe StudentTask do
 let(:participant) { build(:participant, id: 1, user_id: user.id, parent_id: assignment.id) }
 let(:participant2) { build(:participant, id: 2, user_id: user2.id, parent_id: assignment.id) }
 let(:participant3) { build(:participant, id: 3, user_id: user3.id, parent_id: assignment2.id) }
 let(:user) { create(:student) }
 let(:user2) { create(:student, name: "qwertyui", id: 5) }
 let(:user3) { create(:student, name: "qwertyui1234", id: 6) }
 let(:course) { build(:course) }
 let(:assignment) { build(:assignment, name: 'assignment 1') }
 let(:assignment2) { create(:assignment, name: 'assignment 2', is_calibrated: true) }
 let(:team) { create(:assignment_team, id: 1, name: 'team 1', parent_id: assignment.id, users: [user, user2]) }
 let(:team2) { create(:assignment_team, id: 2, name: 'team 2', parent_id: assignment2.id, users: [user3]) }
 let(:team_user) { create(:team_user, id: 3, team_id: team.id, user_id: user.id) }
 let(:team_user2) { create(:team_user, id: 4, team_id: team.id, user_id: user2.id) }
 let(:team2_user3) { create(:team_user, id: 5, team_id: team2.id, user_id: user3.id) }
 let(:course_team) { create(:course_team, id: 3, name: 'course team 1', parent_id: course.id) }
 let(:cource_team_user) { create(:team_user, id: 6, team_id: course_team.id, user_id: user.id) }
 let(:cource_team_user2) { create(:team_user, id: 7, team_id: course_team.id, user_id: user2.id) }
 let(:topic) { build(:topic) }
 let(:topic2) { create(:topic, topic_name: "TestReview") }
 let(:topic3) { create(:topic) }
 let(:due_date) { build(:assignment_due_date, deadline_type_id: 1) }
 let(:deadline_type) { build(:deadline_type, id: 1) }
 let(:review_response_map) { build(:review_response_map, assignment: assignment, reviewer: participant, reviewee: team2) }
 let(:metareview_response_map) { build(:meta_review_response_map, reviewed_object_id: 1) }
 let(:response) { build(:response, id: 1, map_id: 1, response_map: review_response_map) }
 let(:response2) { build(:response, id: 2, map_id: 1, response_map: review_response_map) }
 let(:submission_record) {build(:submission_record, id:1, team_id: 1, assignment_id: 1) }
 let(:student_task) do
   StudentTask.new(
     user: user,
     participant: participant,
     assignment: assignment,
     topic: topic3,
   )
 end
 let(:student_task2) do
   StudentTask.new(
     user: user,
     participant: participant2,
     assignment: assignment,
     topic: topic2,
   )
 end

Here we just verify that topic name is stored and that any values for topic name that are falsey will be set to "-"

 # Tests topic name to ensure it is stored or set as "-"
 describe "#topic_name" do
   it 'returns the topic name if given one' do
     allow(student_task2).to receive(:topic).and_return(topic2)
     expect(student_task2.topic_name).to eq("TestReview")
   end
   it 'returns - for blank name' do
     expect(student_task.topic_name).to eq("-")
   end
 end

Here we are testing the different values that the student tasks status can take on

 # Verifies completion status of a student task
 describe "#complete?" do
   it 'verifies a student task is complete' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:stage_deadline).and_return('Complete')
     expect(student_task.complete?).to be true
   end
   it 'verifies a nil stage_deadline to not be complete' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:stage_deadline).and_return()
     expect(student_task.complete?).to be false
   end
 end

Here we are making sure the content has been submitted during the current stage of the process, only occurss when current_stage is equal to "submission"

 # tests if hyperlinks or other content is submitted during the submission stage
 # current stage must be submission
 # participant has to belong to a team
 # the team has submitted some content
 describe "content_submitted_in_current_stage?" do
   it 'checks if hyperlinks is submitted during submission stage'do
      student_task.current_stage = "submission"
      allow(student_task).to receive_message_chain(:hyperlinks, :present).and_return(true)
      expect(student_task.content_submitted_in_current_stage?).to eq(true)
   end
 end

Hyperlinks is modified based on the teams that a user is in. This will be updated if they are in a team or they already have hyperlinks it will remain the same

 # Tests the updating of the @hyperlinks instance variable based on participant's team
 # Does not verify operation of ||= call, only tests cases of right hand side
 describe "#hyperlinks" do
   it 'returns empty array if participant has no team' do
     allow(student_task).to receive_message_chain(:participant, :team, :nil?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.hyperlinks).to eq([])
   end
   it 'assigns returns populated hyperlinks instance if participant has team' do
     allow(student_task).to receive_message_chain(:participant, :team, :hyperlinks).and_return(['something'])
     allow(student_task).to receive_message_chain(:participant, :team, :nil?).and_return(false)
     expect(student_task.hyperlinks).to eq(['something'])
   end 	
 end

Simply testing to see if the incomplete status is checked correctly

 # Verifies incomplete status of student task
 describe "#incomplete?" do
   it 'checks a student_task is incomplete' do
     expect(student_task.incomplete?).to be true
   end 	
 end

Verify the stage of a task and that a started task is evaluated correctly

 # Verifies that a task has not started
 describe "#not_started?" do
   it 'verifies started status' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:in_work_stage?).and_return(true)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:started?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.not_started?).to eq(false)
   end
   it 'is not started due to work stage' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:in_work_stage?).and_return(false)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:started?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.not_started?).to eq(false)
   end
 end

Returns the relative deadline if applicable

 # Tests relative_deadline for proper assignment when stage_deadline is present
 describe "#relative_deadline" do
   it 'returns false without a valid stage deadline' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:stage_deadline).and_return(nil)
     expect(student_task.relative_deadline).to be_falsey
   end
   it 'verifies a valid case where stage_deadline is present' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:stage_deadline).and_return(true)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:time_ago_in_words).and_return("astring")
     expect(student_task.relative_deadline).to eq("astring")
   end
 end

Checks if an assignment is in a stage where revisions can be made

 # Examines a task to determine if the task is a revision
 describe "#revision?" do
   it 'returns true if content is submitted' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:content_submitted_in_current_stage?).and_return(true)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:reviews_given_in_current_stage?).and_return(false)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:metareviews_given_in_current_stage?).and_return(false)
     expect(student_task.revision?).to eq(true)
   end
   it 'returns true if reviews given is true' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:content_submitted_in_current_stage?).and_return(false)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:reviews_given_in_current_stage?).and_return(true)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:metareviews_given_in_current_stage?).and_return(false)
     expect(student_task.revision?).to eq(true)
   end
   it 'returns true if metareviews given is true' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:content_submitted_in_current_stage?).and_return(false)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:reviews_given_in_current_stage?).and_return(false)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:metareviews_given_in_current_stage?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.revision?).to eq(true)
   end
 end

Checks if a metareview was given in current task stage

 # Checks if metareview was given in current task stage
 describe "#metreviews_given_in_current_stage?" do
   it 'return true' do
     student_task.current_stage = "metareview"
     allow(student_task).to receive(:metareviews_given?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.metareviews_given_in_current_stage?).to eq(true)
   end
 end
 # Checks if review was given in current task stage
 describe "#reviews_given_in_current_stage?" do
   it 'return true' do
     student_task.current_stage = "review"
     allow(student_task).to receive(:reviews_given?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.reviews_given_in_current_stage?).to eq(true)
   end
 end

Checks if a student task has been started

 # tests whether a student task has been started
 # if the task is not incomplete && is not in the revision stage
 # started? returns false
 # if the task is incomplete && is in the revision stage
 # started? returns true
 describe "#started?" do
   it 'is not started' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:incomplete?).and_return(false)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:revision?).and_return(false)
     expect(student_task.started?).to eq(false)
   end
   it 'is started' do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:incomplete?).and_return(true)
     allow(student_task).to receive(:revision?).and_return(true)
     expect(student_task.started?).to eq(true)
   end
 end

Checks the current work stage of an assignment

 # Tests works stage to ensure state is represented correctly
 describe "#in_work_stage?" do
   it "is true, submission is a work stage" do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:current_stage).and_return("submission")
     expect(student_task.in_work_stage?).to eq(true)
   end
   it "is true, review is a work stage" do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:current_stage).and_return("review")
     expect(student_task.in_work_stage?).to eq(true)
   end
   it "is true, metareview is a work stage" do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:current_stage).and_return("metareview")
     expect(student_task.in_work_stage?).to eq(true)
   end
   it "is false, empty object" do
     allow(student_task).to receive(:current_stage).and_return("")
     expect(student_task.in_work_stage?).to eq(false)
   end
 end

The following test returns a list of students that the user has teamed with up to this point. Returns an empty list if they have yet to team with anyone

 # Tests teamed students method which returns the unique students that are paired with the student at some point
 # within their course
 describe "#teamed_students" do
   context 'when not in any team' do
     it 'returns empty' do
       expect(StudentTask.teamed_students(user3)).to eq({})
     end
   end
   context 'when assigned in a cource_team ' do
     it 'returns empty' do
       allow(user).to receive(:teams).and_return([course_team])
       expect(StudentTask.teamed_students(user)).to eq({})
     end
   end
   context 'when assigned in a assignment_team ' do
     it 'returns the students they are teamed with' do
       allow(user).to receive(:teams).and_return([team])
       allow(AssignmentParticipant).to receive(:find_by).with(user_id: 1, parent_id: assignment.id).and_return(participant)
       allow(AssignmentParticipant).to receive(:find_by).with(user_id: 5, parent_id: assignment.id).and_return(participant2)
       allow(Assignment).to receive(:find_by).with(id: team.parent_id).and_return(assignment)
       expect(StudentTask.teamed_students(user)).to eq({assignment.course_id => [user2.fullname]})
     end
   end
 end

This test returns the due dates of assignments assigned to a student

 # Gets the due dates of an assignment
 describe "#get_due_date_data" do
   context 'when called with assignment having empty due dates' do
     it "return empty time_list array" do
       timeline_list = []
       StudentTask.get_due_date_data(assignment, timeline_list)
       expect(timeline_list).to eq([])
     end
   end
 context 'when called with assignment having due date' do
   context 'and due_at value nil' do
     it "return empty time_list array" do
       allow(due_date).to receive(:deadline_type).and_return(deadline_type)
       timeline_list = []
       due_date.due_at=nil;
       assignment.due_dates = [due_date]
       StudentTask.get_due_date_data(assignment, timeline_list)
       expect(timeline_list).to eq([])
     end
   end
   context 'and due_at value not nil' do
     it "return time_list array" do
       allow(due_date).to receive(:deadline_type).and_return(deadline_type)
       timeline_list = []
       assignment.due_dates = [due_date]
       StudentTask.get_due_date_data(assignment, timeline_list)
       expect(timeline_list).to eq([{
                                         :label=>(due_date.deadline_type.name + ' Deadline').humanize,
                                         :updated_at=>due_date.due_at.strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M')
                                     }])
       end
     end
   end
 end

Here we fetch different timelines and account for edge cases where there are no reviews

 # Verifies fetching of peer review data of a user and a timeline
 describe "#get_peer_review_data" do
   context 'when no review response mapped' do
     it 'returns empty' do
       timeline_list=[]
       StudentTask.get_peer_review_data(user2,timeline_list)
       expect(timeline_list).to eq([])
     end
   end
   context 'when mapped to review response map' do
     it 'returns timeline array' do
       timeline_list=[]
       allow(ReviewResponseMap).to receive_message_chain(:where, :find_each).with(reviewer_id: 1).with(no_args).and_yield(review_response_map)
       allow(review_response_map).to receive(:id).and_return(1)
       allow(Response).to receive_message_chain(:where, :last).with(map_id: 1).with(no_args).and_return(response)
       allow(response).to receive(:round).and_return(1)
       allow(response).to receive(:updated_at).and_return(Time.new(2019))
       timevalue = Time.new(2019).strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M')
       expect(StudentTask.get_peer_review_data(1,timeline_list)).to eq([{:id=>1, :label=>"Round 1 peer review", :updated_at=>timevalue}])
     end
   end
 end

Retrieves author feedback

 # Verifies retrieval of feedback from author
 describe "#get_author_feedback_data" do
   context 'when no feedback response mapped' do
     it 'returns empty' do
       timeline_list=[]
       StudentTask.get_author_feedback_data(user2,timeline_list)
       expect(timeline_list).to eq([])
     end
   end
   context 'when mapped to feedback response map' do
     it 'returns timeline array' do
       timeline_list=[]
       allow(FeedbackResponseMap).to receive_message_chain(:where, :find_each).with(reviewer_id: 1).with(no_args).and_yield(review_response_map)
       allow(review_response_map).to receive(:id).and_return(1)
       allow(Response).to receive_message_chain(:where, :last).with(map_id: 1).with(no_args).and_return(response)
       allow(response).to receive(:updated_at).and_return(Time.now)
       timevalue = Time.now.strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M')
       expect(StudentTask.get_author_feedback_data(1,timeline_list)).to eq([{:id=>1, :label=>"Author feedback", :updated_at=>timevalue}])
     end
   end
 end

Here we verify different states of submission data and hyperlinks

 # Verrifies retrieval of submission data from submission
 describe '#get_submission_data' do
   context 'when no submission data mapped' do
     it 'returns nil' do
       timeline_list=[]
       expect(StudentTask.get_submission_data(1,1,timeline_list)).to eq(nil)
     end
   end
   context 'when submission data mapped and not submit hyperlink or Remove hyperlink' do
     it 'returns timeline_list' do
       timeline_list=[]
       allow(SubmissionRecord).to receive_message_chain(:where, :find_each).with(team_id: 1, assignment_id: 1).with(no_args).and_yield(submission_record)
       allow(submission_record).to receive(:operation).and_return('testing_label')
       allow(submission_record).to receive(:updated_at).and_return(Time.new(2019))
       timevalue = Time.new(2019).strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M')
       expect(StudentTask.get_submission_data(1,1,timeline_list)).to eq([{:label=>"Testing label", :updated_at=>timevalue}])
     end
   end
   context 'when submission data mapped and operation is submit_hyperlink' do
     it 'returns timeline_list with link' do
       timeline_list=[]
       allow(SubmissionRecord).to receive_message_chain(:where, :find_each).with(team_id: 1, assignment_id: 1).with(no_args).and_yield(submission_record)
       allow(submission_record).to receive(:operation).and_return('Submit Hyperlink')
       allow(submission_record).to receive(:updated_at).and_return(Time.new(2019))
       timevalue = Time.new(2019).strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M')
       expect(StudentTask.get_submission_data(1,1,timeline_list)).to eq([{:label=>"Submit hyperlink", :updated_at=>timevalue, :link=>"www.wolfware.edu"}])
     end
   end
   context 'when submission data mapped and operation is Remove Hyperlink' do
     it 'returns timeline_list with link' do
       timeline_list=[]
       allow(SubmissionRecord).to receive_message_chain(:where, :find_each).with(team_id: 1, assignment_id: 1).with(no_args).and_yield(submission_record)
       allow(submission_record).to receive(:operation).and_return('Remove Hyperlink')
       timevalue = Time.new(2019).strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M')
       allow(submission_record).to receive(:updated_at).and_return(Time.new(2019))
       expect(StudentTask.get_submission_data(1,1,timeline_list)).to eq([{:label=>"Remove hyperlink", :updated_at=>timevalue, :link=>"www.wolfware.edu"}])
     end
   end
 end

Here we are ensuring that the timeline data is empty when data has not been mapped

 # Verifies retrieval of timeline data
 describe '#get_timeline_data' do
   context 'when no timeline data mapped' do
     it 'returns nil' do
       allow(participant).to receive(:get_reviewer).and_return(participant)
       expect(StudentTask.get_timeline_data(assignment, participant, team)).to eq([])
     end
   end
 end                                                                                                                                   end

Line Coverage achieved

• 94 relevant lines
• 86 lines covered
• 8 lines missed
• Coverage = 91.49%

Issues

Some of the tests were rather shallow, get_timeline_data specifically needs depth added.

Useful Links

YouTube Video Demo

GitHub Repo

Pull Request

Team Members

John Bumgardner, Pedro Benitez, Luke McConnaughey